THE ROLE OF PERSONAL THERAPY FOR THERAPISTS - A REVIEW

This paper reviews the research literature on personal therapy and mak es some recommendations for how future work in this area may be improv ed. Despite the general acceptance of the importance of personal thera py amongst therapists, there has been relatively little research to ev aluate its effectiveness. The vast majority of studies have consisted of surveys of therapists' opinions and experiences of therapy or natur alistic comparisons across therapists who have or have not had therapy . The interpretation of most findings is compromised because of small sample sizes and confounding variables, nevertheless some conclusions can be made. Whilst the majority of therapists feel chat they have ben efited professionally from personal therapy there is very little empir ical evidence that it has any measurable effect on client outcome. How ever, there is some evidence that personal therapy has a positive effe ct on those therapist qualities often cited as constructive to client change (e.g. empathy, warmth, genuineness). What is evident is that th ere is a need for more methodologically sound research as well as a mo re theoretical understanding of how personal therapy affects clinical practice, before any firm conclusions can be drawn about its usefulnes s. It is suggested that it may be more useful for future research in t his area to focus on therapy process rather than client outcome.