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Summers, E.M., Morris, R.C., Bhutani, G.E., Rao, A.S., & Clarke, J.C. (2020). A survey of psychological practitioner workplace well-being. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. Online first publication: https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2509

Burnout is a specific form of workplace psychological stress characterized by emotional exhaustion (loss of energy), depersonalization (cynicism towards patients), and lack of personal accomplishment (dissatisfaction). Research has shown higher than average levels of burnout in psychological practitioners. The National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) employs a large workforce of psychological practitioners (psychologists, counsellors, assistant psychologists, social workers, and others) to provide mental health care. In surveys among UK practitioners, 48% felt depressed, almost 50% felt like a failure, and 92% felt that their job was stressful. Unfortunately, many providers tend not to seek help when they feel burned out, anxious, or depressed. Summers and colleagues conducted a large-scale survey of psychological practitioners that provide mental health care in the UK’s NHS system. Over 1,600 practitioners responded to questionnaires about professional and personal well-being, and about workplace conditions. Results showed a high correlation (r = .61) between workplace well-being and general personal well-being, suggesting that experiences in the workplace affect experiences outside of the workplace and vice versa. Scores of professional and general well-being were significantly below the national average, indicating poorer well-being among psychological providers compared to the general population. There were no differences among genders, and among most ethnic groups, and higher pay was not associated with higher well-being. Noteworthy factors that correlated with poorer professional well-being included workplace harassment/bullying by managers, feeling depressed, and having a physical disability. Being on contract with the NHS, working only part-time for the NHS, or working in private practice were each related to somewhat better well-being.

Practice Implications

There is ongoing concern about professional well-being and burnout among psychological practitioners as suggested by international surveys. Many NHS employees in the UK and mental health professionals around the world report high levels of burnout. Protective factors for psychological practitioners might include: having more control over one’s work, a supportive organizational culture, and taking care of one’s own psychological and physical health. Personal therapy, peer supervision, and consultation may be means by which therapists manage emerging dissatisfaction and depersonalization that may affect their work with patients and their own well-being.

Brugnera, A., Zarbo, C., Compare, A., Talia, A., Tasca, G.A., … & Lo Coco, G. (2020). Self-reported reflective functioning mediates the association between attachment insecurity and well-being among psychotherapists, Psychotherapy Research, https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2020.1762946.

Therapeutic work can be emotionally demanding for the therapist and can affect levels of personal well-being. But little is known about what can foster greater well-being among psychotherapists. Therapist well-being affects their relationships and effectiveness with clients. In recent research, therapists who reported a more satisfying personal life tended to rate higher therapeutic alliances to their clients, and therapeutic alliance is associated with better client outcomes. Two factors that affect therapist well-being include attachment insecurity and mentalizing. Attachment insecurity can be characterized as attachment avoidance (over self-reliance and downregulation of emotions) and attachment anxiety (preoccupation with relationship loss and up-regulation of emotions). High attachment anxiety and avoidance are related to interpersonal problems, maladaptive emotion regulation, and lower self-esteem. Mentalizing is the capacity to understand one’s own and other’s behaviors in terms of mental states (intentions, feelings, thoughts, desires), and so it forms the basis for humans’ capacity for empathy, cooperation, and social learning. In this survey of 416 psychotherapists in Italy, Brugnera and colleagues asked therapists to complete questionnaires that assessed their own attachment insecurity, reflective functioning (or mentalizing), and subjective well-being. Not surprisingly, greater attachment insecurity and lower reflective functioning were associated with lower well-being among therapists. Using a statistical mediation model, their study tested a theory in which mentalizing explained why attachment insecurity led to lower well-being. They found a significant indirect effect of both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety on well-being that was explained by reduced reflective functioning. That is, higher attachment insecurity led to lower capacity to mentalize, which in turn led to lower well-being.

Practice Implications

Previous research showed a well-documented link between attachment insecurity and lower well-being among psychotherapists. This study is unique in that it helps to explain why this is the case. Even for those therapists who have higher attachment insecurity, a greater capacity to mentalize may buffer them from the negative impact on well-being. Recent research shows that novice therapists who receive specific training can improve their capacity to mentalize by: learning to identify their own reactions that distract them from understanding the client, distinguishing reactions they have that might provide useful information to understand the client, and taking a reflective stance to better understand the client based on their own personal reactions.

