Vocational Benefits and Costs of Conducting Psychotherapy: The Case of School Counselors

Abstract

The present work was carried out within a two-person intersubjective theoretical
framework. The objective of the study was twofold: 1) to examine the psychological
benefits and costs to school counselors of their role as psychotherapists and 2) to
examine the significance of accounting for the subjective importance each counselor
attribute to the various benefit/cost componenets. The study was conducted in two
stages: qualitative and quantitative. Participants were 137 school counselors in junior
high and high schools in Israel. The results clearly indicate that when evaluating the
consequences of conducting psychotherapy, it is important to take into account the
subjective importance of items' contents. The analysis revealed five benefit factors and
four cost factors. Counselors benefitted from the inherent attributes of their
profession, acknowledged some narcissistic gains and that conducting therapy
improved their family and social relationships. On the cost side, one third noted the
inherent attributes of their vocation as drawbacks; some felt that conducting therapy
made them psychologically more vulnerable and it hurt their family and social
relationships. Based on the relationship between benefit and cost scores we identified
three profiles of counselors: rewarded, taxed, and least affected. We discuss the
meaning of these and the other results for future research, and their practical
consequences for therapists in general and school counselors in particular