ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF

EXPERIMENTAL APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

VOL. 5, ISSUE 3 – www.rjeap.ro

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING OF BASIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

SKILLS: A CASE STUDY IN A ROMANIAN UNIVERSITY

GEANINA CUCU-CIUHAN

a, NICOLETA RĂBAN-MOTOUNU

a

a University of Pitesti,

Department of Psychology and Communication Sciences

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a one semester training program for third year

undergraduate psychology students that had the purpose to enhance their basic

psychotherapeutic skills (empathy, congruence, and non-conditional acceptance of the

client). The research is a pre-post-test quasi-experimental design on undergraduate

psychology students (N=59) aged 18 to 44. Aspects regarding professional competencies

were assessed using the NEO Personality Inventory – Revised, the Profile of Emotional

Distress, and the Proactive Coping Scale. To test for changes in their dimensions between

the two experimental moments, the paired sample t-test was used. Statistical data analysis

revealed significant improvements (p<0.05; small to medium size effects) in terms of

openness, positive emotions, proactive coping skills, and changes on some facets of NEO

PI-R Neuroticism dimension.

Cuvinte cheie: învățare experiențială, psuhoterapie, abilități, formare.

Keywords: experiential learning, psychotherapy, skills, training.

1. INTRODUCTION/THEORETHICAL FRAMEWORK

Different countries or psychotherapeutic schools have different training

programs for those wanting to become psychotherapists. In line with each school’s

orientation, the program focuses on specific skills and information, but the basis is

set during initial psychotherapy courses in faculty years. The impact the therapeutic

relationship has on the psychotherapy outcomes makes a strong argument in favor

*Autor corespondent: Ceanina Cucu-Ciuhan, geaninaciuhan@gmail.com

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of concentrating not only on theoretical knowledge, but also on skills development.

Relationship skills are useful for psychologists in general, because they establish

the framework for obtaining authentic information no matter the setting.

In two recent meta-analyses, Ackerman and Hilsenroth (2001, 2003)

considered twenty-five studies on therapist characteristics associated with strong

therapeutic alliance and other fourteen on characteristics associated with poor

alliance. They found that the strong therapeutic alliance is associated with

flexibility, honesty, respectfulness, trustworthiness, confidence, interest, alertness,

friendliness, warmth, and openness. In contrast, poor alliance is associated with

rigidity, uncertainty, tendency to exploit, criticalness, distance, tenseness,

aloofness, and distractedness. The relationship between personality traits and

therapeutic alliance is important especially early in psychotherapy career, when the

psychotherapist doesn’t master effective alliance skills and hasn’t enough

experience (Chapman, Talbot, Tatman, Britton, 2009). The Five Factor model

seems to be a useful tool to investigate the problem. Chapman, Talbot, Tatman, and

Britton (2009) in a sample of trainees (master and doctoral students) found lower

than average Neuroticism levels, and higher than average levels for the other four

factors (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness).

In relationship to the Openness factor, especially the Openness to Values

facet, a special skill was identified: cross-cultural empathy (Dyche, & Zayas,

2001). Psychologists need it because they have to work with people with different

cultural backgrounds, in a world where moving from one culture to another is a

common fact. Cross-cultural empathy has been defined “as a general skill or

attitude that bridges the cultural gap between therapist and client, one that seeks to

help therapists integrate an attitude of openness with the necessary knowledge and

skill to work successfully across cultures” (Dyche, & Zayas, 2001, p.246). They

consider that an attitude of openness that allows the trainees participation in the

course helps develop a collaborative working style, an important component of

cross-cultural empathy.

Experiential programs are considered a helpful tool in optimizing the

students’ decision concerning psychotherapy training in a specific school

(Schapira, 2010). Information from books, articles, internet or tutors is not enough

to reach to a correct decision, because it is interpreted based on personal

experience, which is limited at the beginning, and there is a strong possibility to

misunderstand what being psychotherapist in a specific orientation means. If such

an experiential program is to be used for the students to have a more realistic

picture of a specific psychotherapy orientation, we can also assume that it has a

contribution to the initial development of some important skills. Godek and Murray

