Psychotherapy training: A comparative qualitative study on motivational factors and personal background of psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural psychotherapy candidates.

Abstract

Therapist variables have received growing attention in the context of psychotherapy research. The presented study aims at expanding the knowledge about professional development by examining motives of career choice and choice of therapeutic orientation in psychotherapy candidates. Twenty-four master's-level psychologists, who had just begun either a cognitive-behavioral (CBT; n ϭ 12, all female, mean age 29.4 years) or psychodynamic (PDT; n ϭ 12, 8 female, 4 male, mean age 31.8 years) therapy training program, were interviewed about their motivation to start training. Participants represented 60% of the PDT and 67% of the CBT cohort. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed based on qualitative content analysis using MaxQDA 10 software. The authors revealed that CBT candidates tended to strive for socioeconomic security and to rely on the method's scientific foundation and manual-guided processes. PDT candidates regarded biographical aspects to be more meaningful for their choice of psychotherapy training. The 2 groups differed mainly in terms of categories of biographical and personality aspects, as well as regarding the importance of research aspects. Findings suggest that different therapeutic orientations not only match the different needs of patients but also match the different therapeutic characters.

Why do Italian psychology graduates dream of becoming psychotherapists?

“…This cluster is mainly motivated by personal interests and attributes higher relevance to the features of the theoretical approach, without accurately examining the quality of training offer, the prestige of the school or teachers and further school/training related specificities. This result seems to be consistent with the study by Safi et al (2017), who found that candidates for psychodynamic psychotherapy training emphasize the role of personal experiences, interest in self-exploration and life history background in their decision for the respective therapeutic orientation, as well as the importance of working on themselves (Messina et al, 2018).…”

“…From participants' perspective, the ideal psychotherapy school/institution should provide trainees with more clinical practice, be cheap and characterized by a high quality of the training offer, thus suggesting the prominence of the cost-benefit logic. This is confirmed by the study by Safi et al (2017), which has highlighted the importance of financial and time conditions concerning the training, as well as the need for better socioeconomic status and financial security, as factors influencing the decision to undertake psychotherapy training. Concerning job expectations after the completion of psychotherapy training, only 47 % of respondents report (potential or actual) satisfaction (29 %) or dissatisfaction (18 %) about psychotherapy training.…”

“…As well, the decision to undertake psychotherapy training seems to be particularly affected by personal interests, rather than by the demand for improving the quality of the professional offer to meet clients' needs. In this regard, several studies have confirmed that personal predispositions and experiences, as well as altruistic motives, were among the most relevant factors behind the decision for psychotherapy training (Messina et al, 2018;Norcross & Farber, 2005;Safi et al, 2017). For instance, a study by Messina et al (2018) found that negative personal experiences (e.g., family conflicts, school-related problems, or relational difficulties with a partner or a friend) were the most frequent motivations reported by almost half of psychotherapy trainees.…”

“…In detail, literature has suggested different motives mainly focused on unconscious needs to help oneself and others, as well as on altruism, personal growth and intellectual stimulation Rek et al, 2018). Besides, research on how psychotherapists of different theoretical orientations vary, in terms of motivations and skills, has been also developed (Lebiger-Vogel, 2016;Messina et al, 2018;Safi et al, 2017), highlighting the relevance of both previous academic training, personal background, and individual characteristics. As well, some studies have tried to inspect such a career choice in terms of professional success, job-related possibilities and future career perspectives (McBeath, 2019;Safi et al, 2017).…”

Whose anxiety are we treating, anyway?

“…ESTs often appeal to the trainee's wish to do something and to have clear expectations about what should transpire in the room with a patient. Manualized ESTs hold a particularly salient appeal for practitioners who are more inclined to minimize risk and ambiguity (Safi et al, ).…”