Personal Therapy and the Therapist

Brianna H. Vanderstelt

Braun Award for Writing Excellence in the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences, Category 2

Nominated by Travis Pashak, Associate Professor of Psychology

Brianna H. Vanderstelt, of Middleville, Michigan, graduated summa cum laude in May 2022, receiving a bachelor of arts degree with majors in psychology and criminal justice. While at SVSU, she was heavily involved with the Psychology Department, participating in faculty-led undergraduate research with Dr. Travis Pashak. She ultimately took the lead on one project and co-authored three others; these projects have been presented at the Psychology Department’s poster sessions, SVSU’s Undergraduate Research Program’s student showcase, the 2021 Association of Psychological Science (APS) virtual convention, and the 2022 APS convention in Chicago, Illinois. Brianna was also committed to her e-board positions with Psi-Chi and PRIME, two of SVSU’s registered student organization that are psychology related.

Outside of psychology, Brianna also found meaning in her work at SVSU’s Diane Boehm Writing Center. There, she dedicated two years to assisting undergraduate, graduate, and international students. She also committed a portion of her time to serving community members, offering consultations and creative writing workshops to residents in nearby Saginaw and Bay City. Additionally, Brianna was one of 12 students in SVSU’s 23rd class of Roberts Fellows, a leadership enrichment program. Other notable work in which Brianna participated during her time at SVSU includes volunteering as an orientation leader for international students and participating in programming for these students.

“Personal Therapy and the Therapist” was intended to be call a call for the psychology field to consider the reasons for requiring personal therapy before licensure as a therapist. This argument stems from the fact that 40 hours of therapy arerequired beforeobtaining alicense inthe United Kingdom,but there is no such requirement in the United States. (It is disturbing, Brianna notes, that research hints that some therapists are uncertain of the benefits of therapy, even though this is the very service they are offering.) This essay was written as a final project for Clinical Interviewing (PSYC 373) taught by Dr. Pashak in Fall 2021. What set this essay apart from others Brianna has written is that she was able to pursue her research without the limitations of strict assignment guidelines. As such, she says, she was able to find meaning and value in the topic herself.

Abstract

An old, but relevant and lingering debate concerns the use and effectiveness of personal therapy. Although some, especially psychodynamic-oriented therapists, adamantly argue that personal therapy should be, and is, a crucial part of a therapist’s development, others question its effectiveness, whether it truly affects client outcomes, and its impact on the therapeutic alliance. It should be noted that clients are required to be genuinely vulnerable and raw they are in a unique position that is emotionally strenuous and brings up feelings that may not be experienced by a therapist in a session. By undergoing personal therapy, a therapist gets a sense of what it means to be a client and may discover a newfound appreciation for the role of the client in the therapeutic relationship. On the other hand, if there is no empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of required therapy for therapists in training, then perhaps it is a fruitless and expensive endeavor and the supposed benefits have simply to do with extraneous factors. Further exploring this debate is worthwhile and meaningful and can raise questions about therapists’ own thoughts on the services they are providing to clients. This discussion will aim to summarize research concerning personal therapy in relation to therapists.

Introduction

Psychotherapy can be described as a healing relationship that depends on effective and reflexivecommunicationtomaximizethementalwellness ofaclient(Pashak,2020).It isamedium through which individuals can find assistance in managing mental illnesses, emotional difficulties, and major life stressors. Budding students going into this field tend to focus heavily on the experience as atherapist and theirperformanceinthetherapist “seat.” Although thereis nodenying the significance of being an efficacious and functional therapist, a striking case is to be made about the pivotal role of the client. In fact, to become a licensed therapist in the United Kingdom, prospective therapists are required to undergo at least 40 hours of their own therapy, as set by the British Association for Counseling (Macran et al., 1999). However, there is no such requirement in the United States, which has led to some strenuous debate over the practice’s potential necessity as a training tool. To further explore this issue, this paper will delve into research concerning the debate about personal therapy for therapists.

