Wisdom in professional knowledge: Why it can be valuable to listen to the voices of senior psychotherapists

摘要

Objective: To explore the nature of professional wisdom, through learning from the experiences of a group of highly experienced senior therapists. Method: Twelve senior psychotherapists took part in qualitative in-depth interviews about their professional role and their views around a range of aspects of therapy theory and practice. Interview transcripts were subjected to thematic analysis. Results: The analysis yielded nine wisdom themes, clustered within three domains. Each domain represented efforts to resolve dilemmas arising from the experience of being a therapist, around the use of theory in psychotherapy practice, the type of therapeutic relationship that is most helpful for clients, and the experience of therapeutic failure. Conclusions: Therapist wisdom can be viewed as a form of contextualized knowledge, which functions as a source of emergent insights that arise as responses to the limitations of prevailing ways of thinking. Research into the nature of therapist wisdom draws attention to sourc s of knowledge within philosophy and the humanities that have the potential to enhance therapy practice and contribute to our understanding of therapist expertise.