ABSTRACT
E xperienced professionals have had at least several years of experience as counselors. As their experience grows, they adopt the belief that there is not much that is new in the field. Accordingly, experienced professionals seek out ways to practice authentically and work to develop their own style, reflecting their unique values, interests, and personality. They begin to apply techniques and methods less rigidly as they develop their unique styles. Also evident at this phase is a growing appreciation for the strong role that the therapeutic relationship plays in promoting client progress. Carl Rogers (1995) summarized well the shift in focus that occurs for many therapists as they gain more experience:
Important experiences at this phase of development may include providing supervision to more novice counselors or branching out beyond one’s initial “comfort zone” to experiment with different types of counseling experiences, such as consultation or teaching. Unlike more junior members of the field, who often “take their work home,” experienced professionals are much more practiced and skilled at drawing emotional boundaries around their work, such that they avoid overidentification with clients. As a part of their work with clients, they also describe increasing comfort with the ambiguity that is constantly present in the work of the counselor and therapist. In the words of John Keats (1970), they practice the art of negative capability as they become more accustomed to “being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason” (p. 43). Experienced professionals understand that often, there are no clear answers to the questions that are raised in work with clients.
