Journal article
Why therapists should walk the talk: The theoretical and empirical case for personal practice in therapist training and professional development
Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, Vol.62, pp.133-145
03/2019
PMID: 30391704
Metrics
5 Record Views
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Abstract
The key proposition of this invited essay is that personal practice (PP), coupled with self-reflection, is central to the development of the most effective therapists. To date, the discussion about personal practice in therapist training and professional development has largely revolved around the value of personal therapy, subscribed to by some schools of psychotherapy but not by others. However, since the turn of the century a new landscape of personal practices for therapists has emerged. In particular, two forms of personal practice, meditation programs and self-practice/self-reflection (SP/SR) programs, have developed a growing evidence base. Here it is proposed that there is now a strong theoretical and empirical case to accord personal practice an explicit role in therapist training and professional development. The case rests on recent research suggesting that: (1) personal and interpersonal qualities of therapists play a key role in client outcomes; and (2) personal practice is the most effective way to achieve changes in therapists’ personal and interpersonal qualities. It is suggested that the research agenda needs to move beyond asking whether or not personal practice is effective towards a more sophisticated set of questions: what personal practice, facilitated by whom, is most effective with which practitioners, in what contexts, at what point in time? To make further progress, trainers and researchers need to be supported to include personal practices in therapist training and to undertake research to evaluate their impacts.
Details
- Title
- Why therapists should walk the talk: The theoretical and empirical case for personal practice in therapist training and professional development
- Creators
- James Bennett-Levy - University of Sydney
- Publication Details
- Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, Vol.62, pp.133-145
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- Identifiers
- 991013173812802368
- Copyright
- © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Health
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article