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Counselling and Psychotherapy Research: Linking
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Qualified therapists’ experience of personal therapy
a
Becky Daw & Stephen Joseph
a
b
St Mary's CAMHS, Paddington Green , London, UK
b
Department of Sociology and Social Policy , University of Nottingham , UK
Published online: 12 Nov 2007.
To cite this article: Becky Daw & Stephen Joseph (2007) Qualified therapists’ experience of personal therapy, Counselling
and Psychotherapy Research: Linking research with practice, 7:4, 227-232, DOI: 10.1080/14733140701709064
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Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, December 2007; 7(4): 227232
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Qualified therapists’ experience of personal therapy
BECKY DAW1 & STEPHEN JOSEPH2
St Mary’s CAMHS, Paddington Green, London, UK and 2Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of
Nottingham, UK
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1
Abstract
Recent work shows that the majority of therapists strongly value personal therapy for what it can bring to their professional
practice, and for personal development. The aim of this study was to explore qualified therapists’ experiences of personal
therapy. Of the 220 qualified therapists who were contacted via post and asked to take part in a questionnaire study, 48
returned the completed questionnaire, which consisted of a series of closed and open questions. Two-thirds of respondents
had engaged in personal therapy. The two most frequently cited reasons for engaging in personal therapy were personal
growth and personal distress. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) identified two broad domains: impact on the
person and impact on the professional. Results show that those surveyed recognised the value of personal therapy to
themselves as a form of self-care and personal development. Personal therapy was valued in professional practice as a form of
experiential learning from being in the client role. The limitations of this research included a relatively low response rate, raising
the question of whether those most likely to have had positive experiences of personal therapy were more likely to participate.
Future research might deliberately seek to understand negative experiences of personal therapy. Other avenues for future
research include the need to understand how experiences of therapy relate to gender, profession, and therapeutic orientation.
Keywords: Personal therapy, clinical psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists, interpretative phenomenological
analysis
Introduction
Interest in personal therapy can be traced back to the
development of psychoanalysis (Wiseman & Shefler,
2001). Personal therapy has since become a topic of
interest to the diverse body of therapeutic practitioners. Although many would consider the reasons
for undertaking personal therapy to be self-evident,
there remains much debate about the role of personal
therapy and whether it should be part of therapists’
training curriculum, with different branches of the
profession taking different stances.
Neither the British Association for Counselling and
Psychotherapy nor the UK Council for Psychotherapy
stipulate a number of hours for which therapists are
required to engage in personal therapy in order to be
accredited. The amount of personal therapy deemed
necessary is left to the discretion of the training
course upon which the person is enrolled. This varies
considerably across courses. The British Psychological
Society presents a more mixed picture. Chartered
counselling psychologists are required to engage in at
least 40 hours of personal therapy. However, chartered clinical psychologists are not required to engage
in personal therapy at all. More recently, the British
Psychological Society has introduced a Register of
Psychologists Specialising in Psychotherapy, which
counselling and clinical psychologists are eligible to
apply to join. The register recognises that personal
therapy can be very helpful and is encouraged as a
route to personal and professional development, but
it does not stipulate that personal therapy is necessary. Thus, although personal therapy is perceived as
important by UK professional training organisations,
whether or not it is stipulated as part of a person’s
training varies.
The reason why personal therapy is not more clearly
stipulated as part of training curricula is likely to be
due to the debate on its role in clinical practice. This
debate has largely focused on whether personal
therapy makes for better therapists that is, on
whether treatment outcome is improved. Research
into the benefits of personal therapy for treatment
outcome has, however, provided conflicting evidence;
some studies have been supportive (e.g., Norcross
et al., 1988) and others have not (e.g., Macaskill,
1998; Macran & Shapiro, 1998). Those who argue
against the need for personal therapy point to this
lack of consistent evidence in support of improved
outcomes. There are also issues around how outcomes should be defined.
Correspondence: Becky Daw, Paddington Green Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, 17 Paddington Green, London W2 1LG. E-mail:
[email protected]
1473-3145 (print)/1746-1405 (online) – 2007 British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
DOI: 10.1080/14733140701709064
228
B. Daw & S. Joseph
What does this study explore?
