Psykologers upplevelser av terapeutisk kunskap för egen stresshantering : En tolkande fenomenologisk studie

Sammanfattning: Psychologist’s experiences of using therapeutic knowledge in dealing with stress and psychological workload   Psychologists help humans dealing with psychological ill-health. In doing this, they risk workrelated ill-health themselves. Hence further research is important to preserve health and wellbeing for this occupation.   The aim of this research is to explore psychologists’ experiences of using therapeutic knowledge through self-reflection (SR) and self-practice (SP) when experiencing stress and psychological workload. The method Interpretitative phenomenological analysis was used to investigate the aim and the sample consisted of three psychologists in occupational health care.   The result shows that participants experienced workrelated stress from their inner demands, work-related relations, workload and therapeutic challenges. SR and SP was experienced as useful in decreasing stress through working with communication, setting boundaries and using inner reflection and methods for mindfulness for handling negative thoughts and emotions. Furthermore, it contributed to positive consequences regarding improved relations and less cognitive and emotional strain. SR and SP also proved to be useful outside workhours.   The participants experiences showed that SR and SP were useful when dealing with workrelated stress. Further research is motived for understanding if this type of therapeutic knowledge and tools can be useful in increasing workrelated stress amongst other psychologists, and other professionals dealing with stress and psychological ill-health from their work.