The value of the educational frame in the development of the psychotherapist's professional self

Abstract

This paper arose from my own experiences as both student and teacher of psychotherapy. It examines the nature and importance of clear boundaries and a firm frame in developing the personality, experience, knowledge and skills necessary for the practice of psychotherapy. It will consider the nature of the psychotherapist's professional Self; what it needs to know, do and be; and how this can be taught.

I'll start by being practical. Although love is
And everything that is not love is not but is

Illusory, we have to cope with that illusion.
It is the source of suffering and what we call
Evil. The illusion that we are not love or loveworthy

Is a fist around the heart it constricts

The awareness that you and I are one.
Like waves in the ocean, each seeming separate.

Yet merely ripples in the same eternal sea.

Adam Curle