Mandatory Personal Therapy and its Outcomes among Postgraduate Counseling Students in Selected Universities in Nairobi County, Kenya

Joyzy Pius Egunjobi, Ph.D., Psycho-Spiritual Institute, Marist International University College Nairobi; Stephen Asatsa, Ph.D; and Josephine Adhiambo, Ph.D., The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Personal therapy is experienced as a mandatory requirement in many counseling and psychotherapy trainings worldwide with the view that it yields positive outcomes in terms of personal and professional developments. However, some counseling students think this is not beneficial in their training. This study therefore assessed mandatory personal therapy and its outcomes among postgraduate counseling students in selected universities in Nairobi, Kenya. The target population was all the 635 postgraduate counseling students at the Nairobi University, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Daystar University, and Tangaza University College. These universities were selected from the universities training clinical and counseling psychologists using stratified random sampling techniques. There were 245 counseling students who participated in survey, while ten counseling students, five professional counselors, and five counselor educators participated in the interview. The findings showed that 91.7% of the counseling students have positive perception of personal therapy as a mandatory requirement in their training; that personal therapy as a mandatory requirement contributed to their personal development in terms of self-awareness (94%) and general wellbeing (94%); it also contributed to their professional development where they witness theories in practice (85%), learned counseling skills (93%) and techniques (85%), used personal therapy for self-care (93%). However, there were inconsistencies in the students’ knowledge of the required sessions which they considered too much. It was recommended that there should be uniformity in the number of hours of personal therapy required across the universities involved in counselors’ and psychologists’ training.

Keywords: Mandatory Personal Therapy, Personal Therapy, Mandatory Requirement, Counseling Outcome, Personal Development, Professional Development, Counseling Students, Self-awareness, Self-care