(2008) confirmed by means of two experiments that, when people are oriented to

the future, they tend to use rational processing, and when they turn to the past, they

tend to use experiential processing. The starting point was the adaptation they

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made to the Epstein’s (1991) characteristics for both types of processing. They

described the experiential system as holistic, automatic, affective, more rapid, and

action oriented, encoding reality in concrete images, metaphors and narratives. On

the other side, rational processing is analytic, intentional, logical, but also slower,

encoding reality in abstract symbols, words and numbers, generating behaviour

mediated by conscious appraisal of events. They didn’t, though, elucidated the

mechanisms that link the time orientation to a certain processing type, experiential

or rational. They mentioned the hypothesis from a previous study, conducted by

Schul and Mayo (2003), who believed that the future orientation determines self-

detachment. Marks, Hine, Blore and Philips (2007) came with an instrument to

assess the dominant processing type, showing that rational scores were associated

with openness to experience, conscientiousness and open minded thinking, and

experientialism correlated positively with emotional expressivity in adolescents

with ages between 13.1 and 18.8 years. Previously, Pacini and Epstein (1999)

found that experiential processing was associated with conscientiousness and

openness to experience on an adult sample.

Experiential learning helps students focus on the personal way of solving

specific tasks over and over again so that they learn how to stimulate growth in

others, and also they benefit from the experience themselves. Mergenthaler (2008),

starting from the interactions between client and psychotherapist, proposed a

dynamic in four steps clients use when faced with a problematic situation:

relaxation, experience, connection, and reflection, in what he called the theory of

“resonating minds”. A person goes through the whole cycle to solve a life problem

in a different period of time, from minutes to months. The stages are differentiated

according to the level of emotion and abstraction: relaxation is characterized by

lower emotional and abstraction levels; experience by a higher emotional level,

either positive or negative, and still a lower abstraction level; connection implies a

lot of emotion and higher abstraction; and, finally, reflection comes with low

emotional level and high abstraction. Mergenthaler’s model transcends the

dichotomy between rational and emotional processing, showing that it is their

interplay that characterizes human development, with emotions guiding the

appropriate cognitive processing: negative emotions allow recalling autobiographic

material deepening processing in the present, and positive emotions stimulate

insight.

Experiential learning is based on the synergistic effects emerging from

interactions between five polarities: apprehension and comprehension, reflection

and action, epistemological discourse and ontological recourse, individuality and

relational ability, status and solidarity. A particular form of experiential learning,

conversational learning, is efficient in training managers. It was defined as “a

process whereby learners construct new meaning and transform their collective

experiences into knowledge through their conversation” (Baker, Jensen, & Kolb,

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2005, p.412), while experiential learning is creating knowledge through

transformation of experience. Using perceptions and theoretical knowledge alone is

not as helpful as combining them with internal reflection upon them in a process of

extending them and self-knowledge (Kolb, 1984).

Good (2009) tried to find the core of Semrad’s talent, considered to be among

the most influential teachers of psychotherapy training in his generation. Semrad’s

approach, by sitting with the clients and helping them acknowledge and bear their

emotions, allowed them to overcome mental disorder even without medical

treatment. This way, even the diagnostic seemed unimportant for the client’s

evolution. His attitude in action was far more convincing than his published papers,

and it was considered that a paper could not express the central meaning of his

lessons.

2. OBJECTIVE AND HYPOTHESES

2.1. OBJECTIVE

The theoretic aim of our study was to assess the psychological effects of an

experiential learning program for psychotherapy. The applicative objectives were:

to demonstrate that the skills that the psychology graduate should have in order to

be successful in a postgraduate psychotherapy program, which are related with his

capacity to create a therapeutic relationship with the client, can be developed by

experiential learning.

2.2. HYPOTHESES

The general hypothesis is: After termination of the experiential learning

program for psychotherapy the students will have an increased emotional stability,

openness to experience of different kinds, and proactive coping skills.

The specific hypotheses were:

o The experiential learning program determines a significant growth of the

students’ emotional stability.

o The experiential learning program determines a significant growth of the

students’ openness to experience.

o The experiential learning program determines a significant improvement of

the students’ proactive coping skills.

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3. METHOD

3.1. PARTICIPANTS/SUBJECTS

The initial sample included all the 82 third year undergraduate psychology

students of our specialization, divided into five groups of 13 to15 students. From

this sample, 25 students didn’t meet the criteria for being included in the final

statistical analysis: to attend all the sessions, to participate at the scheduled initial

and final assessments, and to give complete answers on all questionnaires’ items.

