Although I haven’t posted any further book updates in a month or so, I have been making some good progress – afforded by a quiet festive break, and now, an inter-semester break and time away from my teaching role at the University. The transition into the new year was also a transition into Part 2 of the book – one that I plan to be the stage for some research I conducted at the end of 2023. Noting that is over a year ago, I might express “wow, time flies”…and it does. In part I haven’t seen through the normal trajectory of research interviews, onto data analysis, theme excavation, and paper writing because of other projects taking precedence. More accurately, the writing of the opening sections of the book took precedence…and I needed to do that to get some clarity on the purpose of the research and what story I was exploring. Finishing Part 1 has reached the parts I hoped it would reach! And so, I now feel ready…
The end of Part 1 will serve as a springboard into the research, a study entitled “From counsellor to psychotherapist: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of humanistic practitioners having chosen to continue their professional training”, or the more catchy “From counsellor to psychotherapist: the experience of humanistic practitioners”. Some of the delay in moving forward with the write up has been deciding if I want to write a standalone paper (for submission to a journal in counselling and psychotherapy) or to simply place it as the bridging section between the history and context of humanistic practice (traditionally from a culture of counselling) toward a more psychotherapeutic approach of our tradition (which will be the content for Part 3). Perhaps that highlights a little more clearly as to why the research is a segue: one where I really enquire into whether there is a difference between counselling and psychotherapy, and (because nouns and verbs differ, and title is not to be conflated with activity), to be a counsellor and to be a psychotherapist.
Over the coming few weeks, I thought I would share some of the more experiential content of this section: some of the revelations I uncovered as I moved from my formative counselling training into the Masters programme in psychotherapy. First off, an introduction and explanation as to why I want to address the aspects of both being and becoming a psychotherapist…
My own experience: being and becoming
My development as a therapist feels like it falls along two tracks or threads: shifts afforded in my very human, being (akin to the radical openness spoken to by Todres 2012) , and those in accordance with learning and becoming a therapist (all the theories and concepts I have been exposed to and integrated). Of course, this is not so clean cut as it presents. Being and becoming are in a constant and reciprocating relationship. Undoubtedly theory has helped me unlearn and untangle knots in my being; and the more I open to experience, the more able I am to see how theories connect and can be synthesised. In some ways, this weave of being and becoming is evidenced in a growing shift toward a values based practice. The more I have relaxed (as Helen, as therapist, and back again) the more I have found my shape and have committed to it (one might say integrity); and moreover, relaxing allows a spontaneous and joyful enthusiasm to “sharpen the blade” (one might say mastery). The humanistic tradition invites a recognition that it is our self as that blade or instrument in the work; and so, integrity and mastery become two sides of the same blade.
When I first started teaching on counselling and psychotherapy courses, I took on the role of tutoring a module on professional, legal and ethical considerations of practice. In all honesty, at the time I would had preferred my teaching load had been taken up with more experiential teaching and facilitation; as to cover ethics in a way that ignited students’ interest and investment was a considerable challenge. However, looking back the experience of covering this important area allowed me to develop a different relationship to my work: something that has a lot more in common with vocation than career. Some years later, the writing of Bugental (1978, 1987) has given me the language to underpin some of my attitude shift: in his words, the “commitment to being a pro” (1978, pg 34). Bugental identifies four particular aspects: drawing a sense of personal identity from the work, which evokes for me something of how we respond more congruently from our being than any consciousness deliberation; secondly, knowing that one can always improve professionally, a commitment to growth and “personal emergence” (pg 35); a third factor he describes as a considered perspective on the field of work including meaning and values; and finally, the realisation that one’s own being is the primary avenue to realise one’s vocational potential, essentially it not being the knowledge but rather the integration, interpretation and application that distinguishes the “pro”. This value-based approach to my practice is one I have detailed elsewhere (Carter, 2023) and hence why integrity, mastery – and in addition, kindness – are my inner compass. I also want to credit the meeting with Bugental’s work giving me the permission to lean into the ineffable and mysterious even as a humanistic therapist – I say ‘even’ because I might also be labelled as a therapist with a transpersonal tilt (more on that later). Bugental in his descriptions of psychotherapy having more in common with art than science often comes back to that ‘something more’ that functions in life changing psychotherapy. Freud wasn’t wrong about magic; and Jung spoke much about alchemy. Opening up to alternative forms of knowing, sensing, intuiting have been imperative on my learning (and relaxing) curve.
For simplification, I will speak to the process of being and becoming in turn, deliberately starting with latter and some of the theory that has helped me conceptualise what I feel opens us to the ‘something more’.
And I will share that with you next week!