Background

Macran et al. (1999) discussed how practitioners, especially psychodynamic-oriented therapists, view personal therapy to be a necessary training requirement. Personal therapy is described simply as a form of psychotherapy for therapists themselves. The types of issues through which they work during personal therapy are up to the discretion of the individuals attending therapy. These issues may involve working through difficulties they have experienced with their own clients or may involve personal life issues. Macran et al. claimed that personal therapy can improve therapists’ emotional and mental stability, as well as improve therapists’ self-awareness Therapy for therapists, in other words, enables practitioners to better grasp and understand their emotions, values, and beliefs, so these aspects of the self do not interfere with the helping relationship Additionally, Macran et al. suggested that therapists undergoing therapy as clients makes them more empathetic and aware. They realize what it’s like to be the client.

The problem with much of the literature on personal therapy concerns the idea of replication. Researchers Bike et al. (2009) attempted to fill this gap by revisiting a national survey conducted in 1987 as described by Norcross et al. (1988) This survey was originally sent out to American psychologists, counselors, and social workers, inquiring about their personal therapy process and outcomes. In 2007, Bike et al. then sent out a survey addressing the same ideas, with minor tweaks from the original study. Overall, it was found that there was a 10% to 15% increase in the prevalence of personal therapy usage, meaning up to 75% of respondents utilized personal therapy in 2007 in comparison to 60% to 65% of respondents in 1987 Moreover, the researchers found that psychotherapists in 1987 were likely to participate in only two to three treatment episodes, as opposed to several treatment episodes throughout their career and lifetime (treatment episodes being defined as periods of engagement with therapy that have clear beginning and end times) The reasons for seeking therapy seem to have remained mostly stable between the 1987 group and the 2007 group, centering on marital/couple concerns, depression, and anxiety. Bike et al.’s study also found that males were more likely to seek personal therapy for training and career development, while women were more likely to seek personal therapy for family conflicts. Most importantly, individuals from both groups who had undergone personal therapy responded positively to their experience, citing a larger appreciation for the interpersonal connection they share with their clients and for the vulnerability associated with being a client. What this study shows is that personal therapy seems to be having a significant and stable effect on therapists over time despite the differences between generations. Understanding this topic more fully, however, requires looking at more research conducted by others

Literature Review

Research done by Peebles (1980) emphasizes the feelings of interpersonal connection and the vulnerability that comes with being in the client seat Peebles hypothesized that the number of hours spent in personal therapy would positively correlate with a therapist’s ability to be empathetic, warm, and genuine. A total of 17 therapists were examined; they submitted recorded tapes of their sessions and responded to questionnaires about their personal therapy experiences The recorded tapes from the study were analyzed by mental health professionals using the Truax and Carkhuff scales. These scales are intended to investigate empathy, warmth, and genuineness, and it was found that the number of hours in personal therapy was significantly correlated with empathy and genuineness in the positive direction. There was also a positive relationship between warmth and time spent in personal therapy, though it was not statistically significant. This study is important because it is oneof thefew exploring this topic that has some empirical,quantitative data attachedtoit,asmanyotherstudiesrelyjustonqualitativeandnarrativedata. Peeblesdemonstrated that substantial personal therapy can be a positive force in therapists’ ability to build healthy therapeutic alliances with clients.

Another national survey, conducted by Guy et al. (1998), aimed to explore the efficacy of personal therapy before and after entering professional practice. A two-page psychotherapist information survey was sent out, ultimately yielding a final sample of 318. The survey found that before receiving a degree, 63.3% of respondents had received some form of personal therapy. After receiving a degree, this percentage slightly dropped to 57.4%. Most importantly, 73 respondents (22.9%) received no form of personal therapy at all during their career. (This fact is intriguing considering previous research asserting that personal therapy is useful for raising one’s selfawareness and for resolving or, at the very least, exploring personal conflicts and feelings.) Moreover, the survey also found an underuse of non-individual therapy types (such as family, couples, or group therapy). This brings into question whether the responding therapists had some sort of hesitancy about or refusal to see the potential benefits of the very services they provide to others. All in all, this study gave rise to some tough questions about therapists’ own thoughts and beliefs about therapy and whether therapists can benefit from personal therapy before, while, and after receiving their degree and license.