The final sample included 59 students, 52 females (88.5%), and 7 males (11.9%)

with ages between 21 and 44 (m=23.49, sd=4.61), all Romanian, from different

parts of the country.

They received initial explanations about the experiential learning program and

most of them were enthusiastic about participating.

3.2. INSTRUMENTS/APPARATUS/STIMULI/MATERIALS

Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R, Costa & McCrae, 1991) is a

concise measure of the five major dimensions of personality and their most

important facets. Together, the five dimension scales (N – Neuroticism, E –

Extraversion, O – Openness, A – Agreeableness, and C - Conscientiousness) and

the 30 facets scales allow a comprehensive assessment of personality. NEO PI-R, S

Version, contains 240 items with five answering options and rated on a scale with

five points. The questionnaire was adapted for Romanian population by Iliescu,

Minulescu, Nedelcea, Ispas (2009), with Cronbach’s alpha between .55 and .71 for

the facets, and between .77 and .91 for the big factors, and test-retest reliability

between .75 and .83, very close to those of the original form, and of adaptations to

other cultures.

Profile of Emotional Distress (PDE, David, 2005) is an instrument created to

assess the subjective dimension of functional and dysfunctional negative emotions

(worry/fear or anxiety, and sadness or depression). The scale contains 26 items

formulated as adjectives describing these emotions. The respondent is asked to rate

the adjectives on a five points scale according to their frequency during the last two

weeks. Scores are computed for functional worry/fear, dysfunctional anxiety,

functional sadness, dysfunctional depression, functional emotions, dysfunctional

emotions, and total distress. The internal consistency was between .75 and .94 for

the subscales and the entire scale on the Romanian population. It has significant

positive correlations with Beck Depression Inventory, Dysfunctional Attitudes

Scale, ABS2, State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Unconditional Self-Acceptance

Questionnaire, and it is recommended for research use.

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Proactive Coping Scale (PCS, Greenglass, Schwarzer, & Taubert, 1999b), in

contrast with classical points of view regarding coping which relate it to past

events, focuses on future threats and challenges which are mostly certain. It means

developing resources in order to minimize the effect of stressful future events, and

a strong belief in personal potential to face them (Schwarzer, & Knoll, 2003).

These resources refer to psychological strengths, but also developing the social

network, or accumulating wealth. It is considered to have its origins not in the state

anxiety, but at the level of the trait anxiety (or the tendency to experience worry). It

involves having a vision, giving life a meaning, orienting towards a goal: the

individual takes charge of his own life, at least in part, which also means

developing personal resources. The PCS was created by Greenglass, Schwarzer and

Taubert (1999a) as part of the Proactive Coping Inventory. PCS is the only scale of

this inventory dedicated exclusively to proactive coping. The scale has an internal

consistency alpha of .86 on Romanian population (comparable with that of the

English form). It has also a positive correlation with perceived self-efficacy and a

negative correlation with job burnout. The instrument has 14 items, each of them

with four answer variants (form not at all true to completely true). Some items

have reversed scoring. The total score is obtained by summing the scores for every

item.

3.3. PROCEDURE

The students were tested at the beginning (pre-test: T1) and at the end (post-

test: T2) of the semester with all three instruments. The experiential learning

program was ten weeks long, plus the first and the last week, when the assessments

were realized. The students received credits for their involvement in the seminar’s

activity and for completing the instruments.

It was explained to them that the personal difficulties that came up during the

program should remain confidential. The confidentiality aspects were discussed

before the beginning of the program, and the students agreed upon it. Although,

they were allowed to share with others information about theory and examples in a

general manner, with no details regarding the identification data of the person who

was the basis of the example.

The experiential learning program combined experiential with rational

processing. First, we were focused on each student’s experience during the

psychotherapeutic technique, and then on the ways he or she could use it in the

future for specific purposes. A special attention was paid to experiential learning

because, as mentioned before, the psychotherapist is more capable to attain a

stronger therapeutic alliance as he or she becomes more experienced, that is if he or

she values and integrates past experience with the present client.

