Messina Irene, Trimoldi Giovanna
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Universitas Mercatorum, Rome.
Res Psychother. 2024 Aug 27;27(2):799. doi: 10.4081/ripppo.2024.799.
The role of the therapist has received growing attention in psychotherapy research, suggesting that training effectiveness may also depend on the person of the trainees, with relevant implications in terms of candidate selection or tailoring training to the person. In the present study, we focused on how and how much psychotherapy training can be effective in fostering trainees' characteristics associated with successful therapists and contrast trainees' characteristics that could represent limitations as therapists. The aim was to explore training program directors' perspectives on individual trainees' limitations and strengths, and on the effectiveness of training in shaping successful therapists. To this aim, we interviewed 14 training program directors with different psychotherapy approaches. Audio recordings of these semi-structured interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using NVivo software. According to our findings, transversally to different psychotherapy approaches, trainees' self-awareness and the ability to embrace uncertainty were recognized as the main characteristics of good trainees. Four training elements were fre- quently mentioned by directors as effective in shaping trainees' development: experiential learning, the use of paradigm that pri- oritizes self-awareness (instead of technique-focused approaches), the centrality of supervision and inter-vision, the trainer-trainee relationship. These insights highlight the importance of trainees' self-awareness and the ability to embrace uncertainty as potential personal variables that may influence the effectiveness of future psychotherapists and suggest giving attention to experiential learning and training relationships as crucial elements of psychotherapists' development during the training.
治疗师的角色在心理治疗研究中受到了越来越多的关注，这表明培训效果可能还取决于受训者个人，这在候选人选拔或根据个人情况定制培训方面具有相关意义。在本研究中，我们关注心理治疗培训如何以及在多大程度上能够有效地培养与成功治疗师相关的受训者特质，并对比可能代表治疗师局限性的受训者特质。目的是探讨培训项目主任对个别受训者的局限性和优势以及培训在塑造成功治疗师方面有效性的看法。为此，我们采访了14位采用不同心理治疗方法的培训项目主任。这些半结构化访谈的录音被逐字转录，并使用NVivo软件进行分析。根据我们的研究结果，与不同的心理治疗方法横向对比，受训者的自我意识和接受不确定性的能力被认为是优秀受训者的主要特质。主任们经常提到四个培训要素对塑造受训者的发展有效：体验式学习、优先考虑自我意识的范式（而非专注于技术的方法）、督导和相互督导的核心地位、培训师与受训者的关系。这些见解凸显了受训者自我意识和接受不确定性能力作为可能影响未来心理治疗师有效性的潜在个人变量的重要性，并建议关注体验式学习和培训关系，将其作为心理治疗师培训期间发展的关键要素。
