From a social constructionist perspective, the self of the therapist is the only tool that she takes into therapy with her. The study of the therapeutic self therefore becomes important as this impacts on the quality of therapy received by the client. This treatise explores the development of the researcher’s therapeutic self through the storying of significant learning experiences in the course of her training in counselling psychology. An analysis of the narrative reveals the substance of some of the soul tattoos that make up her therapeutic self. The study was undertaken from an action research approach, thus emphasising the investigation of the therapeutic self in the field and feeding this information back into the practice of counselling psychology in the course of the research project. The themes extracted in the analysis reveal the process of action learning and what constituted significant learning experiences for the researcher. The researcher found that certain conditions were required for the formation of soul tattoos and that merely obtaining a masters degree in counselling psychology was not sufficient preparation for the practice of counselling psychology.
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