Professional development and personal therapy

In this chapter, we present an overview of research, theory, and practice on the development of clinical psychologists, primarily in their role as psychotherapists, and of the ways in which personal therapy contributes to their growth. Although clinical psychologists engage in many types of work, there are two good reasons to focus on clinical psychologists as psychotherapists. Historically, clinical psychologists long sought and fought for recognition as independent practitioners of psychotherapy. Practically, most of the research that has been done on the development of clinical psychologists has focused on their role as psychotherapists. In addition, our review broadly includes psychotherapists of all professions and nationalities because these variables have not in themselves been found to be major influences on psychotherapist development (e.g., Beutler et al., 2004). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)