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. Experiences of personal therapy among qualified therapists
The debate on the role of personal therapy is likely
to continue. In a recent review of the literature,
Orlinsky et al. (2005a) noted the poor quality of the
studies of personal therapy and treatment outcome to
date. They concluded that none of the studies were
randomised or controlled, and that all involved
comparatively small samples and crude assessments
of client outcomes. The question of whether personal
therapy leads to improved outcomes has yet to be
conclusively answered.
Not all commentators on the role of personal
therapy agree that the question about treatment
outcomes is the most pertinent one. Beutler et al.
(1994) have argued that the reasons for engaging in
personal therapy are diverse, and that treatment
outcome should be viewed as only one of the many
benefits. A variety of reasons why therapists should
engage in personal therapy have been suggested.
In their review, Norcross et al. (1988) identified
six potential contributions of personal therapy to
clinical practice: improvement in the mental health
of the practitioner; better understanding of personal
dynamics; work-related support; socialisation as a
therapist; understanding of the client role; and
learning.
Despite this debate on the role of personal therapy,
it is estimated that in America and the UK between
two-thirds and three-quarters of therapists have
received some form of personal therapy (Macran
et al., 1999). In Norcross’s most recent review of
the literature, he estimates that approximately threequarters of all mental health professionals have
engaged in personal therapy (Norcross, 2005), with
psychoanalytic practitioners being the most likely to
have engaged in personal therapy and behaviour
therapists the least likely.
Self-reports of the experience of personal therapy
show that most therapists perceive considerable
benefits both professionally and personally (Macran
et al., 1999; Norcross, 2005; Orlinsky et al., 2005b;
Wiseman & Shefler, 2001). Self-report data illustrate
that most perceive therapy to be important in
improving self-esteem, work functioning, social life,
emotional expression, and symptom severity (Norcross, 2005). The majority of therapists also say that
they strongly valued the experiential learning personal
therapy brought to their professional practice (Norcross, 2005).
In two studies asking psychologists what they had
learnt from their experience of personal therapy, one
with an American sample (Norcross et al., 1988) and
the other with psychologists in the UK (Norcross et al.,
1992), the most frequent responses concerned the
interpersonal relationships and dynamics of therapy.
These included: centrality of warmth, empathy, and
the personal relationship; knowing what it’s like to be
a client; the importance of transference and countertransference; the need for personal treatment among
therapists; and the inevitable ‘human-ness’ of the
therapist and client (Norcross, 2005).
The present study
The aims of the present study were twofold: to
quantify, through a postal survey, the personal
therapy experiences of qualified therapists in the
West Midlands; and to contribute to the understanding of personal therapy for therapists in the UK via an
interpretative relationship with transcripts regarding
their experiences, thus contributing to the small body
of extant UK-based research (Macran et al., 1999;
Norcross et al., 1992; Orlinsky et al., 2005b).
Method
Sample
Participants were 48 qualified therapists who responded to a postal questionnaire (22% response
rate). All therapists (10 males, 38 females) worked
within the Midlands region of the UK. Ages ranged
from 28 to 63 years (mean 42.9). In terms of marital
status, 69% described themselves as married or living
as married (n 33), 19% as single/never married
(n 9), 4% as separated (n 2), 4% as divorced
(n 2), and 4% as widowed (n 2). The racial
composition of the sample was 98% Caucasian
(n47) and 2% Indian (n 1). The sample had
practised as qualified therapists for between two
months and 32 years (mean 10.75 years); 71% of
the sample described their professional role as clinical
psychologist (n 34), 17% as counsellor (n 8), 6%
as ‘other’ (n 3), 4% as psychotherapist (n 2), and
2% as counselling psychologist (n 1).
Questionnaire
Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire
designed to collect information regarding demographic status, occupation, professional training,
supervision, and experiences of personal therapy.
