On navigating despair: Reports from psychotherapists

The few writers who address the issue of how psychotherapists experience and respond to hopelessness as it arises in their work emphasize the importance of exploring this reality because of its vexing centrality. However, there are no qualitative studies of despair from therapists' point of view. In order to study this neglected phenomenon empirically, in-depth interviews were conducted with experienced psychotherapists and descriptions were elicited from beginning therapists through a creative writing workshop. Confronting hopelessness typically brought even seasoned psychotherapists to a place of vulnerability and uncertainty. And yet it was also evident that they had specific therapeutic ways of responding to this challenge, such as viewing hopelessness as an experience that may reflect significant transition. The implications of the findings of this study with regard to the practice of psychotherapy, supervision, and education are discussed.