Mandatory Personal Therapy as a Requirement in Counselors’ Training and its Ethical Challenges in Selected Universities in Nairobi Kenya

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue III, March 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Mandatory Personal Therapy as a Requirement in Counselors’ Training and its Ethical Challenges in Selected Universities in Nairobi Kenya

Joyzy Pius Egunjobi¹, Stephen Asatsa², Jacinta M. Adhiambo^3
1Psycho-Spiritual Institute, Marist International University College Nairobi, Karen, Nairobi-Kenya
¹,²,³ The Catholic University of Eastern Africa Nairobi, P.O.Langata, Nairobi-Kenya

Abstract: Personal Therapy is practiced in the training programs for psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors in Kenya. Being made mandatory and the burden of time and money are of ethical concern. This study thus investigates mandatory personal therapy and its ethical challenges in the training programs of postgraduate clinical and counseling psychologist in some universities in Nairobi, Kenya. The study adopted a concurrent design to investigate the target population of 635counselingstudents at the Nairobi University, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Daystar University, and Tangaza University College. The sample size was 255 comprising of 245 counseling students, five professional counselors, and five counselor educators. The response rate to the online questionnaire was 66.6% while the response rate of the interviews was 100%. The Quantitative data was descriptively analyzed in percentages using pie charts and histogram while narrative, content, and thematic analysis were used to analyze the interviews. The results showed that majority of the counseling students have positive perception of personal therapy as a mandatory requirement in their training with some ethical issues of violation of right and freedom of students, dual relationship, and disingenuousness which require attention of the faculty members and professional therapists attending to these students.

I. INTRODUCTION

Personal Therapy has become a mandatory requirement in many training programs for psychologists, psychotherapists, and counselors where the trainee must complete certain hours of therapy themselves before graduation. In Kenya, not only that personal therapy for clinical and counseling psychologists is a mandatory requirement in training, it can also be required in some mental health professional membership. Although there are justifications for making this mandatory such as learning about psychotherapeutic theories, skills, and techniques, attainment of a significant level of psychological maturation and personal awareness in order to be able to help another person who is doing the same, personal development, professional development (Jarrett, 2018;Ieva et al., 2009; Norcross, 2005; Kalantzi-Azizi et al., 2003), and practicing being a therapist by observing how it is done while in the client’s seat.

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