The questionnaire was in four parts. First, participants
were asked: if they had ever engaged in personal
therapy; how many sessions of personal therapy they
had engaged in; and if they had not engaged in
personal therapy whether they would consider personal therapy. Second, six categories regarding the
purpose of personal therapy were generated from
the research findings of Macran et al. (1999; p. 420),
and those participants who had engaged in personal
therapy were asked to tick as many purposes as
applied to them regarding previous and current
episodes of personal therapy. Third, an open-ended
question invited participants to comment on their
experience of personal therapy. In the present paper,
Experience of therapy 229
our focus is on the analysis of responses to this final
open ended question. Fourth, the questionnaire
battery also included several psychometric scales to
measure well-being and psychological functioning;
these data are not considered in the present article.
Ethics
Prior to distribution all questionnaires and procedures
were piloted and then reviewed by the Multi Region
Ethics Committee (MREC), which approved them.
Each participant was made aware of this and informed that: involvement in the study was voluntary;
responses would be anonymised; and responses were
confidential to the research group.
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Procedure
The questionnaires were sent to all qualified psychological therapists (n220) in three National Health
Service trusts in the Midlands. This included clinical
psychologists, counsellors, and psychotherapists. A
covering letter explained that this was an opportunity
to participate in research about clinical practice.
Interested practitioners were asked to complete the
consent forms and questionnaires and return them in
an enclosed stamped and self-addressed envelope to
the first author.
Qualitative Analysis
Responses to the open-ended item ‘Please comment
on your experience of personal therapy’ were analysed following the procedure documented by Smith
(2003); Smith & Osborn, 2003) and described as
interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The
IPA process focuses on the uniqueness of an individual’s thoughts and perceptions about a particular
phenomenon. Qualitative data are generated which
allow the researcher to extract themes relevant to the
research question. The researcher does not have a
hypothesis in mind before exploration of the data
begins, and hence a bottom-up approach is adopted;
the data define how the research question is answered. IPA supports data-driven theorising.
The researchers’ perspective
The first author is a 31-year-old white British woman
who completed the study as her final-year clinical
psychology doctorate research thesis. The second
author is a 43-year-old white male psychotherapist
with experience of personal therapy and qualitative
methods, whose role in the project was as project
supervisor to the first author. While the second author
had engaged in personal therapy and would describe
it as personally and professionally valuable, the first
author had no strong view on the benefits of personal
therapy.
Results
Descriptive information
In all, 66.7% (n 32) of the participants stated
they had engaged in personal therapy. The number
of sessions ranged from 5 to 728 (mean 153.72,
SD 207.98; median47.50; mode 50). Of the 16
who reported never having engaged in personal
therapy, 13 (81.25%) stated they would consider
personal therapy, two (4.2%) did not respond to the
question, and one (2.1%) stated he/she would not
consider personal therapy.
Table I shows the purpose(s) cited for engaging in
previous episodes of personal therapy (respondents
marked all categories that applied). Most often, three
reasons for engaging in personal therapy were given
(n13). In these instances, personal growth was
always given as a reason to engage in personal
therapy. When just one purpose for engaging in
personal therapy was given (n 7), the predominant
reason reported was personal distress (n 6), followed by personal growth (n 1).
Seven of the respondents (14.6%) reported that
they were currently engaged in personal therapy.
Table II illustrates the purpose(s) cited for current
personal therapy episodes (respondents marked all
categories that applied).
Qualitative analysis
Most respondents who had engaged in personal
therapy answered the open-ended question about
their experience of personal therapy (n 29). Analysis
yielded four salient themes which were grouped into
two broad domains: impact on the person and impact
on the professional, as shown in Table III. Impact on
the person encompasses two themes: therapist selfcare and personal development. Impact on the
professional concerns how clinical practice was more
informed after engaging in personal therapy, and
includes two themes: experiential learning and
learning from being the client. Each of the four
themes appeared in the responses of five or six
participants, and half appeared in 10 or more of
them (as shown in Table III). Each theme is considered
in turn, with excerpts to illustrate each one.
Theme 1: Therapist self-care. Participants described
personal therapy as a way of taking care of themselves
Table I. Self-reported purpose of personal therapy.
Purpose
n
%*
Personal growth
Personal distress
Training requirement
To prevent burn-out
Self- reflection as a practitioner
Other
26
24
19
10
11
3
81
75
59
31
34
9
*Rounded to the nearest whole number.
