What Do School Counsellors Gain from Their Role as Psychotherapists?

The present study examines school counsellors' benefits from conducting psychotherapy. Following five in-depth interviews, the Counsellor's Psychological Benefit Questionnaire (CPBQ) was constructed. Content analysis resulted in six factors of benefits: 'Narcissistic Gains'; 'Vocational Benefits'; 'Improved Relationships'; 'Self-improvement'; 'Object Relations'; and 'Fulfillment of Needs'. The results obtained from 74 Israeli high-school counsellors clearly indicate that therapists are not 'selfless givers'. In fact, ranking of benefits was above the median score for all six factors. More specifically, our results show that therapists benefit most from 'Narcissistic Gains', 'Vocational Benefits' and 'Improved Relationships'. Second in ranking were benefits related to 'Self-improvement' and 'Object Relations' and last to 'Fulfillment of Needs'. These rankings were found to be statistically significant. Also revealing were the rankings of specific items included in the different factors. These results validate, to a large degree, the various theoretical-qualitative descriptions of therapists' gains from psychotherapy.