中華心理衛生協會

 Purpose: Most educators in the field of counseling encourage their graduate students to receive individual counseling. However, the situations of counseling graduate students and counselors receiving individual psychotherapies remains unclear. We investigated the current situations of and difference between counseling graduate students and counselors undergoing individual psychotherapies. Method: We developed a questionnaire and distributed it by mail and on the Internet, resulting in 892 valid participants: 504 counseling graduate students, and 388 practicing counseling psychologists. Results: The analysis indicated: (1) more than 80% of respondents had received individual counseling, and most did so while pursuing a master’s degree; (2) personal development was the dominant motivation for taking individual counseling; (3) most counseling graduate students sought individual counseling through a counseling center, whereas most counseling psychologists did so through peer referral; (4) in most cases, individual counseling was discontinued because a problem had been resolved; (5) most of the respondents had consulted 2 therapists; (6) most of the therapists were practicing counseling psychologists; (7) most of the counselors consulted belonged to the school of psychodynamic psychotherapy; (8) most respondents reported that their therapy was beneficial and atraumatic; and (9) counseling graduate students and counseling psychologists differed significantly in the channel of therapy, school and title of therapist, cost of therapy, and issues for counseling. Conclusion: Counseling graduate students and counseling psychologists exhibited high initiative in taking counseling, but the individual counseling therapies they sought differed in content. This finding indicates that helping professionals in different stages of self-development differ in their need for self-exploration, self-integration, and therapy. Moreover, considering the 33.49% of graduate students and 22.64% of counselors substantial number of respondents who reported trauma as a result of counseling, counseling-induced trauma may warrant further investigation.