Ensink, K., Maheux, J., Normandin, L., Sabourin, S., … & Parent, K. (2013). The impact of mentalization training on the reflective function of novice therapists: A randomized controlled trial, Psychotherapy Research, 23, 526-538, DOI: 10.1080/10503307.2013.800950

Recently, researchers and clinicians have been discussing the importance of therapists’ capacity to mentalize. That is, the capacity of therapists to be aware of mental states within themselves and clients, to identify and reflect upon emotional experiences of clients, and to understand the impact of client emotions and life experiences on the therapist’s capacity to be present, empathic, and effective. Most training programs in psychology and psychiatry focus almost exclusively on techniques – the rational application of psychological theory to diagnose and treat. These programs rarely, if ever, focus on training student therapists to mentalize. And yet, much of effective therapy also involves active listening, empathic understanding, developing a therapeutic bond, and consciously and deliberately imagining clients’ mental states. Without such skills, therapists may be susceptible to engage in anti-therapeutic acts (acting out, disengaging, verbalizing anger and frustration, feeling ineffective, burning out) born out of un-reflected personal reactions to clients and their experiences. In their study, Ensink and colleagues tested a training program designed to improve the capacity to mentalize in student therapists compared to therapists who only received traditional training in identifying psychopathology and applying therapeutic techniques. Mentalizing training involved 30 hours of experiential workshops that provided feedback to students on identifying their own reactions that might interfere with understanding the client, reflecting on their reactions, and considering how this reflection might help to understand the patient better. Capacity to mentalize was assessed by rating responses and reactions of student therapists in both conditions (mentalizing training vs traditional didactic training) to videos of clients in therapy. All novice therapists (in both training conditions) started at relatively low levels of reflectivity (an index of mentalizing), suggesting that students did not start the training program with these skills. Trainees in the mentalizing training group showed significant improvement in their capacity to mentalize, whereas students in the traditional didactic training showed a significant decline in their reflective capacity to mentalize.

Practice Implications

Psychotherapists do not start their training with high capacities to mentalize and so they may require training to hone this skill. Also, therapists who receive no such training do not spontaneously acquire these skills. Clients often have experiences that are perceived as foreign to trainee therapists, and so therapists may feel ill equipped to empathize, understand, and respond emotionally to such challenging client experiences. Therapists can be trained to identify their internal experiences (negative or positive emotional reactions that may be related to the client’s and/or therapist’s unresolved issues) that may interfere with establishing a productive therapeutic relationship. Increasing the capacity to mentalize may reduce therapists work-related stress as it affords therapists a greater measure of control and mastery over challenging encounters with some clients.

Aajes-van Doorn, K., Bekes, V., & Prout, T. (2020). Grappling with our therapeutic relationship and professional self-doubt during COVID-19: Will we use video therapy again? Counselling Psychology Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/09515070.2020.1773404

Social restrictions caused by COVID-19 required many therapists to use video therapy to provide treatment to patients remotely. Video therapy offers many benefits like allowing for real-time (synchronous) interactions with patients who would otherwise not have access to mental health care. However most therapists have no training or experience in this modality, and previous surveys suggest that therapists believe video therapy to be less effective than face to face therapy. And some evidence suggests that the level of the working alliance in video therapy is lower than in face to face therapy. In this small survey of 141 therapists about video therapy, Aajes-van Doorn and colleagues examined psychotherapists’ view of the working alliance, therapists’ level of confidence in providing video therapy, and their intentions to use video therapy in the future. Psychotherapists were from the US, Canada, and Europe who treated adult patients in private practice. One third of therapists previously attended a webinar on how to use video conferencing for psychotherapy. The most frequently reported challenges for therapists concerned technical difficulties (61.0% of therapists), having a suitable space for therapy (48.2%), risk of patient or therapist getting distracted (41.1%), and difficulty feeling or expressing empathy to the client (20.6%). On a standardized scale, therapists responded feeling less connected to their patients during video therapy sessions, but they nevertheless reported a good therapeutic alliance compared to published norms. On two other measures, therapists providing video therapy felt more professional self-doubt, less competent, and less confident than levels reported in a previous study of therapists providing face to face therapy. Although therapists’ views of video therapy became more positive since the start of the pandemic, therapists still perceived video therapy to be less effective than face to face treatment. Therapists on average were undecided as to whether they would continue using video therapy in the future, and those who were more likely to continue using had prior experience with the modality.

Practice Implications

Although this is a small survey, it does provide a window into therapists’ experiences with video therapy. The study highlights the added stressors upon therapists in conducting video therapy including higher self-doubt and lower competence and confidence. Also, although the therapeutic alliance in video therapy was good, it seemed to be lower than reported in previous studies of face to face therapy.  Therapists may benefit from more clinical training and support in managing the various technical and clinical challenges of video therapy. With the permission of their patients and following appropriate ethical guidelines, therapists might consider video recording their sessions and reviewing these recordings in consultation/supervision to improve their work with clients in a virtual setting.

