Rites of passage : Novice students' experiences of becoming psychotherapist

This qualitative study examines learning processes in psychotherapy programs, focusing on how skills develop during clinical training. More specifically, the study investigates what psychotherapy students in basic training tell about their own struggling. Three training groups were included (n = 25). Data from written final essays on supervised psychotherapies were analyzed by inductive thematic analysis and identified themes were independently reviewed for accuracy. Themes fitted four categories: reactions during the psychotherapy, thoughts about having two psychotherapies, the influence of the supervisor and the peer group, and finally reflections on what to continue to observe in future psychotherapies. Students were found to be uncertain about whether emotions experienced in their therapeutic work belonged to them and therefore should be kept to themselves, or belonged to the client and thus could be used in the psychotherapy. Students also experienced that their own feelings were being magnified in the psychotherapeutic situation. Conducting two parallel psychotherapies was considered by the students to make it easier to sort out what belonged to their own personality and what belonged to the client. All students underlined the importance of group supervision for gaining perspectives. An important conclusion is that students need help to sort out and understand their feelings in the supervision situation.