As for Macran et al ’s work (1999) mentioned earlier, researchers conducted a study in which seven practicing therapists underwent two or three 1-hour semi-structured interviews that inquired about their personal therapy experience and how they related to their own clinical work Some consistent themes emerged across all participants’ responses during the individual interviews. There were 12 salient themes, with 3 overarching domains. The first domain centered on the therapists’ orientation to humanity, power, and boundaries. This domain was defined by such major themes as the therapists understanding how it feels to be the client, the importance of knowing oneself, and the therapists recognizing what was or was not effective to them when they were clients. Another major domain involved the therapists’ respect for clients. Some major defining themes of this domain included giving clients space to process and reflect, as well as the therapists’ ability to refrain from filling a silence. The last domain focused on therapists’ ability to effectively manage sessions Macran et al.’s research offers us a concise view and better grasp of the effects that personal therapy can have on therapeutic practice and its practicality for therapists and practitioners.

A study by Wiseman and Shefler (2001) also focused on qualitative data, examining indepth interviews with five psychodynamic-oriented therapists. These researchers used a method called consensual qualitative coding, which allowed them to identify six domains with which personal therapy seemed to assist. Wiseman and Shefler argued that personal therapy is not only essential to training prospective therapists, but also aids tremendously in helping therapists grow personally and in being authentic, present therapists for clients. The researchers identified several domains of interest from their statistical analysis, including the importance of personal therapy for therapistsandtheimpactoftherapyontheprofessionalself (Thesevariousfeelingstheinterviewed therapistshaveabout theirowncurrentandpasttherapycouldleadtothemimitatingtheirtherapists when working with clients or simply using what they learned while in the client seat in their personal lives ) Overall, these researchers concluded that personal therapy plays a unique and significant role in both a practitioner’s professional and personal development Their results supported that even seasoned therapists do benefit from personal therapy.

Conclusion

Although the above studies are informative, what this area of research truly lacks, as previously mentioned, is quantitative empirical research, and the call to correct this situation was, in fact, sounded several decades ago. Clark (1986) attempted to explore the usefulness and impact of personal therapythrougha reviewofempirical research. Clarkput the issue intocontext,arguing that since the rise of Freud, no training requirement has been more crucial to a psychotherapist than personal analysis. By reviewing empirical literature, Clark hoped to discover whether undergoing personal psychotherapy would have an empirically significant effect on those who did not receive personal therapy. Clark’s findings were similar to those of the researchers summarized above, but he asserted a number of things that he deemed crucial to better understanding this topic. Clark hoped to see future research controlling for the experience of the therapists, arguing that a therapist’s experiences could be correlated to client outcomes. Moreover, Clark stated that many of the studies that he reviewed assumed that personal therapy is beneficial to client outcomes, despite the lack of empirical-based research supporting this assumption. Clark thus called for more empirically aligned demonstrations of this relationship and a further examination of which conditionsofpersonaltherapyreallyaffect clientoutcomes.Asresearchers,weshouldheedClark’s call. Although it is largely argued that personal therapy is beneficial to therapists, adding it as a requirement before licensure adds financial and resource burdens that should be taken seriously. Hence, further research is necessary to make a well-informed decision.

References

Bike, D. H., Norcross, J. C., & Schatz, D. M. (2009). Processes and outcomes of psychotherapists’ personal therapy: Replication and extension 20 years later. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 46(1), 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015139

Clark, M. M. (1986). Personal therapy: A review of empirical research. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 17(6), 541–543. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.17.6.541

Guy, J. D., Stark, M. J., & Poelstra, P. L. (1988). Personal therapy for psychotherapists before and after entering professional practice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 19(4), 474–476. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.19.4.474 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.46.4.419

Macran, S., Stiles, W. B., & Smith, J. A. (1999). How does personal therapy affect therapists’ practice? Journal of Counseling Psychology, 46(4), 419–431.

Norcross, J. C., Strausser-Kirtland, D., & Missar, C. D. (1988). The processes and outcomes of psychotherapists’ personal treatment experiences. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 25(1), 36–43 https://doi.org/10.1037/h0085321 https://doi.org/10.31487/j.pdr.2020.01.01 https://doi.org/10.1037/h0085919 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.38.2.129

Pashak, T. J. (2020). Psychotherapy defined and described: A primer for novice clinical interviewers. Psychological Disorders and Research, 1–4.

Peebles, M. J. (1980). Personal therapy and ability to display empathy, warmth and genuineness in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 17(3), 258–262.

Wiseman, H., & Shefler, G. (2001). Experienced psychoanalytically oriented therapists’ narrative accounts of their personal therapy: Impacts on professional and personal development. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 38(2), 129–141.