230
B. Daw & S. Joseph
Table II. Purpose of engaging in current personal therapy.
Purpose
n
%*
Personal growth
Personal distress
Training requirement
To prevent burn-out
Self-reflection as a practitioner
Other
6
2
0
3
1
0
86
29
0
43
14
0
*Rounded to the nearest whole number.
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both professionally and personally through helping to
contain, work through, or off-load work-related
issues.
On occasion this has been to deal with distress
following major life events. More generally I value
the time to separate my own issues from clients’
which is vital to me given that I use reflection and
transference, counter transference with clients. I
also work with those who have been sexually
abused and who inflict significant trauma to others.
I find therapy provides a helpful place to ensure
that work does not get taken home and prevents
me from losing empathy because I have not
processed my reaction to such issues. Some of
this can be addressed in supervision but when it
relates to one’s own personal issues then it needs
to be reflected on in a therapeutic space. (Participant 14)
The nature of my work means I often deal with
complex emotions with clients that have a personal
bearing on myself as a person personal therapy
assists with this process and is a good way to grow
personally and deal with the distress of the feelings
generated through client work and external personal experiences. (Participant 42)
Both participants talk of the benefits of having their
own therapeutic space, separate from that of clinical
supervision, to process and reflect upon the impact of
their clients’ stories, emotions, and behaviours. Both
also acknowledge that therapists need to take care of
themselves psychologically so that their clinical work is
safe and effective. Personal therapy can also help with
issues separate from those generated by the nature of
the profession:
Table III. Themes and domains derived from responses to ‘Please
comment on your experiences of personal therapy.’
Domain and theme
No. of participants with theme
Impact on the person
Therapist self-care
Personal development
8
13
Impact on the professional
Experiential learning
Learning from client role
6
10
Very helpful in recognising patterns from childhood
and in supporting me through a very difficult time.
(Participant 45)
Theme 2: Personal development. This theme encapsulates the concept of personal growth and insight
into personal vulnerabilities and drives. Many therapists described how personal therapy helped facilitate
change in them personally.
I found personal therapy enabled me to grow as a
person. It gave me insight into factors that drive
me. I was able to understand what it feels like to be
a client. I have gained as a person and am able to
see clearer about the motivations that drive me as a
therapist. (Participant 21)
My experience has been very positive. The therapist
is a good listener and her reflections are very
helpful. Through my experience of therapy I have
been able to recognise patterns which have been
unhelpful and start to change these in my life.
(Participant 41)
Hence the therapists acknowledge that personal
therapy is useful in developing a better psychological
understanding of internal processes and imply that
this leads to personal gains.
Theme 3: Experiential learning. Participants stated
they learned experientially about the therapy process.
Many claimed such an experience was essential in
really understanding the nature of their work:
[P]rofessionally it helped me understand the importance of boundaries, regular times and appts,
the power of summarising and reflecting and a
patient’s positive feelings towards their therapist.
(Participant 8)
Personal therapy was a very positive experience in
the sense of understanding a model in much more
detail. (Participant 27)
Theme 4: Learning the client role. Participants stated
that they learned from being the client, and they felt
they had a deeper understanding of process issues,
models, and techniques through actually experiencing
them rather than merely reading about them.
Also to experience being the client how I felt
when challenged, the relationship with a therapist, how one feels after therapy and so on.
(Participant 27)
PT made me realise how frightening it can be to go
to a therapist. My respect for my clients has
increased as a result. (Participant 28)
Experience of therapy 231
What does this study tell us?
. Participants recognised the value of personal
therapy to themselves as a form of self-care
and personal development.
. Personal therapy was valued in professional
practice as a form of experiential learning from
being in the client role.
psychology trainee, was that therapy was the application of psychological techniques and that personal
therapy, while useful for practitioners or trainees
experiencing their own problems, was not necessary
for those who were functioning well psychologically.
Given this, we think that it is unlikely that our results
present an overly positive picture and that this is a fair
representation of participants’ responses.
