Conducting psychotherapy with psychotherapists: I. Prevalence, patients, and problems.

Examines responses from 349 psychologists of the American Psychological Association (APA) Division of Psychotherapy who completed a questionnaire regarding the prevalence of treating fellow psychotherapists, the type of psychotherapist-patients they treated, and the stressors and satisfactions of conducting such work. Three fourths of respondents related that they had treated mental health professionals and professionals-in-training over the past 3 years, and that this population constituted 3% to 796 of their caseloads. Nearly all of the therapist-patients were self-referred, and 85% received individual therapy. The psychotherapist-patients tended to be psychologists (37%) or social workers (29%) of diverse theoretical traditions, with the exception of biologically oriented clinicians. Satisfactions clustered around pleasures inherent in doing meaningful work, acknowledgment by peers, and the opportunity to help therapist-patients enhance their own clinical effectiveness. Predominant stressors concerned evaluation anxieties in treating colleagues and in the related belief that colleagues are more challenging and resistant to change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)