Dickeson, E., Roberts, R., & Smout, M.F. (2020). Predicting boundary violation propensity among mental health professionals. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Online First Publication: https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2465.

Boundaries of the therapeutic relationship define the role and limits of therapist behaviors, and the limits of their relationship with clients. Violations of therapy boundaries might include sexual contact, which by some estimates occurs in 0.5% to 8.6% of therapists. Other boundary violations might include a broader range of behaviors such as therapists initiating hugs, forming a social relationship with a client, flirting, and consuming alcohol with a client. A number of years ago, Gabbard developed a typology of practitioners who committed boundary violations that included: the predatory therapist, the masochistic therapist, and the lovesick therapist. Despite the widespread use of this typology, there was little research on its validity or utility. Dickeson and colleagues conducted a survey of 275 Australian practitioners (psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and social workers, 73% women) about their behaviors related to professional boundaries and also personality traits. The goal was to evaluate if therapist variables suggested by Gabbard were related to the likelihood of crossing a professional boundary. Over 30% of the therapists in their sample reported some kind of boundary violation with clients, with 0.7% indicating they had sex with a client. Male gender (r = .147–.255), experiential avoidance (r = .144–.230), narcissistic grandiosity (r = .334–.402), narcissistic vulnerability (r = .258–.331), and impulsivity (r = .196–.262) were the most consistent predictors of some propensity to commit a boundary violation among therapists. There was no evidence that age or working in a solo practice setting were related to propensity to professional boundary violations.

Practice Implications

Gabbard’s typology for therapists who engage in boundary violations were supported to some extent. The predatory therapist type was supported by findings related to narcissistic grandiosity and impulsivity. Such therapists may seek personal gratification by exploiting clients. There was also some evidence for the masochistic therapist type as seen by significant correlations with narcissistic vulnerability and experiential avoidance. Such practitioners might extend themselves beyond the limits of professional conduct in a misguided belief that only they can help the client. There is a general consensus in the profession that boundary violations are detrimental to clients. This research suggests that therapists with narcissistic issues might be more likely to transgress professional boundaries. Personal therapy, close supervision, and ongoing professional consultation may be helpful for therapists who feel that they at risk of a professional boundary transgression.

Predicting Which Psychotherapists Will Adopt Telepsychology

Pierce, B. S., Perrin, P. B., & McDonald, S. D. (2020). Demographic, organizational, and clinical practice predictors of U.S. psychologists’ use of telepsychology. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 51(2), 184–193.

Even prior to COVID-19, psychologists and psychotherapists were examining the use of telepsychology (telephone delivered psychotherapy and assessment). The interest arose from efforts to increase accessibility to psychological services for clients in rural and remote areas, and also for those for whom travelling to an urban centre was a significant barrier due to disability. However, there are barriers to psychotherapists’ use of telepsychology caused by: differing state and provincial laws and requirements, limits to working across state and provincial jurisdictions, issues related to insurance reimbursement, and concern that telepsychology and video conferencing platforms may not meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or Personal Health Information Privacy and Access (PHIPA) requirements for confidentiality and privacy. In a previous study, close to 80% of psychologists felt that telepsychology could be effective, but 42% viewed telepsychology as less effective than face-to-face therapy, and 75% indicated that they would not likely refer to someone for telepsychology services. In this large survey of almost 1800 psychologists who practiced psychotherapy, Pierce and colleagues were interested in demographic, organizational, and clinical factors that predicted telepsychology-use by clinicians. The participants were 8.74 times more likely to use telepsychology if they worked in organizations that had policies supporting telepsychology-use compared to those who worked in organizations without such policies (p < .001). Nevertheless, psychologists in private practices were 2.86 times more likely to use telepsychology than those who worked in institutions. Also, psychologists who received training in telepsychology were 2.25 times more likely to use telepsychology than those who did not receive any training (p = .002). In terms of clinical practice areas, those who worked in sports performance, coaching, addictions, and parenting were more likely to use telepsychology. On the other hand, those who provided testing and evaluations were less likely to use telepsychology, likely because of practical limitations to psychometric testing online. Age and gender were not related to telepsychology use.

Practice Implications

Psychologists and psychotherapists who want to increase their comfort and satisfaction in working with telepsychology should consider getting professional development training and continuing education. In one study, over two thirds or psychologists perceived that they did not have sufficient training to use telepsychology. Organizations who want to encourage telepsychology should invest in training and provide clear policy guidelines to support professionals. The notion that older clinicians would be less likely to use telepsychology was not born out by these findings.