Psychotherapist Trainees’ Quality of Life: Patterns and Correlates
While psychotherapists are trained to improve their clients’ quality of life, little work has examined the quality of life experienced by psychotherapist trainees themselves. Yet their life satisfactions and stresses would plausibly affect both their ability to learn new skills and conduct psychothe...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.864691/full |
| _version_ | 1811271667072106496 |
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| author | Erkki Heinonen Erkki Heinonen David E. Orlinsky Ulrike Willutzki Michael Helge Rønnestad Thomas Schröder Irene Messina Henriette Löffler-Stastka Armin Hartmann |
| author_facet | Erkki Heinonen Erkki Heinonen David E. Orlinsky Ulrike Willutzki Michael Helge Rønnestad Thomas Schröder Irene Messina Henriette Löffler-Stastka Armin Hartmann |
| author_sort | Erkki Heinonen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | While psychotherapists are trained to improve their clients’ quality of life, little work has examined the quality of life experienced by psychotherapist trainees themselves. Yet their life satisfactions and stresses would plausibly affect both their ability to learn new skills and conduct psychotherapy. Therefore, in the Society for Psychotherapy Research Interest Section on Psychotherapist Development and Training study, we investigated the patterns of self-reported life quality and their correlates in a multinational sample of 1,214 psychotherapist trainees. A comprehensive questionnaire was used at the outset of trainings to assess trainees’ professional background, current life situation, personal characteristics, family background, and social and national origin. The findings indicated 54.3% of trainees’ lives could be characterized as fortunate or happy (i.e., experiencing great life satisfaction and not much stress), whereas 14.3% could be characterized as clearly distressed or troubled (i.e., experiencing great life stress and not much satisfaction). The strongest correlates of high life stress, a contributor to poor life quality, were economic insecurity, self-protectiveness, and attachment-related anxiety in relationships, and economic or psychological hardship in childhood. In turn, greater wellbeing was most strongly associated with a warm and open interpersonal style, being married, having sufficient economic means, and material and emotional security in childhood. While the results indicate the majority of therapists experience a relatively good quality of life, the findings also suggest potential targets for increasing trainees’ life quality when it may be deficient, such as those on a societal level (e.g., availability of low-cost student loans), training program level (e.g., promoting supportive supervision, positive between-trainee relationships and group collaboration), and individual level (e.g., personal therapy and learning self-care), in order to promote effective learning and therapy practice. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:25:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7109ddd3875d4f688722de23ad7d1f02 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:25:06Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-7109ddd3875d4f688722de23ad7d1f022022-12-22T03:14:12ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-03-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.864691864691Psychotherapist Trainees’ Quality of Life: Patterns and CorrelatesErkki Heinonen0Erkki Heinonen1David E. Orlinsky2Ulrike Willutzki3Michael Helge Rønnestad4Thomas Schröder5Irene Messina6Henriette Löffler-Stastka7Armin Hartmann8Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, NorwayFinnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, FinlandDepartment of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United StatesDepartment of Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Witten/Herdecke, Witten, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, NorwayDivision of Psychiatry and Applied Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United KingdomUniversitas Mercatorum, Rome, ItalyDepartment of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaDepartment of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center – University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, GermanyWhile psychotherapists are trained to improve their clients’ quality of life, little work has examined the quality of life experienced by psychotherapist trainees themselves. Yet their life satisfactions and stresses would plausibly affect both their ability to learn new skills and conduct psychotherapy. Therefore, in the Society for Psychotherapy Research Interest Section on Psychotherapist Development and Training study, we investigated the patterns of self-reported life quality and their correlates in a multinational sample of 1,214 psychotherapist trainees. A comprehensive questionnaire was used at the outset of trainings to assess trainees’ professional background, current life situation, personal characteristics, family background, and social and national origin. The findings indicated 54.3% of trainees’ lives could be characterized as fortunate or happy (i.e., experiencing great life satisfaction and not much stress), whereas 14.3% could be characterized as clearly distressed or troubled (i.e., experiencing great life stress and not much satisfaction). The strongest correlates of high life stress, a contributor to poor life quality, were economic insecurity, self-protectiveness, and attachment-related anxiety in relationships, and economic or psychological hardship in childhood. In turn, greater wellbeing was most strongly associated with a warm and open interpersonal style, being married, having sufficient economic means, and material and emotional security in childhood. While the results indicate the majority of therapists experience a relatively good quality of life, the findings also suggest potential targets for increasing trainees’ life quality when it may be deficient, such as those on a societal level (e.g., availability of low-cost student loans), training program level (e.g., promoting supportive supervision, positive between-trainee relationships and group collaboration), and individual level (e.g., personal therapy and learning self-care), in order to promote effective learning and therapy practice.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.864691/fullpsychotherapist trainingpsychotherapistslife qualitylife satisfactionlife stressrelationships |
| spellingShingle | Erkki Heinonen Erkki Heinonen David E. Orlinsky Ulrike Willutzki Michael Helge Rønnestad Thomas Schröder Irene Messina Henriette Löffler-Stastka Armin Hartmann Psychotherapist Trainees’ Quality of Life: Patterns and Correlates Frontiers in Psychology psychotherapist training psychotherapists life quality life satisfaction life stress relationships |
| title | Psychotherapist Trainees’ Quality of Life: Patterns and Correlates |
| title_full | Psychotherapist Trainees’ Quality of Life: Patterns and Correlates |
| title_fullStr | Psychotherapist Trainees’ Quality of Life: Patterns and Correlates |
| title_full_unstemmed | Psychotherapist Trainees’ Quality of Life: Patterns and Correlates |
| title_short | Psychotherapist Trainees’ Quality of Life: Patterns and Correlates |
| title_sort | psychotherapist trainees quality of life patterns and correlates |
| topic | psychotherapist training psychotherapists life quality life satisfaction life stress relationships |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.864691/full |
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