Through the looking glass: the development of self-of-therapist in educational psychology master's degree therapy training

• Main Author: Cumming, Clayton
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Educational psychology study and teaching; Training psychologists; Self-actualization (Psychology)
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/396

As an introduction to the style and format of this research report, I feel that a foreword would serve useful to the reader. The name of the research, the development of self of therapist in therapy training was carefully considered to represent the feel of this research report. When one considers a looking glass, better known today as a mirror, a couple of processes happen simultaneously. A mirror provides us with a superficial indication of who we are. The phrase shattered assumptions comes directly from this metaphor; we are whom we see ourselves as. A mirror, to work, needs to provide us with a reflection. For us to be able to develop assumptions about ourselves, we need to see our image reflected within the mirror. For us to look closely at ourselves, to see our hidden flaws and faults, we need to move up close to the mirror, and really look closely and intently into that mirror. And what we see, is no more than a reflection of ourselves- but it is us, the us that others in the world see us as. This research report is an analysis. It is a close inspection into the mirror of the development of self in therapy training, but more than analysis, the artefacts presented in this report, are a mirror. And within that mirror, within this research, a reflection is occurring, a reflection of me, of me on my path to development of self-of-therapist. === Mrs. H. Dunbar-Krige Dr. E. Fritz