The purpose of this study is to explore and elucidate the experiences of
self-therapy in the developmental process of REBT professional therapists.
Through this study, it will be possible to detailed and vividly observe the
self-therapy processes n...
The purpose of this study is to explore and elucidate the experiences of
self-therapy in the developmental process of REBT professional therapists.
Through this study, it will be possible to detailed and vividly observe the
self-therapy processes necessary for the change and growth into REBT
professional therapists, and to consider on their significance. Additionally,
the specific understanding of therapeutic factors discovered by research
participants during the exploration of self-therapy experiences could be
utilized as crucial concepts in the training of REBT professional therapists
and in the application of REBT therapy.
In this study, participants were selected for professional therapists who
completed a 150-hour REBT expert course program a year hosted by the
‘Korea REBT Cognitive Behavior Therapy Counseling Center’ affiliated with
the ‘Korea REBT Cognitive Behavior Therapy Counseling Association’. The
data of this study were collected through direct in-depth interviews from
October 2022 to February 2023, and analyzed according to the Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) procedure presented by J. A. Smith. In
this study, a double interpretation process and a hermeneutical circulation
process were adopted to explore how REBT professional therapists apply
REBT to their problems and understand the meaning of such experiences in
the counseling field, and add the meaning of the researcher to this.
The results were derived from 5 major themes, 26 subtopics.: ‘The
journey as an REBT therapist begins’, ‘Discovering the powerful principles
and attraction of REBT’, ‘The practical application of self-therapy based on
REBT principles’, ‘I am changing and becoming more mature’, ‘Growing as
an REBT professional therapist based on personal experiences with
self-therapy’. REBT professional therapists were interested in cognitive
behavioral therapy, which is useful in the actual counseling scene, and
became a REBT professional therapists after meeting the first REBT
supervisor in Korea. They were fascinated by the simple yet powerful
principles and profound philosophical concepts of REBT, and had a
self-therapy experience applying these principles and philosophical changes
to themselves. Through repetitive training and steady efforts, it was
possible to figure out how the principles and therapy techniques emphasized
in REBT work in detail, and also discovered therapeutic factors through
experience. The REBT professional therapists self-therapy experience
gradually became like a beneficial habit, and through the self-therapy
experience, he was able to grow and mature personally and as a
professional therapists.
Based on the major themes derived from this study, the meaning of
REBT professional therapists’s self-therapy experience was discussed with
three topics: "The therapeutic factors of REBT acquired through experience","Seeking philosophical change as a practical counseling strategy" and
"Advancing towards true change and growth through self-therapy".
The significance of this study is that it was found that the growth as a
professional therapists and the maturity of personal life attitude were
achieved through self-therapy. Looking more specifically at its significance
First, it is meaningful that qualitative research has confirmed that REBT
professional therapists are actively using REBT in the counseling field.
Second, it is significant that the therapeutic factors of REBT were identified
through qualitative research. Third, it is significant in that it confirmed the
importance of REBT self-therapy in the counselor’s development process.
Fourth, it is significant in that it suggests therapeutic and preventive
measures to deal with the situation in which modern people are suffering
emotionally and their psychological well-being is threatened.