The Emotional Personality of Psychotherapists: A Pilot Research with Gestalt-Therapy Clinicians

Since the discovery of “countertransference”, it was recognized that the therapist’s personality plays an important role in determining the course of psychotherapy. However, systematic empirical works on this topic have been sparse compared to the enormous amount of theoretical literature. Therefore, in the following pilot study, the emotional profile of psychotherapists was investigated using the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS), a quantitative measure of the basic emotional foundations of human personality based on Jaak Panksepp’s neuro-ethological studies. More specifically, we submitted the ANPS to a population of Gestalt-therapists to ascertain if they share a characteristic emotional profile (1) and if the emotional traits of personality are related to specific intersubjective competences (2). Our results show that, compared with normal population, the personality of therapists is characterized by higher expression of PLAYFULNESS/joy, CARE/nurturance and Spirituality, as well as a significant decrease in the expression of the RAGE/anger disposition. Such emotional traits, that are not influenced by the experience of training, correlate with important relational skills such as empathy, reflective functioning and interoceptive awareness. Therefore, unlearned emotional dispositions have high relevance in the development of the therapist’s sensitivity to the phenomenological intersubjective field, a competence recently called “Aesthetic Relational Knowledge” in a contemporary Gestalt-approach. Our findings may have implications for training therapists and optimizing treatment outcomes.