The couple therapist’s emotional pain: Negative affect and the person of the therapist.

Abstract

This study explored therapists' emotional pain in the context of their work. Sixteen interviews with couple therapists of varied orientations were subjected to a grounded theory analysis. The results suggest they understood emotional pain as a natural part of their work. They attributed it to treatment content, client attitudes, their own errors and issues, clashes between their views, and clients' and the closeness of the therapy relationship. As they expected the emotional pain to show up in therapy, they engaged in emotion regulation during sessions and worked to improve their resilience. They looked for what a painful impact might signal and addressed what caused it, besides harnessing the pain to empower the connection with the couple. Being able to thus use their emotional pain as an ally in their work tended to make it less distressing. Finally, they perceived that being open to it brought personal and professional benefits. Recommendations for how the current findings can inform training and supervision protocols are included. Public Significance StatementAs a regular part of their work, professionals providing couple therapy often face some form of emotional pain of their own. Our study of therapists' perspectives on this phenomenon shows they did not try to avoid this pain but responded in ways that mitigated its impact and that allowed using it to enhance treatment effectiveness. As side effects of this strategy, both personal growth and professional development were reported.

Caminhos pelos quais o Terapeuta Comportamental Aprende com seus Clientes

“…O presente estudo contribui para uma tendência que valoriza, além da formação teórica e o treinamento formal em psicoterapia, os aspectos pessoais do terapeuta. A literatura contemporânea na área de psicoterapia enfatiza cada vez mais que as dificuldades e sensibilidades do profissional funcionam como ferramenta em seu trabalho (Aponte & Kissil, 2014;Lima & Vandenberghe, 2021). Os nossos resultados chamam atenção para outro elemento desta visão amplificada sobre a formação do Enquanto estudos na área focam tipicamente em terapeutas iniciantes ou ainda alunos de psicologia (Alvarez & Silveira, 2002;Freitas & Noronha, 2007;Almeida, Runnacles & Silveira, 2016), a presente pesquisa abordou uma amostra com média de 9 anos de experiência.…”