Clients’ perceptions of personal psychotherapy or counselling for therapists

The purpose of this study was to examine clients’ opinions of therapists’ personal use of psychotherapy or counselling. Participants in this study, a nationwide sample of clients recruited through Amazon’s MTurk system, were asked to complete an online survey assessing their attitudes towards treatment use by therapists as well as their general attitudes towards psychological help-seeking and perceptions of stigma (social and self) with psychological treatments. In this study, we found that clients generally had positive views about therapists’ personal use of psychotherapy or counselling. Although overall positive attitudes were found, the results from repeated measures ANOVAs indicated that attitudes depended somewhat on whether the therapist had sought out treatment as part of a training requirement for self-enrichment, or for the treatment of a psychological problem. In addition, participating clients were less supportive of therapists disclosing a treatment use history with their clients. Regression analyses also indicated that attitudes towards treatment use by therapists were significantly predicted by general help-seeking attitudes and perceptions of stigma (social and self), but attitudes towards disclosure were not. The findings from this study have important implications regarding therapist treatment use and disclosure in practice.