Personal Therapy

The phrase “personal therapy” refers not to a particular theoretical approach or type of the psychotherapy but rather to psychotherapists’ engagement as the clients or the patients in their own therapy. Clearly, a subjective sense of the emotional distress and coping with life is one factor that might lead therapists to be in personal therapy. Several personal characteristics of therapists beyond present emotional distress are related to the rates at which personal therapy was used, both present and past. Naturally age is one factor to control, since the older therapists are, the more time and perhaps more occasions they would have had to engage in therapy. Gender is one factor. Aspects of private life also tended to differentiate therapists’ use of personal therapy, with respect to marital status but not parental status. Attachment patterns reflect the psychological foundation of intimate relationships in therapists’ private lives.