ABSTRACT
The maturing professional approach is characterized by a refusal to be caught up in the need for achievement and status. A maturing professional approach appreciates that theories are not easily applied to individuals, but that they nevertheless present us with constant pointers that our clients might or might not choose to take up. A maturing professional approach also means accepting that we make mistakes, and that we have to learn to live with them, knowing that nearly every mistake also presents the opportunity of helping us to understand ourselves or our clients better. Another mark of the maturing professional is the relinquishment of therapeutic ambition. Maturity also suggests a sense of growing personal integration, which may have been brought about partly through personal therapy, and partly through greater life experience. A maturing professional approach means allowing such feelings to gain expression within the therapist.
