The In-Session Self-Awareness of Therapist-Trainees: Hindering or Helpful?

Although therapist self-awareness has been hailed as a critical component of psychotherapy, recent evidence suggests that therapists' in-session self-awareness may hinder rather than help the therapeutic process. The authors examined the in-session self-awareness of therapists in training (trainees) in relation to their interpersonal involvement and the reactions of volunteer student clients (volunteer clients). Trainee in-session self-awareness variables predicted over 50% of the variance in their interpersonal involvement and the volunteer clients' perceptions of the therapeutic alliance. Contrary to previous research, trainees' level of in-session self-awareness was generally helpful rather than hindering from both the trainee and student-client perspectives. Potentially hindering aspects of in-session self-awareness did emerge, however, in that trainees' increasing efforts to manage their self-awareness were related to decreased trainee involvement and lower volunteer client ratings of the therapeutic alliance.