How do therapists understand and experience politics in their work with clients?
This was the central question of a study by psychologist Laura Anne Winter of the University of Manchester in the UK. Surprisingly, despite the impact of politics on our personal lives and well-being, not to mention the world we find ourselves in now, doctors are generally lacking in training on how to navigate with their clients.
To further investigate how clinicians make sense of politics in the therapy room, Winter recruited participants who were trainees and practitioners in psychotherapy, counseling, and psychology. In the final tally, there were 32 participants who completed open-ended questions that tested their understanding of the policy, their feelings and thoughts in response to the policy, how the policy impacted them and their clients, and how prepared they felt to navigate the policy. politics at work. . From there, Winter broke down the interviews by topic.
What did your team find? The data produced five themes, identifying the ways in which politics permeates therapeutic work, both internally and externally. A selective overview of the results is provided below.
1. Swimming against the current: working against politics in therapy. Therapists in this study reported that politics had a negative influence on their clients’ and their own well-being. Analyzes revealed that therapists saw that their clients’ problems often stemmed from politics. One therapist said, “Many of my non-private clients’ problems stem from poverty, [and] are made worse by austerity. It’s hard to build self-esteem when your environment treats you like trash.”
2. Therapeutic work as political. Therapists in this study viewed their work as political, both in individual practice with clients and systemically. One therapist commented: “Politics greatly influences me as a practitioner, as I want to hear the voices that are not heard. For me, counseling can be about empowerment and giving a voice to the voiceless.”
3. We have to park our impressions of politics at the door. Physicians in this study reported that politics was implicitly discussed or mentioned by the client. Therapists also felt that if politics entered the room, it should be initiated by the client out of respect for their autonomy. As one participant put it: “We have to park our own impressions of the policy at the door and focus on the customer experience. This is not about our agenda, so we need to be even more in tune with customer needs and experiences without showing any of our concerns.”
4. Professional and political ethics: finding a balance. Therapists sometimes experienced a tension between their professional ethics and their politics. One participant shared: “I find the policy very difficult to manage in practice. I am often torn between respecting individual rights and client beliefs with what I can perceive as the danger of some types of politics to the well-being of people in our society.”
5. Culture of silence: Lack of training and support. Participants also reported feeling unprepared and unsupported when politics entered the therapy room. Therapists also noted that politics does not enter into the discourse of the broader profession. One therapist reflected, “Psychology has traditionally ignored politics. There is a culture of silence, a sense of uneasiness in talking about these issues. In short: it’s a lonely process.”
Swimming against the current: therapists’ accounts of the relationship between p/Politics and therapy. Laura Anne Winter. Posted March 12, 2021. Psychological Counseling and Psychotherapy Research.
