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What about the therapist? – a quantitative exploration of the pathways from a therapist’s professional life to their personal well-being

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2022

Sidrah Altaf Open the ORCID record for Sidrah Altaf [Opens in a new window]
Sidrah Altaf*
Affiliation:
Buckinghamshire New University, Buckinghamshire, UK Email: Sidrahaltaf1@gmail.com
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Abstract

Occupational stress has been identified as one of the biggest contributors to therapists’ poor mental well-being; however, these ‘wear and tear’ effects are not universal. This study aimed to distinguish between these experiences, by exploring potential avenues through which a therapist’s professional life may impact their well-being. Previous research has highlighted four avenues: self-doubt, developmental depletion, developmental growth, and years of experience. A sample of 65 cognitive behavioural therapists were recruited from four Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services and a cognitive behavioural therapy training course at Buckinghamshire New University. A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was employed. Each participant completed a questionnaire consisting of subscales of the ‘Development of Psychotherapist Common Core Questionnaire’ to measure potential avenues (Orlinsky et al., 1999a), and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale to measure mental well-being (Tennant et al., 2007). A multiple regression and post-hoc mediation analyses were conducted. The multiple regression analysis found three significant direct pathways predicting well-being: self-doubt, developmental depletion, and developmental growth. The post-hoc mediation analyses found two significant indirect pathways between self-doubt and well-being mediated by developmental experience (growth and depletion). Years of experience had a non-significant direct and indirect pathway predicting well-being. The results suggested that therapists experiencing more growth, less depletion and less self-doubt experienced more positive mental well-being than those experiencing depletion and self-doubt, and less growth. When therapists experience high self-doubt, whether they also experience depletion or growth, they experience poor mental well-being. The implications for practice and future avenues of research are discussed.

Key learning aims

  1. (1) To understand the potential impact of therapists’ professional lives on their well-being.

  2. (2) To understand the role of developmental experience and self-doubt.

Keywords

CBTcognitive behavioural therapydevelopmentpsychological therapiestherapist self-doubttherapist well-being
Type
Original Research
Information
the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist , Volume 15 , 2022 , e24
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies

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References

Further reading

Nissen-Lie, H. A., Ronnestad, M. H., Høglend, P. A., Havik, O. E., Solbakken, O. A., Stiles, T. C., & Monsen, J. T. (2017). Love yourself as a person, doubt yourself as a therapist? Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 24, 48–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thériault, A., & Gazzola, N. (2005). Feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, and incompetence among experienced therapists. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 5, 11–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thériault, A., & Gazzola, N. (2010). Therapist feelings of incompetence and suboptimal processes in psychotherapy. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 40, 233–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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