Resilience of Psychotherapists and the Relationship Between Their Personal and Professional Characteristics

Abstract

The article analyzes resilience in Ukrainian psychotherapists. Empirical research conducted by the authors found that Ukrainian psychotherapists generally had an average level of resilience, which decreased with age. The authors discuss the relationship between psychotherapists' resilience and their personal (type of emotional attachment, stress-coping strategies and personal traumatic experience) and professional (emotional states and professional experience) characteristics. It was found that such types of emotional attachment as anxiety and avoidance were negatively related to the level of psychotherapist resilience, while such psychotherapist coping behaviors as assertive action and social joining, on the contrary, had a positive relationship with psychotherapist resilience. Various traumatic events faced by psychotherapists related differently to their resilience. While violence and traumatic events in the psychotherapists' lives generally related negatively to the level of their resilience, the «other events» traumatic situations experienced by therapists, on the contrary, were positively related to the level of their resilience. There was a statistically significant inverse relationship between psychotherapist resilience and secondary trauma as a result of therapists' contact with trauma victims. There was also a statistically significant positive relationship between psychotherapist resilience and such indicators of their professional experience as receiving personal therapy, ongoing supervisory support as well as trauma coping training. The findings emphasized the role of occupational psychohygiene in promoting psychotherapist resilience.