Being-in-session : an interpretive phenomenological exploration of psychologists' experiences of practising psychotherapy in South Africa

Abstract

While psychotherapy constitutes psychologists’ primary form of intervention, psychotherapy research has evidenced a dearth of qualitative data surrounding the practise of psychotherapy as experienced from the perspective of the psychotherapist. To address this, the aim of the present study was to explore the lived experiences and meaning(s) of South African psychologists doing psychotherapy. In doing so, a qualitative research approach, embedded within an interpretive phenomenological theoretical framework, was adopted. Six South African psychologists were identified and selected using snowball sampling and in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with each of the participants. Each interview was audio recorded and interpreted using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). From the data, the following four main themes were identified the space, the process, the Sisyphean burden, and being-seen whilst seeing-others. Additional subthemes and integrated themes including: the self and the search for meaning also emerged. The findings spoke to the complex, challenging and deeply meaningful experiences psychologists identified in doing psychotherapy. The explored experiences and identified meaning(s) reflected psychologists’ understandings of, and responses to, the challenging nature of their profession. As such, the findings of this research study endeavour to contribute towards bridging the epistemological gap, surrounding the paucity of idiographic research and qualitative accounts, of the lived experiences of psychotherapy amongst psychologists in South Africa. These findings therefore aim to shed light on, and better equip, current and future practising psychologists in navigating the inherent stressors of their profession.