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Objective: This study explored how personal therapy (PT) is experienced by psychotherapists, focussing on its positive and negative impact on clinical work as well as personal and professional development (PPD). The current meta‐analysis considered qualitative research studies focussing on therapists' experiences of the impact of their PT on their clinical activities and development. Method: A systematic review of the literature led to the identification of 21 published qualitative research studies. The findings from individual studies were subjected to grounded theory meta‐analysis. Results: Five clusters were identified: (1) PT helps to increase self‐awareness in general and within the therapeutic relations; (2) PT helps therapists to adopt a therapeutic approach by observing and experiencing the impact of therapeutic interventions; (3) PT helps to support patients in the therapeutic process on the basis of one's own experience of going through a therapeutic process; (4) PT helps therapists to become more confident and authentic because it fosters self‐acceptance; and (5) PT hinders clinical work and PPD through exposure to inadequate interventions and by stirring up personal issues. The four helpful clusters can be linked to the processes of personal growth, learning through observation and experience, experiential learning, and professional identity development, respectively. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that PT can have a helpful impact on clinical work and PPD through four processes that strengthen effective therapist skills, attitudes and ways of being. However, several studies demonstrate that the influence of PT on clinical work and PPD can also be experienced as complex, ambiguous and even harmful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-limited didactic interventions have been shown to be effective in developing "generic" case conceptualization skills. The objective of this study is to test whether similar interventions can be used to develop case conceptualization skills that are "specific" to a treatment modality. University psychology students were randomized to a target (n = 62) or a control group (n = 62). The target group received a training on psychoanalytic case conceptualization skills based on the newly-developed operators model. The control group received a training on generic case conceptualization skills based on the well-established 5 Ps model. The students' self-efficacy for case conceptualization significantly increased in both groups. However, students in the target group reported a significantly greater increase in psychoanalytic case conceptualization skills and in their ability to make clinical inferences. The teaching method, as well as the case conceptualization models, were acceptable to students. However, the 5 Ps model was significantly more acceptable to students than the operators model. This is the first RCT to provide evidence that psychoanalytic case conceptualization skills can be developed through didactic teaching and that they constitute a specific set of skills that are not developed by learning generic case conceptualization skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]