Does depression affect clinical practice? A survey of women psychotherapists

While recent autobiographical accounts of women psychotherapists with depre ssive illnesses have provided vivid and compelling portraits of therapists' experiences in therapy (e.g., Jamison, 1995; Manning, 1995), further resea rch is needed to clarify the impact that depression and its treatment have upon both collegial relationships and clinical practice. A subset of the me mbership of the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP) was surveyed conc erning therapists' experiences with depression and its treatment. Of 220 re spondents, 76% reported some form of depressive illness. Eighty-five percen t of respondents indicated that they participated in personal therapy. When evaluating their clinical work, respondents reported both positive and neg ative consequences resulting from their depression. While some respondents noted improvement in collegial relationships, many felt judged and avoided.