This study's purpose is to understand the professionalism of child therapists through the exploration of the professional characteristics and their development process of excellent child therapists.
This study used peer-nomination and snowball sampl...
This study's purpose is to understand the professionalism of child therapists through the exploration of the professional characteristics and their development process of excellent child therapists.
This study used peer-nomination and snowball sampling. Domestic child therapists were asked to nominate their perceived best child therapists. Twelve therapists were nominated, and five therapists among them who were most frequently nominated were selected as research participants. Three to four sessions of individual interviews were conducted, and the interviews were analysed by a ground theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, 1998). The analyses yielded 117 concepts, 44 sub-categories, 18 categories through open coding. In the process of axial coding, the relationship between categories were analysed by the paradigm of Strauss & Corbin(1990), the characteristics of excellent child therapists were identified, and the development processes were suggested by the process analysis. In the selective coding, the central category was identified as 'being a center of life of providing therapy for children and becoming true child therapists', and the story line of the professional development for child therapists were suggested.
The research results were as follows:
First, the central phenomenon in the development process of professionalism was an emersion to become true child therapists. This emersion phenomenon had several important characteristics, including that they liked and enjoyed child therapy itself, found a meaning and value of child therapy, challenged with passion, and developed their identities as child therapists.
Secondly, the casual conditions resulting in the central phenomenon were their motivations and processes of their selections of child therapy. Excellent child therapists had special opportunities to be exposed to child therapy and were fascinated about becoming child therapists. In this process, their willingness to help others, interests in human lives, and experiences in childhood influenced on their selections of child therapy.
Thirdly, the contextual conditions that contributed to their excellent professionalism were their initial development characteristics and frontier roles in the field of child therapy. They played the role of frontiers as the first generation, and their professionalism was fostered in the process to overcome the initial difficulties.
Fourth, the central phenomenon of their development of professionalism showed certain behavioral responses, that is, the action/interaction strategies for their professional development. They made efforts in learning and training, continued to develop their knowledges and skills, and eagerly provided therapies to learn from their clients. Also, they challenged themselves to deepen their professionalism for their rapid growth, developed themselves through continuous self reflections, and made efforts in maintaining their emotional health and self-management.
Fifth, the intervening conditions that promoted or reduced these growth strategies were examined by individual characteristics, personal life experiences, and coping with frustration. Individual characteristics included the characteristics oriented to self-development and change, attitudes toward life such as positiveness, faithfulness, and fulfillment, human affection toward children, and cognitive characteristics such as high functioning cognitive processing and contemplative but simple thinking. Personal life experiences included the influences of their relationships with their parents and others before they became therapists, the growth and maturity according to aging, and their relationships with important objects such as their families, colleagues, assistants, and clients. Coping with frustration meant that they obtained certain strengths through the process of overcoming their frustration rather than being overwhelmed by their frustration, that their frustration and burn-out in therapy declined their growths but in result promoted their individuation and maturity, and that they actively resolved their frustrating situations by their objective perception of the situation and self-reflection and accepted the results.
Sixth, the development strategies to become a genuine child therapist led to the consequences of the development of excellent professionalism. Excellent professionalism was confirmed by the aspects of professional development as well as personal development. In the aspects of their professional development, they dealt with the therapy processes and therapeutic relationships according to their increasing knowledges and experiences, effectively functioned in utilizing their knowledges and skills about therapy and play, expanded their therapy areas while acknowledging the limits of their abilities, and were oriented toward individuation to develop their own therapy styles. In the aspects of personal development, they deepened their understandings of human beings and were balanced between their personal development and professional development.
Seventh, the process analysis showed the processes of the professional development of excellent child therapists included 'selection and initiation', 'training and challenges', and 'individuation and integration'. The process of the research participants to become child therapists had not only some common characteristics but also individual characteristics due to their differences in their strategies and behaviors in the transitions of each process. Especially, the continuity of each participants existed in the process of individuation after the middle of the process of development.
Eighth, the professional development of child therapists could be understood in the context of the development of general therapists, but the specific characteristics of child therapy were reflected. Especially, due to the characteristic that the clients of therapy were children, they showed differences in their specific therapeutic approaches, attitudes, and interventions. In addition, the important characteristic was that the role of therapists changed because the domestic clinical environment of child therapy actively utilized the help of parents.
This study was noteworthy in that it examined the professional development of child therapy by empirical study. This study also attempted to explore the results of professional development as well as various topics and influential factors of professional development from a integrative perspective. This study is expected to provide useful information about the education and training of therapists in the field of child therapy.