Cultivating Excellence: A Study on Professional Growth of School-Based Psychotherapists

Date of Award

8-1-2024

Degree Name

Ed.D. in Leadership for Organizations

Department

Department of Educational Administration

Advisor/Chair

Meredith Wronowski

Abstract

Excellent patient care is the central tenet of most medical centers in the United States. Achievement of high-quality care correlates with the skill level of the professionals employed by the organization: excellent patient care is a product of highly skilled employees. Supporting staff with professional development programs enhances their skill sets to make quality patient care possible. Cardinal University Medical Center (CUMC), Department of Psychiatry engages in a robust training program for medical doctors but does not have a formal professional growth program for master’s level psychotherapists. Through critical participatory action research, this study sought to identify tools and practices that would enhance the professional progression of psychotherapists. Specifically, the focus was on school-based psychotherapists in the division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. During this research study, eleven of twenty psychotherapists participated in an initial survey, the data from which informed the development of questions for focus group interviews. Sixteen of twenty school-based psychotherapists participated in four semi-structured focus groups. Utilizing transformative learning and funds of knowledge frameworks, the researcher coded the qualitative data to identify super themes. School-based psychotherapists identified the nature and modality of trainings, connectedness and discourse, and high-quality clinical supervision as the overarching critical components to their professional development. The three resultant themes are foundational for an action plan focused on creating learning communities as the preferred learning method to best support professional progression. In addition to limited formalized learning opportunities, CUMC school-based psychotherapists experience isolation and a lack of connection to their team members. The action plan developed in this study furnishes a method of learning that can potentially deepen team relations and knowledge. It operates as a model for other entities that desire to support the professional development of psychotherapists whom they employ. Future work and research on this topic would involve the exploration of the effectiveness of learning communities for psychotherapist professional growth to include psychotherapists in other types of organizations and clinical populations.

Keywords

adult learning; clinical supervision; learning communities; transformative learning; psychotherapist development

Rights Statement

Copyright © 2024, author.

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