Utilization of personal therapy by psychotherapists: a practice-friendly review and a new study

This article offers both a practice-friendly review of research on therapists' personal therapy and a new study of personal psychotherapy among 3,995 psychologists, counselors, social workers, psychiatrists, and nurses in 6 English-speaking countries. The prevalence of personal therapy as it relates to professional discipline, theoretical orientation, gender, and career level are studied. Findings showed that 87% of the overall sample embarked on personal therapy at least once: 94% of analytic/psychodynamic therapists, 91% of humanistic therapists, 73% of cognitive-behavioral therapists, 82% of the novice therapists to 89% of senior therapists. Both the existing research and this new study demonstrate the extraordinary commonality of personal therapy among psychotherapists, and encourage further use for professional training, clinical practice, and therapist self-care.