Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 27, 2026

Virtual Prism Adaptation Therapy: Protocol for Validation in Healthy Adults
Published on: February 12, 2020
The therapist's therapist: A replication and extension 20 years later
John C Norcross1, Denise H Bike, Krystle L Evans
1Department of Psychology, University of Scranton.
Abstract:
How do mental health professionals choose their own psychotherapists? This study replicates and extends a 1987 national survey of psychotherapists regarding the selection criteria and sociodemographic characteristics of their personal therapists; 608 psychologists, counselors, and social workers participated. Therapists' therapists tended to be middle aged and White (94%) but equally female and male. Their most frequent theoretical orientations were integrative, eclectic, cognitive, and psychodynamic (but rarely behavioral or systemic). Psychology was their most prevalent profession, followed by social work, counseling, and psychiatry. Topping the list of therapist selection criteria were competence, warmth, experience, openness, and reputation. The prototypical positive features of personal treatment that therapists repeated with their own patients all concerned cultivation of the therapeutic relationship. The 2007 results are tentatively compared with those obtained in 1987, thus chronicling the evolution of therapists' therapists over the years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
Related Concept Videos
Modeling in Therapy
Participant Modeling
Participant modeling involves therapists demonstrating calm and effective behaviors in situations...
Psychodynamic Therapy
False Memories
One primary source of false memories is misattribution, where individuals incorrectly associate external information with...
Longitudinal Research
Interpersonal Psychotherapy
Techniques of Therapeutic Communication II: Focusing, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
This therapeutic technique can also be used when a patient brings up pertinent information during a health-related conversation. The...

