how do therapists learn to become therapists: a literature ... · how do therapists learn to become...
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Further contact: Thomas Lindgren. Dept.Psychology, Stockholm university. S-106 91 Stockholm. SWEDEN. Phone: +46-8-163841. Email: [email protected]
How do therapists learn to become therapists: A literature review
Thomas Lindgren , Lillian Döllinger, Patrick Schuster & Stephan Hau
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University
As the prevalence of psychological diseases con4nues to increase (WHO, 2009), the study and applica4on of psychotherapy becomes especially important. Thus, there is a growing need to merge research in the fields of psychotherapy, educa4on and supervision.
Developing a psychotherapeu4c competence largely appears to develop implicitly (Buchholz, 2007; Jacobsson et al., 2012). To a significant extent, a psychotherapeu4c competence appears to be comprised of procedural knowledge (Nielsen & Kvale, 2000).
For the relevance ra4ng process a sample of 422 publica4ons was used for training consensus decision. The final inter-‐rater agreement (Cohen’s Kappa) was very strong (κ = 0.8). All subsequent classifica4on of references deemed relevant for the purpose of the present study was done by either the first or the last author.
References
Buchholz, M.B. (2007). Zur Diskussion: Entwicklungsdynamik psychotherapeu4scher Kompetenzen. Psychotherapeutenjournal, 6, 373-‐382.
Jacobsson, G., Lindgren, T.E., & Hau, S. (2012). "Rites of passage: Novice students' experiences of becoming psychotherapist." Nordic Psychology 64(3): 192-‐202.
Nielsen, K., & Kvale, S. (2000). Mästarlära. Lärande som social praxis. (Appren4ceship – Learning as social prac4ce ) Lund: Studentliieratur.
WHO (2009). Global health risks: mortality and burden of disease aiributable to selected major risks, hip://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/global_health_risks
Review notes
There was a shil during the last decade from mainly theory-‐based studies to empirical studies on supervision. Earlier studies were mainly theory-‐based and the iden4fica4on of factors relevant for supervision was based on clinical observa4ons.
Today the idea of evidence-‐based supervision is becoming increasingly relevant.
The criterion of pa2ent progress is brought into ques2on as a relevant indicator for the capaci4es of the therapist.
During the last five years studies have emerged discussing the effects of applying new techniques and media to supervision (e.g. videos, internet-‐based supervision via Skype).
Liile is known about the 4ming of learning processes. No studies could be found dealing with the ques4on, when ”learning” takes place.
Most studies focus on the content of what has to be learned and do not consider the process of how the contents are learned by the psychotherapy recipients.
Main research ques4ons: What is the scope and quality of available research? What is considered known and unknown about how therapists learn what is required of them as prac4cing psychotherapists?
There remains an emphasis in the literature on what should be learned, rather than how it should be learned. Furthermore, there is a clear lack of empirical research. Only a few studies employ a quan4ta4ve approach to measure the construct in ques4on.
Ul4mately, the need to develop evidence-‐based psychotherapy educa4on, as well as to evaluate the effects of new media, s4ll remains.
Publica4ons from the year 2000 un4l October 2014.
Research published in English and German and in the Nordic languages. Search terms were conceived based on familiarity with the research literature and selected aler consul4ng the official mail-‐list of the Society for Psychotherapy research.
Search performed through the ProQuest plasorm, including databases: ASFA: Aqua4c Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts, ebrary® ebooks, ERIC, Interna4onal Bibliography of Art (IBA), Interna4onal, Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Linguis4cs and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA), Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts, PILOTS: Published Interna4onal Literature On Trauma4c Stress, PILOTS: Published Interna4onal Literature On Trauma4c Stress, ProQuest Disserta4ons & Theses A&I, PsycARTICLES, PsycBOOKS, PsycCRITIQUES, PsycINFO, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, The Vogue Archive.
Selec,on criteria
A list of opera4onally defined criteria, conceived and employed by the first and last authors, was used to iden4fy relevant publica4ons among references generated by the database search terms. The inclusion criteria were as follows (see table 1): (1) A reference is relevant if the focus is on the process of learning among psychotherapists; (2) Explicit focus on how therapists and supervisors learn; (3) Explicit focus when learning takes place; (4) Review ar4cles; (5) Empirical studies.
The first evalua4on of the relevant journal ar4cles revealed that the research publica4ons showed a lack of focus on the learning processes when becoming a psychotherapist. The ar4cles focused on contents of the educa4on and external factors, rather than variables describing the process of learning psychotherapeu4c competences.
Poster presented at the EARLI 2015 Conference, Limassol, Cyprus.
The project was supported by a grant from Stockholm University´s Centre for Teaching and Learning in the Social Sciences, CeSam.
Results