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The program was administered once a week for two hours (as part of the

“Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy” course) and every other week for another

two hours (as part of the “Orientations in Psychotherapy” course), in addition to the

weekly two hours lectures on philosophic foundations, principles, applications, and

techniques for each course. It was conducted by teachers who were also specialists

and trainers in experiential psychotherapy, with MDs in Psychotherapy and

Psychological Assessment, and PhDs in Psychotherapy. The seminars were

conducted in groups of 13 to15 students, according to their prior formal class

organization, so the participants in the same group were familiar to each other. The

program was a combination of theory and practical examples. The concepts that

underline the basic psychotherapeutic skills were first presented during the weekly

lectures and they were afterwards experimented during seminars. The experiential

learning referred to involving the students in the different psychotherapeutic

techniques so that they get to a personal sense of the way each technique works,

which its applications and effects are, and they learn to trust in some of the

techniques. These techniques, in the same order, were:

techniques of active listening;

free associations, dream analysis and dramatization;

negative thoughts and dysfunctional beliefs identification, counter-

argumentation, experiments to test them, advantages and disadvantages

inventory, building and using self-evaluation scales to assess the emotional

state;

metaphor and creative techniques (body metaphor; drawing with a special

theme: the family, developing strategies to overcome difficulties, discovering

new meanings and strategies for the personal difficulties by creative means in a

small group; plasticine modelling; using metaphor expressed at all levels as

ways of uncovering unconscious, latent solutions to daily chores and

challenges);

gestalt techniques (especially empty chair work, needs and affective

awareness);

symbolic play;

relaxation training;

body focalization and scanning;

imagery;

story-telling;

music-therapy;

dramatization and role playing - the privileged technique especially the for

the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy seminar - involving the

“psychotherapist”, “the child with a disorder”, and his or her “family”.

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For each session we followed a general structure: (1) psychotherapeutic

technique application involving each student (they used the technique with

themselves individually, in small groups or in the whole group); (2) individual

discussion upon the previous personal involvement in the technique in the whole

group (each student resumed his experience); (3) the teacher guided the group

discussion so that the students discover from their own experience the general

dynamic of the technique, the psychological mechanisms it implicated, the

therapeutic goal it could be used for, its detailed steps, its place in the whole

psychotherapeutic plan (design), the proper moment of its use in the therapeutic

process; (4) final conclusions regarding the theoretical implications and the

psychological theory underlying specific interventions.

3.4. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

The research was conducted as a pretest posttest quasi-experiment. We chose

this type of design without a control group because the program we tested was part

of the undergraduate teaching program. Also, the students were evaluated at the

end of the semester and a significant difference in the learning program might have

influenced their final grades.

4. RESULTS

A comparative analysis of the students that were included in the final

statistical analysis and those that weren’t was conducted based on scores obtained

at the initial assessment (T1). T test for independent samples revealed that the

participants that didn’t answer all our requirements had higher scores on N1,

Anxiety (t=-2.823, p=.007), and N3, Depression (t=-2.821, p=.028), and lower

scores on C2, Order (t=3.022, p=.004), and C5, Self-Discipline (t=2.694, p=.010).

Descriptive statistics for the assessment instruments of the remaining 59

students are presented in Table 1 and Table 2. SPSS 15 was used for the statistical

analysis.

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Table 1: Paired sample t Test for scores on Profile of Emotional Distress scales (T1 pretest, T2 pot-test), the

signification level, means, and standard deviation of the corresponding distributions

Scale Moment Mean Standard deviation

t Test for paired

samples

p

Functional Sadness T1 11.1525 3.8588 2.207

.031 T2 10.1695 3.6773

Dysfunctional Sadness/Depression T1 10.8983 3.8716 -.375 .709

T2 11.0847 4.4848

Functional Fear T1 15.4915 4.3485 .797 .429 T2 14.9322 5.6808

Dysfunctional Fear/Anxiety T1 9.8983 3.5071 -.203 .840

T2 9.9831 3.7208 Functional negative emotions T1 26.6441 7.1457 1.514

.136

T2 25.1017 8.4358

Dysfunctional negative emotions T1 20.7966 6.7869 -.418 .678

T2 21.1525 7.9974

Our first hypothesis was that the experiential learning program determines a

significant growth of the students’ emotional stability. Paired samples t-test was

used to determine if there were significant differences between the initial and final

assessments for PDE scales, and for NEO PI-R Neuroticism factor and its facets.

The results are presented in Table 1 for PDE and Table 2 for NEO PI-R. The only

significant difference was found for functional sadness, which decreased during the

program. It is important to notice, though, that both initial and final assessments

revealed average or below average mean scores on all these scales. In addition, the

E6 facet of the Extraversion factor, Positive Emotions, significantly increased from

a mean of 20.05, at pre-test, to a mean of 21.09 at post-test, the experiential

program having a small size effect, Cohen’s d = 0.222.

