Examining How Clinical Psychologists’ Case Experiences Influence their Cinical Values

Previous studies have suggested that clinical psychologists’ case experiences can affect their expertise. However, no empirical study has focused on the relationship between clinical psychologists’ case experiences and their clinical values, which complement their expertise. This study thus aimed to explore how clinical psychologists’ case experiences affect their clinical values. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 clinical psychologists who had been licensed for at least 15 years. The results revealed five case experiences: 1) understanding clients well, 2) difficulty understanding clients, 3) experience helplessness, 4) experience violent negative feelings toward clients, and 5) experience positive feelings toward clients. Furthermore, helplessness can affect clinical psychologists’ content selection with regard to clinical values, and violent negative feelings toward clients can cause clinical psychologists to adjust their clinical values. For clinical values to evolve such that they are most helpful to clients, clinical psychologists must make efforts to undergo difficult case experiences that involve the experience of helplessness as well as the experience of violent negative feelings toward clients

生成要因とクライエントの影響からとらえた心理臨床家の臨床的価値観に関する研究 : ケース体験に着目して

広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(心理学)Doctor of Philosophy in Psychologydoctora

Trends and Considerations in Identity Development among Clinical Psychologists

The current study reviewed the theories and models of identity development among clinical psychologists. Clinical psychologists commonly experience identity diffusion or confusion in their work, because of an absence of clear goals and approaches for providing support to clients. We propose that establishing a professional identity formation model for clinical psychologists could aid the development of methods for preventing identity diffusion. Research in our lab has revealed three main findings. First, clinical psychologists commonly experience identity diffusion in their work, but can recover from identity diffusion by relating to other clinical psychologists and people around them. Second, the cyclic model is useful in the development of professional identity formation models. Third, clients influence the identity development of clinical psychologists. Future research is needed to examine the specific relationships between clinical psychologists and people around them to find ways of preventing identity diffusion. There is also a need to investigate relationships between clinical psychologists and their clients, to understand the dynamics of therapeutic situations