DEVELOPING EFFECTIVENESS IN THE THERAPEUTIC USE OF SELF

Traditional technique guided the effective psychotherapist more toward restraint of self than active use of self. Contemporary trends in tec hnique are moving more toward encouraging the therapist to be aware of and use his or her ''real'' self in the relationship with clients, in other words to loosen the rigors of anonymity and neutrality in servi ce of genuine relating and its attendant growth-enhancing potential. T he authors of this paper offer the argument that the application of wh at you know as a psychotherapist (that is the accumulation of knowledg e and techniques from professional education and training) can only be helpful and effective if you are aware of how who you are as a person , in the room with the client (that is the accumulation of your own pe rsonality traits, personal belief systems, and psychology in the relat ional matrix with the client) is influencing the therapy. Support for this argument from the clinical literature provides the theoretical ba ses for three processes outlined in the paper which will guide the eff ective psychotherapist in integrating the personal self with the profe ssional and technical self: 1) inventory of self; 2) development of se lf-knowledge; and 3) acceptance of risks to self.