Finnish Psychotherapists’ Beliefs and Experiences Regarding Trauma, Memory, and Dissociation : A 9-year Follow-up
Bäckström, Christa (2021)
Bäckström, Christa
2021
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021100349260
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021100349260
Tiivistelmä
Research has exposed a scientist-practitioner gap in the trauma field, where some clinicians seem to believe in scientifically unfounded or controversial phenomena. Studies in other countries have, however, suggested that scientifically supported beliefs are increasing. Here, we examined trauma-related beliefs and experiences of Finnish psychotherapists, comparing two data samples, gathered through the same survey in 2011 (N1 = 166) and 2020 (N2 = 219). As expected, we found that most psychotherapists in the 2020 sample reported more evidence-based beliefs regarding trauma, memory, and dissociation than those in 2011. In the 2020 sample, we also investigated whether the therapist’s therapeutic approach was associated with differing beliefs. We did not find any approach to be associated with more evidence-based beliefs. Trauma therapy or EMDR were found to be associated with stronger agreement with some scientifically controversial topics. There was, however, no consistent association between scientifically supported beliefs and therapeutic approach. Our study shows a positive change during the past decade among Finnish psychotherapists. A scientist-practitioner gap remains and continued efforts to further educate therapists on the risks incorrect beliefs and suggestive methods pose for clients are warranted. As therapeutic approach seems to explain only some of the variance in beliefs and experiences, future studies should investigate other explanatory factors for the differing views among psychotherapists.
Kokoelmat
- 515 Psykologia [231]