This study premises that self-of-the-therapist work is pivotal in the development of effective therapists. However, therapy models vary in their goals for this work and the means of accomplishing them. This study presents the perspective of the person-of-the-therapist Training (POTT) model that prioritizes the ability to consciously and purposefully use the self-as-is at the moment of contact with the client over the traditional goal of therapists working to resolve their issues. A key underlying assumption of the model proposes that therapists' core issues (referred to as "signature themes") are potent resources that can be tapped into to connect, assess and intervene effectively with clients. The study presents the model and illustrates the use of signature themes in clinical work.

Drexel University's Couple and Family Therapy Department recently introduced a formal course on training the person of a therapist. The course is based on Aponte's Person-of-the-Therapist Training Model that up until now has only been applied in private, nonacademic institutes with postgraduate therapists. The model attempts to put into practice a philosophy that views the full person of therapists, and their personal vulnerabilities in particular, as the central tool through which therapists do their work in the context of the client-therapist relationship. This article offers a description of how this model has been tested with a group of volunteer students, and subsequently what had to be considered to formally structure the training into the Drexel curriculum.

Training on the person of the therapist calls for trainees to deal with their personal issues in relation to the therapy they do. Growing controversy about dual relationships has the field wondering where to draw the line between training and therapy. This paper offers a distinction between dual qualities and dual relationships to clarify the issue. An illustration of clinical training with qualities of therapy demonstrates an effort to maintain proper boundaries in training on the person of the therapist.

This paper describes the family-school interview, and intervention with a child, family, and school, taking into account the dynamics of each system in that ecological context and the structural interrelationships of these systems relative to the problem presented by the child.

This article introduces a tool that serves as a guide for building an effective bridge between the personal and technical aspects of therapy in supervision. The instrument is based on a model of clinical supervision that emphasizes the purposeful utilization of self-in the moment, with both flaws and strengths-in the therapeutic relationship in combination with the technical interventions with clients. The article also offers some aid to promote a personal integration of the philosophy underlying this supervisory model into a therapist's clinical thinking and practice.