ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to delineate recurring themes and implications for the person of the psychotherapist. It aims to extract and amplify salient patterns in these disparate tales, all aimed towards an examination of becoming and being a psychotherapist. The chapter considers six topics based on their impact on the practice of psychotherapy: background information, family origins, career determinants, training influences, stresses and satisfactions, and personal therapy. It discusses formal education exerts significantly less influence on career development than informal training and personal experience. The chapter reviews a variety of non-exhaustive motives, including deep internal ones intertwining with reality constraints that led to the final choice of psychotherapy as a career. It addresses solely familial and conscious determinants without reflecting on the impact of, in the words of Sir Walter Scott, 'the happy combination of fortuitous circumstances'. The chapter points out that the lifelong process of education should not be confused with a period of formal, post-baccalaureate training.
