psykologi.uio.no. This article is a reformulation and condensation of: Rønnestad, M. H., and Skovholt, T. M. (1991). En modell for profesjonell utvikling og stagnasjon hos terapeuter og rådgivere. Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening. (A model of the professional development and stagnation of therapists and counselors. Journal of the Norwegian Psychological Association, 28, 555-567.); Skovholt, T. M. and Rønnestad, M. H. (1992/1995). The evolving professional self: Stages and themes in therapist and counselor development. Chichester: Wiley; and Skovholt, T. M. and Rønnestad, M. H. (1992a) Themes in therapist and counselor development. Journal of Counseling and Development, 70, March/ April, 505-515.This article summarizes a reformulation of the main findings and perspectives from a cross-sectional and longitudinal qualitative study of the development of 100 counselors and therapists. The results are presented as a phase model and as a formulation of 14 themes of counselor/therapist development. The following six phases are described: The phases of the lay helper, the beginning student, the advanced student, the novice professional, the experienced professional, and the senior professional. The themes describe central processes of counselor/therapist development. The themes are addressing different issues such as shifts in attentional focus and emotional functioning, the importance of continuous reflection for professional growth, and a life-long personal/profession integration process. Sources of influence for professional functioning and development are described. The results show consistently that interpersonal experiences in the personal life domain (early family life at Umea University Library on April 4, 2015 jcd.sagepub.com Downloaded from

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This study focused on therapist-counselor development. In-depth, semistructured interviews with 100 participants served as the data-gathering method. Data from this study were first used to develop a stage model. Then, 20 themes of therapist-counselor development were extracted from the 120 pages of narrative stage data. The themes were extracted jointly by the two authors through a set of qualitative research procedures. These themes are described within the categories of primary characteristic themes, process descriptor themes, source of influence themes, and secondary characteristic themes. Professional development topics addressed include professional individuation, methods of renewal, conceptual orientation, measures of success, learning processes, boundary regulation, and impact of professional elders.

The novice journey can be arduous. This article draws from empirical and conceptual literature on counselor and therapist development to describe seven stressors of the novice practitioner. The ambiguity of professional work is the major catalyst for novice stress. The elements are: acute performance anxiety, the illuminated scrutiny of professional gatekeepers, porous or rigid emotional boundaries, the fragile and incomplete practitioner-self, inadequate conceptual maps, glamorized expectations, and an acute need for positive mentors.

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The findings of this study suggest that the nature of therapists' self-concepts as a person and as a therapist influences their patients' change in psychotherapy. These self-concept states are presumably communicated through the therapists' in-session behaviour. The study noted that a combination of self-doubt as a therapist with a high degree of self-affiliation as a person is particularly fruitful, while the combination of little professional self-doubt and much positive self-affiliation is not. This finding, reflected in the study title, 'Love yourself as a person, doubt yourself as a therapist', indicates that exaggerated self-confidence does not create a healthy therapeutic attitude. Therapist way of coping with difficulties in practice seems to influence patient outcome. Constructive coping characterized by dealing actively with a clinical problem, in terms of exercising reflexive control, seeking consultation and problem-solving together with the patient seems to help patients while coping by avoiding the problem, withdrawing from therapeutic engagement or acting out one's frustrations in the therapeutic relationship is associated with less patient change.

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