Limitations
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Discussion
Two-thirds of the sample had engaged in personal
therapy. The most frequently stated reasons for
engaging in therapy were for personal growth and
to manage personal distress. Overall, participants
viewed personal therapy as a positive experience
which helped them in their personal and professional
lives.
First, participants reported that personal therapy
was a useful and valuable way to provide self-care. In
every instance this was understood to be a positive
experience. Second, participants discussed how personal therapy impacted on their professional practice.
Through personal therapy therapists learnt experientially, and as a result they believed that they had
deeper understanding of theories, models, and therapeutic processes. Similarly, experiencing the client
role yielded deeper empathy and respect for clients.
This study has served to substantiate previous
findings about the role of therapy and its perceived
value (Macran et al., 1999; Norcross, 2005; Orlinsky
et al., 2005b; Wiseman & Shefler, 2001). We obtained
data from 48 therapists and thus we think it is likely
that our four themes reach saturation regarding what
may be achieved in investigations of this topic.
The themes elicited in this research were not
completely independent. Macran et al. (1999) suggest
this reflects the integrated, interconnected way in
which individuals organise their thoughts, feelings,
and experiences.
Reflexive comment
As in most qualitative studies of this nature, the
interpretations here must be considered tentative and
limited by the context of the work including the
analysts’ own biases. However, although the second
author would argue that personal therapy should be
considered a necessary component of therapeutic
training, his role in the analysis was minimal and
largely confined to ‘looking over the shoulder’ of the
first author to comment on whether the interpretation of the data seemed justifiable; in no instance was
an alternative interpretation offered by him. Since
embarking on the project the first author has developed an interest in more interpersonally-oriented
therapeutic approaches, and would now also argue
for the value of personal therapy, but at the time of
embarking on the project her view, as a clinical
Nonetheless, although our results provide a positive
view of personal therapy, we strongly caution that we
do not know the extent to which these results would
generalise to the UK population of therapeutic
practitioners. Indeed, it was interesting that the large
majority of the practitioners contacted did not complete and return the questionnaire. There are many
possible reasons for this phenomenon. The questionnaire was relatively long and it is likely that this
deterred many. However, the relatively low response
rate is possibly also of some theoretical interest. Guy
and Liaboe (1986) have stated that there is a ‘puzzling
silence among mental health professionals concerning
the need for periodic or ongoing psychotherapy for
experienced psychotherapists’ (p. 20). Norcross et al.
(1992) state: ‘The silence is deafening’ (p. 30).
Therefore, some caution is needed in the generalisation of the results; therapists who have had positive
personal therapy experiences may have been more
willing to participate. One avenue for future research
is to actively seek out therapists who have had
negative experiences.
The results of this study are also subject to limitations due to the self-report nature of the questionnaire. Although participants may conclude that their
experiences of personal therapy were beneficial, it is
possible that cognitive dissonance effects influence
self-report data: ideally, we require information from
third-person sources and objective behavioural data. A
further problem with this research is that it assumes
uniformity among qualified therapists, whereas the
sample consisted of professionals from different
occupational and theoretical backgrounds. Unfortunately, the sample was too small to conduct analysis
on the basis of gender, age, years of clinical practice,
theoretical orientation, or professional role. Such
analysis may have shown discrepancies (or indeed
similarities) between groups.
Finally, participants were provided with pre-defined
themes from the Macran study when asked to
quantify their personal therapy experiences, and it is
likely that this would have influenced their responses
to the open-ended questions. A further limitation of
our qualitative analysis is that participants’ statements
in response to the open-ended question were fairly
brief, giving little scope for the full application of IPA.
These limitations point to the need for future
research, particularly research using more in-depth
interview techniques to elicit more experientially rich
232
B. Daw & S. Joseph
material than we were able to provide. It would also
seem fruitful to investigate whether personal therapy
brings gains to therapists that are not otherwise
available through other vehicles of personal growth
and development such as supervision, training, reflective reading, and peer-group discussion (Orlinsky
& Ronnestad, 2005). This question is most pertinent
to the current debate on the role of therapy. Most
commentators are in ready agreement on the value of
personal growth and development the question is
how these should be facilitated and accommodated
by professional training courses.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Maxine Richards for her time and
constructive feedback during the research process.
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