Therapists as Researchers: Navigating Dilemmas From Research on Indian Therapists

Foreword Charles R. Figley 1. The Therapist Story Virginia Satir 2. Interview with Carl Roger on the Use of the Self in Therapy Michele Baldwin 3. Revealing Our Selves Charles H. Kramer 4. Some Philosophical and Psychological Contributions to the Use of Self in Therapy DeWitt C. Baldwin Jr. 5. The Implications of the Wounded-Healer Archetype for the Use of Self in Psychotherapy Grant D. Miller, DeWitt C. Baldwin Jr. 6. Uses of Self in Therapeutic Boundaries: Lessons from Training and Treatment Fred P. Piercy, Annie K. Bao 7. The Self of the Addiction Counselor: Does Personal Recovery Insure Counselor Effectiveness and Empathy? Meri L. Shadley, Colleen Jo Harvey 8. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy and the Use of Self Barbara S. Kohlenberg 9. The Person and Practice of the Therapist: Treatment and Training Harry J. Aponte, Joan E. Winter 10. Congruence and the Therapist's Use of Self Peter K. H. Cheung, Grace Y. K. Pau 11. An Eastern Perspective on the Use of Self Ekman Pui Chuen Tam 12. The Therapist's Self in the Age of the Internet Joan M. Anzia 13. The Self of the Therapist in the Empire of Overregulation David V. Keith 14. I is Rising: Parallel Play, Transcendence, Irony, and Jouissance David V. Keith

Foreword Charles R. Figley 1. The Therapist Story Virginia Satir 2. Interview with Carl Roger on the Use of the Self in Therapy Michele Baldwin 3. Revealing Our Selves Charles H. Kramer 4. Some Philosophical and Psychological Contributions to the Use of Self in Therapy DeWitt C. Baldwin Jr. 5. The Implications of the Wounded-Healer Archetype for the Use of Self in Psychotherapy Grant D. Miller, DeWitt C. Baldwin Jr. 6. Uses of Self in Therapeutic Boundaries: Lessons from Training and Treatment Fred P. Piercy, Annie K. Bao 7. The Self of the Addiction Counselor: Does Personal Recovery Insure Counselor Effectiveness and Empathy? Meri L. Shadley, Colleen Jo Harvey 8. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy and the Use of Self Barbara S. Kohlenberg 9. The Person and Practice of the Therapist: Treatment and Training Harry J. Aponte, Joan E. Winter 10. Congruence and the Therapist's Use of Self Peter K. H. Cheung, Grace Y. K. Pau 11. An Eastern Perspective on the Use of Self Ekman Pui Chuen Tam 12. The Therapist's Self in the Age of the Internet Joan M. Anzia 13. The Self of the Therapist in the Empire of Overregulation David V. Keith 14. I is Rising: Parallel Play, Transcendence, Irony, and Jouissance David V. Keith

The past two decades have seen a surge of interest in the impact of working with trauma survivors on therapists’ psychological well-being. Existing literature assumes that therapists’ strong subjective responses to traumatic material adversely influence the therapeutic process. However, this has not yet been directly researched. Nine counselling psychologists were interviewed regarding the clinical impact of their responses to the disclosure of traumatic material. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis showed that significant challenges are experienced in the use of self in therapy with trauma survivors, including making sense of horrific human actions, negotiating complex interpersonal dynamics and responding to ethical dilemmas in therapy. Results emphasised the importance that therapists attached to the development of their therapeutic use of self in therapy with trauma survivors, the value of learning from others and reaching a place of acceptance and hope when working with trauma survivors. Finally, specific training and development implications are proposed.

The importance of use of self in therapy has been growing in recent years, in part because of the rise in popularity of postmodern therapeutic approaches. Such postmodern approaches, including Collaborative Language Systems, Feminist Therapy, and Narrative Therapy, espouse different ways for use of self in therapy. In this article, we briefly review the history of development of use of self through modernism to postmodernism. Next, we elaborate on how Collaborative Language Systems, Narrative, and Feminist approaches differentially use self in therapy. We conclude with three suggested ways to incorporate use of self into therapeutic practice along with a personal account of use of self in therapy.

Research examining psychological therapists’ personal experiences of bereavement is limited, despite existing research and anecdotal accounts indicating its profound impact on the self and therapeutic practice. Situated in the context of existing literature on wounded healers and the use of self in therapy, the aim of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of psychological therapists who experienced the death of a parent in childhood. Seven psychological therapists from a range of professions and therapeutic modalities participated in semi-structured interviews exploring how this experience impacted them personally and professionally, in their therapeutic work with clients. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, three master themes emerged: A loss beyond words; Navigating in a strange landscape; and Something lost, something gained. These themes reflected how the impact of the parent dying was experienced throughout participants’ lives, from childhood through to adulthood, and into their psychotherapeutic practice. Areas of convergence and divergence between these findings and previous theory and research are discussed, particularly with respect to literature on grieving and the self of the therapist. Implications for therapeutic practice, supervision, and training are highlighted, including the importance of self-reflection and supervision in facilitating the use of self, and the value of therapeutic training incorporating self-of-the-therapist work.

