HOW THE HEALER BECOMES: EXPERIENCED FEMALE PSYCHOTHERAPISTS’ DEVELOPMENT OF VOICE

Research indicates that therapists’ congruent presence impacts therapeutic alliance and outcomes, yet there remains a need for relational feminist understandings of therapist development of congruence. This study, grounded in a constructivist paradigm, seeks to further our understanding of this phenomenon utilizing the listening guide. Nine female psychotherapists participated in this study to answer the following research question, How do experienced female therapists experience their development of voice? Participants spoke in voices of connection, resistance, and disconnection. Three additional voices were identified regarding participants’ views of their professional role. Five participants joined in a follow-up focus group. Being embodied served as a primary means through which all five participants connected to their voice as therapists. Voices of disconnection facilitated growth when participants connected with themselves relationally. Relationships that facilitate therapist development should be characterized by a relational openness to all voices within the developing therapist, which was associated with supervisors’ embodied presence.