Therapist Resilience in an Ever-Changing World: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Given the demands of a helping professions amidst an ever-changing world, therapists need resilience now more than ever. This systematic literature review had two purposes: to explore the international evidence of internal characteristics that contribute to therapist resilience and to investigate the common ground between previous literature about therapist resilience and the newly identified characteristics of highly resilient therapists. In all, 29 peer-reviewed original research articles were systematically collected and coded for themes. In all, 10 overarching themes were identified: (a) connection to community, (b) pursuit of continual growth, (c) emotional boundaries, (d) emotional support, (e) humor, (f) integration of personal and professional, (g) meaning and purpose, (h) positive sense of self, (i) self-awareness, and (j) spirituality. The themes reinforced the four core characteristics of highly resilient therapists. Implications to foster therapist resilience and ideas for future research are discussed.