Situated in the context of existing literature on wounded healers and the use of self in therapy, the aim of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of psychological therapists who experienced the death of a parent in childhood. Seven psychological therapists from a range of professions and therapeutic modalities participated in semi-structured interviews exploring how this experience impacted them personally and professionally, in their therapeutic work. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, three master themes emerged: 'A loss beyond words'; 'Navigating in a strange landscape'; and 'Something lost, something gained'. Areas of convergence and divergence between these findings and previous theory and research are discussed, particularly with respect to literature on grieving and the self of the therapist. Implications for therapeutic practice, supervision and training are highlighted, including the importance of self-reflection and supervision in facilitating the use of self, and the value of therapeutic training incorporating self-of-the-therapist work.

The question of why the concept of the use of self in therapy should emerge at this time is discussed, together with its philosophical and psychological antecedents. The article's thesis is that while the idea of the self has fascinated man throughout history, it was Kierkegaard and the existential philosophers who persuasively shifted attention from the essence of man to the nature of his existence and the world of subjective experience. This permitted the emergence of a self which was not merely a product of instinctual drives or of external forces, but was an interacting being, which could be both subject and object at the same time. Major figures in this development include philosophers such as Heidegger, writers such as Sartre, clinicians such as Carl Rogers, sociologists such as George Herben Mead, and theologians such as Tillich. Buber's insightful elaboration of the I-Thou relationship is felt to be a landmark contribution, underlying many recent developments in humanistic psychology and psychot...

This systematic qualitative review explored how psychotherapists use their self in therapy within the psychotherapy literature. It sought to examine the key documented ways through which the therapist's self is intentionally used in therapy and the process of using the therapist's self. Following PRISMA guidelines, databases including PubMed, ProQuest, APA PsycArticles, and APA PsycINFO were searched. The review question "How do therapists use their self in therapy?" guided the search using derivative keywords. Of the 149 screened articles, 20 underwent full-text review, and only four studies met inclusion criteria. All studies that met the inclusion criteria were from the West. Therapeutic self-disclosure (TSD) emerged as the primary way through which therapists used their self in therapy-notably, the only way documented in the studies reviewed. Studies discussed the nature, rationale, influencing factors, and effectiveness of TSD. This article elaborates upon the themes from the reviewed studies. It critically examines existing literature, lists avenues for future research, and discusses implications for psychotherapy practice. The review underscores a significant gap in empirical qualitative research regarding therapists' use of their self beyond TSD in therapy. There is an urgent need for further exploration in this domain.

Review of The use of Self in Therapy.

Virginia Satir: The use of self in therapy

An Outline of Psychology as Applied to Medicine, 2nd ed. By J. Weinman.Why Psychotherapy? By N. Herman.Impasse and Interpretation: Therapeutic and Anti‐therapeutic Factors in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Psychotic, Borderline and Neurotic Patients. By H. Rosenfeld.What is Clinical Psychology? Edited by J. S. Marzillier & J. Hall.Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of General Hospital Psychiatry, 2nd ed. Edited by T. P. Hackett & N. H. Cassem.Mental Health Counselling: Theory and Practice. By D. B. Hershenson & P. W. Power.The Use of Self in Therapy. Edited by M. Baldwin & V. Satir.Current Issues in Clinical Psychology, vol. 3. Edited by E. Karas.

Use of Self in Therapy

The main thrust of the Person-of-the-Therapist Model (POTT) model has to do with a use of self that emanates from the personal depths of the individual who is conducting the therapy. The POTT approach assumes that the more both therapist and client are experientially present in this living process of therapy, the greater the access the therapist has to self and to client to do the work of therapy. The basic aim of the POTT training model is gives the therapist greater freedom and skill in the use of the self to conduct better therapy. Both identification and differentiation be illuminate the client for a therapist. Harlene Anderson, describes the meeting of therapist and client in a postmodern approach: 'clients became engaged with us in a partnered process of coexploring the problem and codeveloping the possibilities'. Carl Rogers speaks of the role of the therapist vis--vis the client as being 'very clearly, obviously present'.

This chapter explores the use of self in therapy, particularly in the context of an intersectional understanding of identity. The purpose of this chapter is threefold. First, the chapter aims to walk readers through an intersectional analysis of the author's own identity as a therapist. Second, with the use of a number of clinical vignettes, it shows readers how the use of self and intersectionality concretely inform the author's therapeutic approach. Third, the chapter informs how the use of self and an intersectional identity (during later stages of treatment) can create a therapeutic space with a social justice perspective that challenges oppression both inside and outside the therapy room. The hope is that by becoming more aware of the interdependencies between social categories and different social, economic, and political locations and systems, it will become easier to understand clients, tailoring interventions that meet their specific needs.

The work of Virginia Satir, a pioneer family therapist, is examined as a transpersonal approach to family therapy. Ways in which transpersonal perspectives may be applied in family therapy are explored in Satir’s notions of grounding and centering, the evolving and transcending concept of congruence using the Self/I AM concept in the Satir iceberg model, as well as the Satir conceptualization of the therapist’s use of self. Aspects of transpersonal psychotherapy relevant to the practice of family therapy are examined, including the creation of a transpersonal space of trust in order to strengthen the therapeutic alliance, going beyond meaning in working with the family system to apply transpersonal (e.g. nondual psychotherapeutic) approaches to the therapist’s use of self in therapy. A discussion of intersubjectivity and the role of the beingness of the family therapist in promoting transcendence, awareness, and healing for the family is included. Satir family therapy is consistent with transpersonal psychotherapeutic perspectives and is therefore recommended as a prospective family therapy modality for the transpersonally-oriented psychotherapist. KEYWORDS Satir, Family Therapy, Transpersonal Psychology, Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Transcendence, Consciousness, Transformation, Intersubjectivity, Nondual Psychotherapy.