Table 2: Means and Standard Deviations of distributions of scores on NEO PI-R factors and their facets

Factor

Facet

Initial Assessment Final Assessment

Mean Standard

Deviation

Mean Standard

Deviation

Neuroticism 89.63 25.70 91.08 19.62

Anxiety 16.95 4.30 17.00 5.06

Angry Hostility 13.61 4.66 14.25 4.67 Depression 13.29 5.21 14.19 5.16

Self-Consciousness 15.88 4.03 16.47 4.78

Impulsiveness 14.80 4.23 14.42 4.30 Vulnerability 12.68 4.16 12.85 4.59

Extraversion 113.00 15.43 111.37 17.51

Warmth 16.95 4.30 17.00 5.06 Gregariousness 19.34 3.83 19.47 4.53

Assertiveness 15.69 4.00 15.47 3.51

Activity 18.10 3.23 18.47 3.42 Excitement Seeking 17.10 4.65 16.32 4.67

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Positive Emotions 20.05 5.24 21.08 2.89

Openness 106.14 17.09 110.64 16.14 Fantasy 16.20 4.14 16.59 4.12

Aesthetics 19.10 5.53 20.64 5.38

Feelings 18.95 5.11 21.22 3.62 Actions 15.69 3.44 15.17 3.19

Ideas 16.33 4.67 17.85 5.53

Values 18.34 2.89 19.32 2.93 Agreeableness 113.53 21.68 111.80 14.00

Trust 18.59 4.91 18.76 4.86

Straightforwardness 19.73 4.88 19.71 5.16 Altruism 20.47 3.40 20.36 3.00

Compliance 16.59 4.38 16.71 4.16

Modesty 15.51 4.32 16.10 4.47 Tender-mindedness 20.08 3.61 20.15 2.99

Conscientiousness 116.93 15.55 116.00 17.80

Competence 19.95 3.49 19.95 3.69 Order 20.02 3.40 19.56 4.07

Dutifulness 21.08 3.05 21.10 3.52

Achievement Striving 18.29 2.99 18.31 3.42 Self-Discipline 19.59 3.22 19.37 3.69

Deliberation 18.00 4.82 17.71 5.11

The second hypothesis was that the experiential learning program determines

a significant growth of the students’ openness to experience, as it is assessed by the

Openness factor of NEO PI-R and its facets. The paired samples t test was used to

compare the O factor of NEO PI R or its facets pre-test and post-test. A significant

increase of the total Openness factor resulted, from a mean of 89.63 to a mean of

91.09 (t=-2.49, p=.016). The facets with a significant growth were: O2 - Openness

to Aesthetics (from a mean of 19.10 to a mean of 20.64, t=-2.25, p=.018), O3 -

Openness to Feelings (from a mean of 18.95 to a mean of 21.22, t=-3.14, p=.003),

and O6 - Openness to Values (from a mean of 18.34 to a mean of 19.32, t=-2.26,

p=.028). The size effect, Cohen’s d, was 0.270 for the Openness factor, indicating a

small effect; for Openness to Aesthetics (O2) it was 0.330, also a small effect; for

Openness to Feelings (O3) it was 0.53, a medium effect, and for Openness to

Values (O6) it was 0.34, a small effect.

The last hypothesis was that the experiential learning program determines a

significant improvement of the students’ proactive coping skills. To verify if the

collected data confirmed it, the paired samples t test was used. We compared the

PCS scores pretest and posttest. For the third hypothesis, the score for PCS

significantly increased from a mean of 40.49 to a mean of 43.47 (t=-7.70, p=.001),

with a high size effect.

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5. CONCLUSIONS

The data didn’t confirm our first hypothesis, which assumed that the students

would be more emotionally stable after their involvement in the experiential

learning program, with the exception of functional sadness. The absence of any

significant variation with the exception mentioned before (functional sadness) has

several explanations. The teacher-student relationship can’t be considered entirely

psychotherapeutic, but a teaching one, although student centred. The personal

difficulties presented by the students were not deep enough attended, because

personal development wasn’t the main purpose of the program and the group work

ensured limited confidentiality. We have to mention also other factors out of our

possibility to control in this research: the mean level of functional or dysfunctional

emotions was in the lower part of the mean interval for the Romanian population,

and the final testing was realized before the exam session and the final exam, so a

certain level of anxiety, especially functional fear, seems normal.

