Psykoterapeuters syn på professionell utveckling och självomhändertagande

Sammanfattning: Research has shown that curiosity, professional self-doubt, deliberate practice, supervision and constructive coping skills provide good conditions for further development as an effective psychotherapist. Furthermore, research has shown that there seems to be a connection between the psychotherapist's well-being and treatment outcome. Several studies have shown that good self-care strategies reduce stress and prevent burnout, and highlight the importance of finding a balance between professional and personal life. The purpose of this study was to investigate how licensed psychotherapists view the need to maintain and further develop their psychotherapeutic competence, and how they relate to the balance between professional work and personal self-care. Six licensed psychotherapists were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed with systematic text condensation. The results showed that all of the participants remained interested in developing as a psychotherapist mainly through further education, but there were large individual differences in the perceived need for supervision and to systematically evaluate their own work. All participants highlighted self-care as important and had their own specific strategies. The participants also described how the organisation of their work affected their possibilities for both further development and their need for self-care. One conclusion of the study is that structures of supervision and evaluation of psychotherapies, both in public and private healthcare, are important areas of development, as well as providing conditions for psychotherapists self-care.