Whatelseare psychotherapy trainees learning? A qualitative model of students' personal experiences based on two populations

Abstract

After an introductory course in experiential-integrative psychotherapy, 21 graduate students provided personal narratives of their experiences, which were analyzed using the grounded theory method. Results produced 37 hierarchically organized experiences, revealing that students perceived multiple changes in both professional (i.e., skill acquisition and learning related to the therapeutic process) and personal (i.e., self growth in a more private sphere) domains. Analysis also highlighted key areas of difficulties in training. By adding the personal accounts of graduate trainees, this study enriches and extends Pascual-Leone et al.'s (2012) findings on undergraduates' experiences, raising the number of cases represented in the model to 45. Findings confirm the model of novice trainee experiences while highlighting the unique experiences of undergraduate vs. graduate trainees.

How beginning counselors learn: The interaction of personal and professional experiences in counselors with an experiential orientation

“…Our findings generally support the observation that counselors tend to develop their personal working styles even at the beginning of their careers (Auxier et al, 2003;Carlsson et al, 2011;Pascual-Leone et al, 2013). As a result of the analysis, we conceptualized Personal Core and Professional Extension as two components of a personal working style and we elaborated two broad types of interaction between these two components which represent the directions "from inside out" (i.e.…”

“…Stoltenberg, 1981). Several studies, however, suggest that even trainees at the beginning of their career can base their selections and development on personal characteristics and preferences (Auxier, Hughes, & Kline, 2003;Carlsson et al, 2011;Pascual-Leone, Rodriguez-Rubio, & Metler, 2013).…”

Training novice psychotherapists: Comparing undergraduate and graduate students' outcomes

“…Even so, more recent reviews of the training outcome literature (Hill & Lent, 2006) found gains to be uniform across these groups. Interestingly, however, more qualitative research comparisons suggest there are indeed unique gains for undergraduate as compared to graduate students (Pascual-Leone, Rubio-Rodriguez, & Metler, 2013;Pascual-Leone, Wolfe, & O'Connor, 2012).…”

Change process in systemic therapy: A qualitative investigation

“…Grounded theory analysis (GTA; Glaser & Strauss, ; Glaser, ; Strauss & Corbin, ; see also Dourdouma & Moertl, ) is a flexible approach that allows the researcher to generate a theory of the phenomenon under investigation through the exploratory examination of the informants. GTA is ‘an inductive interpretive process used to explore subjective experiences for the purposes of theory generation’ (Pascual‐Leone, Rodriguez‐Rubio, & Metler, , p. 582). GTA has been applied to a wide range of themes by qualitative researchers and is a method adopted by other health and social science disciplines, including counselling and psychotherapy (Fassinger, ; Levitt, Butler, & Hill, ; Pascual‐Leone et al, ; Ponteronto, ; Rober, Elliott, Buysse, Loots, & Corte, ).…”