Being and Becoming a Psychotherapist in Portugal

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to analyze the narratives of 20 Portuguese expert psychotherapists from different theoretical orientations on their personal and professional development during clinical practice. Using a constructive perspective of grounded theory analysis, two main themes emerged. The first theme focuses on the personal and professional experiences that contributed to the development of expert psychotherapists. This theme emphasizes the importance of dialogue and consistency between the personal and professional self-understanding of the development of the psychotherapist. In the second theme, the stages of development and changes of the psychotherapist are organized in two subthemes: (1) steps and changes in development of psychotherapists working in the professional domain and (2) steps and changes in development of psychotherapists in the personal domain. The findings highlight the need to consider the changes in personal and professional development in the study of the development of psychotherapists.