This thesis addresses how personal therapy for therapists, with specific focus on social workers, is personally and professionally beneficial. A thorough review of the literature highlights the efficacy of psychotherapy, risks facing mental health professionals, and an examination of the relationships between personal improvement and professional development. My own research into the attitudes toward and experiences with personal therapy among MSW's in South Dakota expands upon the existing literature, further discussing the association between personal and professional as shown in the quantitative and qualitative data that emerged from my study. Finally, this paper explores the ways in which the personal value of self-care and the professional value of care-for-clients interact vis-à-vis ethical obligations to self, client, and colleagues, and competent social work practice.

Professional counselors may choose to increase self-awareness and/or engage in self-care through the use of personal therapy. In particular, counselors may feel reluctant to pursue personal therapy due to stigma related to their professional identity. To date, researchers have paid limited attention to the unique concerns of counselors in personal therapy. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore counselors' experiences and decision-making in seeking personal therapy. I addressed the following questions: What contributes to counselors' decision to seek personal therapy? How do counselors make meaning of their experiences in utilizing personal therapy? Participants included 13 licensed professional counselors who had attended personal therapy with a licensed mental health professional in the past three years. I identified six emergent themes through adapted classic phenomenological analysis: presenting concerns, therapist attributes, intrapersonal growth, interpersonal growth, therapeutic factors, and challenges. Participants reported positive changes in personality and relationships, as well as several barriers specifically related to their counselor identity. Findings inform mental health professionals and the field of counselor education and supervision about the personal and professional needs of counselors. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

No description available.

A qualitative study was carried out with 10 qualified counselling psychologists to explore their perceptions regarding the influence of their early family experiences on their practice. The method employed was grounded theory using data gathered from semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the participants' accounts suggested that early family experiences provided a strong motivation to enter the field of counselling psychology, in order to make sense out of early difficult experiences and utilise early learned skills. Additionally, participants percieved their early experiences to have both a positive and negative influence on their therapeutic competency and practice. The experience of working through and coping with personal struggles enhanced their empathic, relexive abilities and emotional resilience in staying with their clients' difficulties. However, early experiences presented a challenge for the particpants in their ability to facilitate their clients' therapeutic process. These challenges were triggered when re-living earlier experiences in the therapeutic encounter. Early family and later experiences also appeared to influence the participants' developing professional identity, in providing inclinations of working with certain client groups, settings, and therapeutic modalities. In the process of developing their professional identity, participants were in search of authenticity by utilising the theories and therapeutic stance that fits with who they are internally. The participants also emphasised the importance of personal therapy, in terms of dealing with personal issues, increasing self-awareness, modelling their own practice and cultivating therapeutic skills. Personal therapy has been found to have a positive influence on therapeutic practice. A constructed theoretical framework is also presented offering an understanding of the main psychological process identified : "counselling psychologists' self-formation : entering a process of ongoing transformation". The implications of these findings for the relational practice of counselling psychology are discussed.

No description available.