An alternative explanation is possible if we take into consideration the

increase in the Positive Emotions facet. Adding this information to the results

related with this hypothesis we may think that the program helped the students

become more conscious of their emotions, both positive and negative. This is a

very important resource for a psychotherapist, because it helps him properly

manage transfer issues in the psychotherapeutic relationship, and avoid

countertransference. The assessment instruments we used were self-evaluation

questionnaires, so that the insignificant variances in the negative emotions don’t

necessarily mean that the participants didn’t experience fewer negative emotions if

they became more conscious of their emotions. Adding all the results we are

inclined to think that the students became more aware at emotional level, no matter

if the emotions are either positive or negative, a considerable gain for their future

profession.

Data confirmed our second hypothesis: The experiential learning program

determines a significant growth of the students’ openness to experience. The results

were in concordance with the experiential teaching. The experiential orientation, as

part of the humanistic psychotherapies, has as a main long term goal to enhance

client’s openness to experience, both external and internal (Rogers, 1954). The

internal experience in its unity is reflected in the emotional state of the individual,

experience which guides the establishment of the meaning of the specific

experiences (Perls, 1965). The student’s personal involvement in the therapeutic

techniques, the student centred teaching relationship favoured the resolution of

some personal difficulties, and the student’s connection between the theory and

global internal motivational states (personal meanings, needs, goals, interests). This

was reflected in the students’ increased scores after participating in the program on

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E6 (Positive Emotions), but also on O6 (Openness to Values). The experiential

learning led to an increased openness to values, which indicates more flexible

attitudes, unifying emotional, cognitive and behavioural changes. These can be

important resources when facing life challenges.

Our third hypothesis was also confirmed by the data: The experiential

learning program determines a significant improvement of the students’ proactive

coping skills. This means that the students involved in the study significantly

improved their proactive coping skills. They found the way in converting their

anxiety in an important resource to face potentially stressful events. The techniques

they worked with modelled internal mechanisms which made them feel more

prepared for life, more resourceful. These mechanisms also involved finding a

meaning in the problems they encounter. Their confidence is an important factor

when establishing the psychotherapeutic relationship, because, when it is

accompanied by the psychotherapist’s congruence, it encourages the client to trust

the psychotherapeutic process.

The differences between the excluded students and those included in the final

analysis need to be considered. Our initial data showed that the students who didn’t

meet the inclusion criteria were more anxious, more depressed, they had a weaker

self-discipline and poorer sense of order. This can be interpreted as a necessity to

first assess such traits in students soliciting training in psychotherapy in order to

identify the ones with such problems. Special programs including counselling,

personal analysis and optimization, could help them integrate better. These initial

programs should address their problems generating negative affect like fear and

depression at a deeper level. This way the students will benefit more from an

experiential learning program. If they choose not to attend this additional sessions

at least they could use the information to find means to avoid losing the investment

they make in training (personal effort, time and, why not, financial costs). It is

important to mention that we base our conclusions on data collected with NEO PI-

R, so they don’t refer to psychopathology.

5.1. Limitations of the Present Study

One important limitation of our study is that it hasn’t a control condition

but we have already explained our reasons for choosing to do so. Qualitative

research dedicated to students’ feedback can give a glimpse of their internal

mechanisms leading to the observed effects. Another limitation is that we didn't

investigate if the teachers’ training in experiential psychotherapy had any influence

on the results, although it’s reasonable to assume so.

5.2. Directions for Future Research

33

A future study including a control condition is needed. Nevertheless, we

consider our work as an example to encourage other psychotherapy trainers,

teachers or supervisors, to assess the effects of their work with students in order to

find improvements, by focusing on specific skills. One other special concern refers

to assessing unintended effects of training programs concerning larger aspects of

personality from both trainer’s and trainees’ perspectives. This type of

investigation would allow comparison among different psychotherapeutic schools

or orientations.

5.3. Conclusions

In our research we tried to combine classical bibliographical resources, like

books by Rogers, and Perls, with new studies regarding the psychotherapeutic

efficiency and its factors, in an effort of reaching to the core of the

psychotherapeutic experience, no matter where it happens, and of initiating the

students in it.

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