Vocational benefits and costs of conducting psychotherapy : the case of school counselors

Abstract AR

-The present work was carried out within a two-person intersubjective theoretical framework.

The objective of the study was twofold: 1) to examine the psychological benefits and costs to school counselors of their role as psychotherapists and 2) to examine the significance of accounting for the subjective importance each counselor attribute to the various benefit/cost componenets.

The study was conducted in two stages: qualitative and quantitative.

Participants were 137 school counselors in junior high and high schools in Israel.

The results clearly indicate that when evaluating the consequences of conducting psychotherapy, it is important to take into account the subjective importance of items' contents.

The analysis revealed five benefit factors and four cost factors.

Counselors benefitted from the inherent attributes of their profession, acknowledged some narcissistic gains and that conducting therapy improved their family and social relationships.

On the cost side, one third noted the inherent attributes of their vocation as drawbacks; some felt that conducting therapy made them psychologically more vulnerable and it hurt their family and social relationships.

Based on the relationship between benefit and cost scores we identified three profiles of counselors: rewarded, taxed, and least affected.

We discuss the meaning of these and the other results for future research, and their practical consequences for therapists in general and school counselors in particular.