Why Would You Choose to be a Therapist? Is it Worth It?

As therapists or practising psychologists, we must understand who we are and figure out how to preserve our significance to our client’s lives. Our professional development is critical to our identity, just as our desire to gain experiences that recharge us is.

To stay afloat in this area and maintain our work fulfilling, therapists must have a strong understanding of reality.

There are no secrets to anyone in our field about how tough it is to be a therapist. Generally, therapists are underpaid, overworked, and expected to maintain unattainable “productivity standards”. Even though some of us prosper in private practice, we make much less than other similar professionals.Most of us are exposed to high degrees of human suffering through clinical work, making it frustrating and often anxiety-provoking.

In addition to the fact that the culture at large does not particularly esteem therapists, it does not appear to understand what we do clearly. Spend a moment thinking about Dr Marvin Monroe of The Simpsons, Jack Nicholson in Anger Management, or Barbra Streisand in Meet the Fockers. You will see what I mean. Yes, there are plenty of excellent examples of excellent clinicians. Still, they are far outmatched by those that portray us as self-indulgent crackpots who never stop talking psychobabble. Why, then, would anyone want to enter such a profession?

Why people become therapists

A 20-year, multinational study of 11,000 therapists, led by David Orlinsky of the University of Chicago and Michael Helge Rønnestad of the University of Oslo, revealed the answers and captured the essence of our aspirations and, perhaps, the soul of our professional identity.

The researchers examined the data of almost 5,000 therapists to determine how they processed their work and professional development for their book, How Psychotherapists Developed, published in 2005. Since then, over 6,000 more therapists have taken part in the research. Based on their findings, therapists remain in the profession because of its intrinsic rewards, not monetary rewards or professional advancement. Moreover, clinicians’ desire to keep learning about their careers was the most common reason they stayed in the profession. Professional development was considered a significant motivator and a substantial barrier to burnout.

Psychologists report that being personally engaged, communicating a high level of empathy, and feeling effective and able to deal constructively with problems are part of what they seek in their profession. Therapists describe healing involvement as personal involvement, empathy, and effectiveness. It is at our finest when we’re paying attention to clients and can see the path to positive change when we can almost feel the texture of our therapeutic connections and know something significant is taking place. The answer, though, is not as important as how we might make it happen more often.

According to Orlinsky and Rønnestad, therapists’ cumulative career development causes healing involvement as they improve their clinical skills, increase their mastery, overcome limitations, and gain positive clinical effects throughout their careers. Sitting with distressed and unhappy people for many years is not the only way to develop involvement.

The authors assert that therapists’ sense of currently experienced growth—the feeling that we learn from our day-to-day clinical work, deepen, and enhance our understanding in every session—is vital in motivating patients’ healing involvement.

According to the study, therapists’ experiences with clients and the knowledge they acquire from them are critical to their current growth path.

Therapists have an unquenching thirst for learning

The authors claim there is no connection between workshops and books touting the latest and most significant advancements in our discipline on this path. Almost 97 per cent of the therapists in the study reported that learning from clients was a key component of their development. Therapists believe that clients are the best teachers.

Nearly 86 per cent of the therapists reported that they were highly motivated to pursue professional development. It appears that therapists continue to seek more knowledge and improve their work no matter how long they’ve been in the business.

Why is our growth so essential to us? In a survey, Orlinsky and Rønnestad discovered a close connection between healing involvement and current personal development. Every session, we sense that we are getting better in some way, which gives us a feeling of engagement, optimism, and openness to the everyday grind of seeing clients. If we feel that we are growing, we are motivated to seek out training, supervision, personal therapy, or whatever it takes to think that the developmental process is ongoing.

Many believe that constantly hearing problems makes one emotionally callused and causes one to develop a ‘thick skin,’ but not therapists. We require a ‘thin skin’ – open, sensitive, and responsive – to be able to connect with our clients. To fend off disenchantment, we must feel that we are growing.

Measuring outcomes is essential

To have a sense of healing involvement, we must continuously compare where we are to where we have been. How do we know if we are genuinely helping when our understanding of client involvement is based on our ongoing belief that we are making a difference? It isn’t easy to define and measure therapeutic outcomes.

Therapists’ self-evaluations are not always accurate, as demonstrated by research. In 2005, Leonard Bickman of Vanderbilt University and his colleagues published a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Session. The therapists rated their job performance from A+ to F. About 66 per cent of them rated themselves an A or higher. Not one of them considered himself below average!

You will not be able to gauge your clients’ achievements accurately, no matter how hard we try. It would be best if you used a standard of achievement to evaluate each client. That does not mean using outcome evaluation to show how well you satisfy your employer’s needs for ‘accountability’ or to prove your ‘value’ or ‘return on investment.’ Instead, measuring outcomes assists you in discerning your clinical advancement without being influenced by the therapeutic profession’s greatest bugbear: wishful thinking.

Is it risky business to find out how effective you are? What if you find out that you’re not so effective? What if you find out that you’re—hold on, it can’t be! —just average? It takes guts to measure outcomes but so did walking into a counselling room for the first time to counsel someone in distress. Doing it day after day is no less challenging.

Professional development is crucial to our identity and our need to gather experiences that replenish us. Being soft-hearted and empathetic isn’t enough; therapists must have a keen sense of reality testing to keep their heads above water in this area and ensure their work continues to be fulfilling.

Hope Trust has several training modules for aspiring therapists. If you want to join, email training@hopetrustindia.com