Developing a Competent Practitioner: Use of Self in Counseling Psychology Training

Abstract

Fostering the development of the therapeutic use of self on behalf of another in counseling trainees involves multiple elements. This article focuses on three domains central to achieving this aim within a particular counselor education program, focusing on our program philosophy of “self as instrument” and the program’s dual role of individual student development and professional gatekeeping responsibility. The article describes, first, the development of students’ use of self and capacities for empathy, attunement, and self-awareness in the clinical skills course; second, academic support for critical thinking and multiple perspectives in the co-curricular “transition to graduate school groups”; and third, the consolidation of relational, cognitive, and theoretical skills in the capstone learning experience of field training, demonstrating trainees’ ability to use these skills judiciously, ethically, and beneficially.