Preferences regarding therapists' history of personal therapy or suicidal ideation: A comparison of undergraduates and mental healthcare providers.

Abstract

A majority of mental health care providers seek personal therapy (i.e., are prosumers), and many providers experience suicidal ideation. Although mental health care providers may have more awareness of mental health than undergraduates, stigma is prevalent across both mental health care professionals and within universities. Furthermore, suicidality is a particularly stigmatized aspect of mental health. Stigma may affect a client's willingness to work with therapists who are prosumers. Although client preferences have implications for treatment engagement, retention, and outcomes (Swift & Callahan, 2009, 2010; Swift, Callahan, & Vollmer, 2011), we are unaware of any research that considers clients' preferences regarding a prosumer therapist. The current study used a delay discounting paradigm to compare undergraduates' and mental health care providers' preferences of a prosumer therapist (i.e., with or without prior treatment history or prior suicidal ideation). We hypothesized that mental health care providers would be more accepting of a prosumer therapist, compared to undergraduates. Across both samples we expected a therapist with prior personal therapy to be more preferred than a therapist who has experienced prior suicidal ideation. Results were as expected, which may indicate a greater degree of mental health stigma among undergraduates compared to the mental health profession and greater stigma toward suicide in comparison to therapy experience in general. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).