Ongoing Professional Development.

From an American perspective, Schermer (2011) also highlighted didactic learning continuing through specialty training for qualified psychotherapists. Specialty training involves an extended curriculum offered by free-standing institutes or professional organisations which grant certification on completion of learning a specific school of thought or specialised treatment protocols. For example, in South Africa the Institute of Psychodynamic Child Psychotherapy (IPCP) confers diplomas and certificates in relation to psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children (www.ipcp.co.za).

Ashton (1992) has cautioned that professional knowledge has an applicability for five years whereas Haines (1997) argued that the relevance of acquired knowledge could also be as short as between two to five years. Thus professional competency is a ‘perishable commodity’ and therefore obtaining a qualification acts as the entrance requirement for lifelong learning. Competency is also context-specific and geared to serve the practice environment that the psychotherapist currently works within.

Bradley, Drapeau, and DeStefano (2012) found that Canadian clinical psychologists reported that their feelings of competence were related to professional reading, participating in training courses or workshops, the accumulation of years being registered, and attending conferences. Feelings of professional value were related to age and participating in psychology groups and feelings of professional support were related to participating in supervision groups and networking groups. A moderate relationship was found between CPD activities being linked to feelings of competence, professional value and professional support.

Schermer (2011) contends that CPD has limited value as the concentrated learning of a few hours or a week is informative yet creates an “illusion” of competence which would actually require months of teaching and supervision to effectively implement the learning with clients. At best CPD events provide practitioners with opportunities to be introduced to new developments in the field which they may wish to pursue further with comprehensive specialty training. Thus the value of CPD needs to be invesigated further.

63 2.11.3. Psychotherapists’ Own Psychotherapy.

Since Carl Jung recommended to Sigmund Freud that aspiring psychoanalysts needed to undergo a training analysis before practicing as psychoanalysts (Balint, 1948, 1954; Freud, 1912/1966), psychotherapists have been strongly encouraged to undergo a training analysis or personal psychotherapy while training to be psychotherapists. Salvador Ferenczi, in 1914, was the first psychotherapist to go for personal psychotherapy while training to be psychoanalyst, as such a training analysis (Berman, 2004). However, Rake (2009) points out today it is not a mandatory expectation of clinical psychology training couched within scientific-practitioner model that trainees pursue personal psychotherapy, as the scientific-practitioner model prioritises evidence-based practice over more personalised ways of learning. Daw and Joseph (2007)

highlight that counselling psychologists in Britain are required to undergo 40 hours of personal psychotherapy; however this stipulation does not apply to clinical psychologists.

Notwithstanding, the advantage of personal psychotherapy is that it acts as a powerful vehicle for psychotherapists to link their personal and professional development effectively (Rake, 2009; Rake & Paley, 2009). Yet after the Boulder Conference, Blau (1959) highlighted that a clinical psychologist who provides psychotherapy “should be aware of his own possible inadequacies, blind spots, and psychological traumatizations” (p. 5), by means of attending personal psychotherapy by a professional.

More recently, Farrell (1996), and Rizq and Target (2010) argue that personal

psychotherapy provides a window into what it means to be a patient and on a personal level for the psychotherapist to become aware of the hidden aspects of their own psyche. Personal psychotherapy also provides a space for psychotherapists to participate in and enhance their emotional regulation skills. Participants in Rizq and Target’s (2010) study also expressed the desire for their psychotherapists to serve as models of how psychotherapy should be conducted.

Andrews, Norcross, and Halgin (1992) identified six benefits of trainees undertaking personal psychotherapy: firstly, psychotherapy improves the personal functioning of the trainee, secondly, psychotherapy provides a deeper understanding of intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics; thirdly, psychotherapy assists in alleviating stress associated with being within the helping profession, fourthly, psychotherapy acts as a socialisation experience; fifthly, being in the client role sensitises trainees to the reactions and needs of their own clients; and lastly,

64 psychotherapy provides an one-on-one opportunity to observe therapeutic methods within an ongoing real process.

Wiseman and Shefler (2001) found that experienced Israeli psychoanalytically-orientated psychotherapists in personal psychotherapy enjoyed a greater integration and flexibility in relation to their personal self and professional self. An awareness of internalising a number of experiences from personal psychotherapists during their careers that continued to influence them when in consultation with clients was acknowledged. Experienced psychotherapists also found personal psychotherapy to be a fruitful context to contribute to their individuation process in developing greater authentic relatedness with their clients.

Daw and Joseph (2007) found that 48 British counselling psychologists reported that personal psychotherapy was viewed as an enriching method of personal self-care. In terms of professional development, participants reported that experiential learning led to a deeper understanding of psychological and psychotherapeutic theories, models and processes.

Furthermore, being in the client role enhanced their respect and empathy for their own clients. Within South Africa, personal psychotherapy is not a mandatory requirement of the HPCSA. However, personal psychotherapy is a stipulated requirement of the MA Clinical Psychology programme at UCT (2004), UWC (2013), and Wits (2013, 2017) and strongly recommended in course material by the MA Community Counselling Psychology Programme at Wits (2016). This stipulation of personal psychotherapy by psychoanalytic-orientated masters programmes in South Africa is understood as a key facet of their training model and therefore applicants agree to the ethos of training model when selected as a student. The MA Clinical Psychology programme at Wits (University of Witwatersrand, 2017a) states that the personal psychotherapist needs to be a senior psychotherapist working from an “exploratory insight- orientated approach” (p. 12). Trainers at UCT see personal psychotherapy as a “sacred and private space” for trainees with no communication between the personal psychotherapists of the trainees and the training programme (Kottler & Swartz, 2004, p. 64).