Graduate School Training in Psychology: Its Impact Upon the Development of Professional Identity Bruss

Definition: formation of personal responsibility for one's role, a commitment to ethical/moral conduct, and pride in the profession.
For therapists, professional identity is closely tied to personal identity; it emerges from self-concept anchored by standards and ideals.
Professional identity functions as a stable frame for understanding work and life in the profession.
shaped by self cofidence and worth , which influences therapeutic practice and the ability to connect with clients on a deeper level.

Graduate training can be viewed as a period of "professional infancy" with limited professional awareness, skills, and identity.
The training institution acts as a holding environment that nurtures growth; faculty/supervisors play a role analogous to parents.
The transformation of the trainee is shaped by the interaction of self and professional development within the academic and practicum systems.

Dependence: initial dependence on the training system; sensitive adaptation by the environment supports healthy growth.
Integration: personality becomes knit together; episodes of unintegration occur but should resolve with time as inner experience aligns with external reality.
Mind–psyche–soma integration: health may require adaptation of body/health to new environments; stress can affect physical well-being.
Fantasy and imagination: trainees experience active inner fantasy (grandiose professional self) that adjusts as reality confronts them.
Reality congruence: inner experiences must gradually align with external demands; disillusion can occur but should reorganize internally.
Instinctual life: trust in one's own inner experiences is important as new theories/techniques are learned.
Object relations: identification with training providers shapes self-concept; introjects from the environment can support or undermine identity depending on prior representations.

Impingements of training: harsh criticism, lack of acceptance, imposed values or methods, and poor feedback can hinder growth.
Holding environment vs. impingement: supervision can be nurturing or hindering depending on how it operates.
Poor or counterproductive mentoring: rejecting, controlling, or overprotective mentors can damage self-image and independence.
Evaluation as a source of vulnerability: stress from evaluation can distort trust in one’s inner state; unclear competency criteria heighten insecurity.
False self emergence: anxiety about true self leads to protective disguises and inauthentic behavior; energy diverted to masking incompetence.
Role/conflicts within the training system: contradictory expectations, dissociation between coursework and real-world practice, and dependence on external validation.
Trainers’ own unresolved issues: teachers may repeat patterns from their own training, impairing student growth.

Create a sensitive, ongoing holding environment: informal seminars to address evolving student needs; invite student input into policy and personnel decisions.
Mutual respect and autonomy: avoid imposing faculty scripts; encourage trust in students’ knowledge and instincts.
Clear, collaborative evaluation: define competencies and goals jointly; reduce ambiguity to lessen vulnerability.
Socialization into the profession: seminars on self-esteem, career planning, burnout, and ethics; peer supervision for faculty and staff; optional student support groups or therapy groups (with external leaders if needed).
Self-care emphasis: encourage healthy work-life balance; set realistic goals and expectations; orient students to external realities.
Organizational role: staff act as connectors to the outside world and help align training with real-world demands.

Winnicott’s first-year/infancy concepts (dependence, integration, mind–body, fantasy, reality congruence, object relations) map onto the graduate training experience.
The training environment should function as a good-enough holding environment with minimal impingements to promote growth.
Practical steps include fostering respectful, collaborative evaluation; reducing unnecessary pressure; and providing structures for socialization, self-care, and peer support.

Winnicott, D. W. (1965). The first year of life: Modern views on the emotional development.
Eckler-Hart, A. H. (1987). True and false self in the development of the psychotherapist.
Friedman, D. & Kaslow, N. (1986). The development of professional identity in psychotherapists: Six stages in the supervision process.
Brightman, B. K. (1984). Narcissistic issues in the training experience of the psychotherapist.
Kleinberg, J. (1987). Psychoanalytic training and its effect on the candidate's clinical work.
Kopala, M. & Keitel, M. A. (1991). Supervisors' perceptions of supervisor behaviors: A qualitative investigation.
Wright, C. A. & Wright, S. D. (1987). The role of mentors in the career development of young professionals.
Other sources cited: Bowlby (1958); Katz & Hartnett (1976); Worby (1970); van Zandt (1990).