A Consensual Qualitative Study on the Components of a Psychodynamic Counselor Training Group Program for Novice Counselors

Vollständiger Abstract

Worum geht es in dieser Arbeit?

This study explored directions for a psychodynamically based counselor training group program for novice counselors. Semi-structured interviews with 11 experts averaging 28 years of clinical experience and over 20 years of teaching and supervision were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR), yielding 9 domains and 44 categories. First, experts viewed the therapist's character and self-awareness as the foundation of psychodynamic counseling, and saw novices' core difficulty as a lack of awareness of their own issues and countertransference. Second, they saw change as arising through emotional re-experiencing within a safe structure rather than through conceptual understanding. Third, they proposed participants' own case disclosure, the use of verbatim transcripts, and a staged progression from expert to participant cases. Fourth, they distinguished the program from existing training as a space free from shame and evaluation where counselors could accept themselves, calling for a non-evaluative atmosphere to be designed as a reproducible program component. The study identified a process of change from a lack of self-awareness through emotional re-experiencing to the experience of self-acceptance. Finally, implications and limitations are discussed.