Personality and schools of therapy

Recent research has looked into the links between people's personality types and the schools of counselling and psychotherapy they belong to. A mis-match between a therapist's outlook on life and the kind of therapy they practice can lead to dissatisfaction, poorer quality therapy and even to people leaving the profession. A survey of 84 people doing counselling training at universities in the UK tested them with the Myers-Briggs personality test and asked them which method of psychotherapy they were using. The survey found that those who scored highly for planning and coming to conclusions and for being practical and interested in facts and details were more likely to use cognitive-behaviour therapy. Those who were more interested in taking a broader overview, gave less weight to logic and who liked planning were more likely to use psychodynamic therapy and those who took a broad overview, gave less weight to logic and were more flexible were more likely to use person-centred therapy.

Varlami, Evi and Bayne, Rowan - Psychological type and counselling psychology trainees' choice of counselling orientation Counselling psychology quarterly December 2007, 20(4), 361-373