The purpose of personal therapy for psychologists can be understood as a method of personal and professional development (PPD) and/or in terms of help-seeking. This study aims to consider differences in the use of personal therapy among trainee clinical psychologists. It used a cross-sectional, survey design and invited all British trainees to participate. 437 trainees (25% response rate) completed measures on intrapersonal and interpersonal variables, and answered several factual questions pertaining to demographics and clinically relevant experiences. Several trainees reported experiencing childhood abuse. A large proportion had experienced therapy prior to training. These issues were explored. Discriminant analyses demonstrated that attitude to therapy for PPD and psychological flexibility were important predictors of use of personal therapy, as was emotional neglect in childhood. The potential link between difficult early experience and ability to manage internal experience was considered. Therapeutic orientation of trainee, year of training and course support were also important factors in differentiating between groups. Implications for training and PPD were discussed in terms of suggestions for courses and trainees.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka psykologstudenters upplevelse av utbildningsterapi. På grund av att utbildningsterapin, som är ett obligatoriskt moment på flera psykologprogram i Sverige, för närvarande är omdiskuterad, var det av intresse att undersöka hur den upplevs av studenterna. Data samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med studenter på psykologprogrammet vid Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö och analyserades med induktiv tematisk analys. Resultaten sammanfattades i tre huvudteman: Administrativa aspekter av kursen, Terapiprocess och Utbildningsterapins behållning. Slutsatsen som dras är att utbildningsterapin upplevs som en lärorik och viktig erfarenhet, men att vissa aspekter är paradoxala / The purpose of this study was to examine psychology students´ experience of personal therapy. Because personal therapy, which is a mandatory feature at many psychologist programmes in Sweden, is currently debated, it was of interest to examine how it is experienced by students. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with psychology students at Linneaus University in Växjö and analyzed with inductive thematic analysis. The results were summarised in three main themes: Administrative aspects of the course, Therapy process and Profit of personal therapy. The conclusion is that the personal therapy is perceived as an educative and important experience, but that some aspects are paradoxical.

No description available.

This study explores the subjective experiences of CBT therapists who have undergone personal therapy and seeks to gain insight into the significance of personal therapy in CBT clinical practice. Seven CBT therapists who have undergone personal therapy were interviewed. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was chosen to generate rich interview data. Participants were asked about their experience of personal therapy in clinical practice. Participants' narratives were analysed using IPA to identify common themes. The analysis resulted in twelve interrelated themes from which three master themes emerged. The first theme, 'Personal therapy creates conflict', explores a paradox that arises between personal therapy and CBT clinical practice; participants suggest that personal therapy equips them with therapeutic tools that paradoxically hinder their capacity to practice a standardised protocol-led CBT. The second master theme, 'Personal therapy ties me to humanity', suggests that the gap between personal therapy and CBT practice narrows by participants' 'use of self': calling upon their own vulnerabilities to forge fundamental connections with their clients based on the shared experience of being human. This study finds that all participants value 'being human' with their clients, however, struggle to find the space 'to just be' within an action-focused, goal-orientated CBT model. This is further explored in the final theme, 'Personal therapy: Being and doing'. Potential implications of the themes that emerged were considered. This study contributes to the literature on CBT and counselling psychology, and to the understanding of a divide in the psychotherapy profession between evidence-based priorities and expectations of reflective practice.

Although it is not a professional requirement, research shows that some Trainee Clinical Psychologists (CPs) access PT (PT) whilst training (Nel, Pezzolesi & Stott, 2012). CPs' practice is moving towards the Reflective-Scientist-Practitioner Model, therefore identifying ways that CPs may develop reflective skills is required. Most other therapeutic trainings have PT as a requirement (Malikiosi-Loizos 2013), which is suggested as a method of developing reflective skills (Lavender, 2003; Wigg Cushway & Neal, 2011). Little research has investigated the use of PT by Trainee CPs. The current study explored processes by which 12 Trainee CPs experienced their own (PT), and how these processes related to their development whilst training. Participants were interviewed using single, semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed using Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2014). Two models were constructed, these described participants' decision to access PT mediated by anticipating or experiencing distress and learning about the self through PT. Participants seemed to develop and learn about themselves in three domains; 1) Learning about me: Personally; 2) Learning about me: Professionally; and 3) Learning about me: Being a client. I understand this development occurred through the continuous process of participants taking a dilemma to PT, reflecting upon the dilemma, and thereby acquiring a different understanding of themselves. These experiences apparently permit participants to integrate personal attributes into their professional identities and to model positive experiences from their own therapy in their practice. The results support PT as a method of developing competencies required within the Reflective Practitioner Model, implying that the use of PT for Trainee CPs should be considered within professional training. Furthermore, participants described emotional struggles during training which they perceived, according to professional discourses, to be unacceptable. This implies that evaluating formal and informal support systems for Trainee CPs is essential.