Objective: This study aims to explore how psychologists experience interventions in stress and burnout and how they contemplate their role in this interaction.
Design: We sampled 6 experienced and authorized Danish psychologists, who are working with stress interventions in both public and private sectors, from our extended network. To explore their experiences and reflections regarding being a stress intervention practitioner, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with them individually.
Methods: Following transcription of the interviews, Systematic Text Condensation, which is a hermeneutically inspired Scandinavian method, was used for the analysis. The analysis was not carried out by software but relied on the researchers as the tools of analysis and interpretation. The results produced by this analysis are organised in “meaning patterns” or “themes”.
Results: The analysis resulted in 4 themes drawn from across the sample of psychologists: (1) Dispair and well-being, (2) Supervision and self-perception, (3) The therapeutic relation, and (4) Self-care. We present these themes with quotes from participants and synthesized meaningful descriptions. The themes were then applied to discuss the findings in regards to current literature.
Conclusion: We concluded the importance of supervision for the psychologist. Furthermore, we found ambivalence occurring in the therapeutic relationship while also providing narratives on successful therapeutic progress. Furthermore, selfcare and empathic regulation was found to be of paramount importance for psychological well-being. However further research is needed to be able to support the conclusions presented in this study