THERAPIST'S PERSONAL STYLE OF PSYCHOLOGISTS IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY WORK

The objective of this article is to describe the Therapist's Personal Style (TPS) in clinical psychologists who work with patients with intellectual disabilities, and to analyse the effect of the theoretical approach and the years of professional experience. This research was conducted on a group of 104 psychotherapists from Argentina divided into two equal groups: 52 who work with people with intellectual disabilities and 52 who work with the general clinical population in private practice. As a result, significant differences were found in three dimensions of the TPS: Operative, Involvement, Expressive, which obtained higher scores in the first group of therapists. The theoretical approach did not show a differential effect on the therapist groups except for the Expressive function, and a significant difference was found in years of professional experience in intellectual disability therapists. These results are discussed with previous research and the importance of studying the profile of therapists is reflected upon.