Exploring Values of Therapists in India
6.9 Sources of Values
The participants of the study identified and described the different sources of their values—family, training, clients and religion and spirituality.
6.9.1 Family
All the participant therapists reported that they acquired values from different peo- ple they considered as their family. Family for the respondents included parents, siblings, spouse or partner, friends and children. The respondents also described how their family members had contributed to their value system, considering them as one of the most important sources of their value system. Care and compassion, commitment, equality and unconditional acceptance were some of the values par- ticipants reported as having acquired from their intimate relationships. Participants reported that value influences from their intimate relationships also translated into their therapeutic practice in ways that they were now aware of after years of practice.
Participants described the influence of their family members on their value sys- tem in a very expressive manner, sharing their personal narratives and accounts of interactions that happened to leave a lasting impression on both their personal and professional self.
Meghna described how, as a child, she saw the value in care by watching her father and grandfather interact with their patients in their clinic.
My upbringing has contributed to who I am… my family is a family of medical doctors so I’ve grown up seeing them work with people. Their interactions and their humanity with their patients … my grandfather and my father would spend time with their patients for hours and hours and they would talk to them… it wasn’t [just] discussing about their cold, cough and fever, it was like they were their confidante, discussing about life … so I grew up watching that, respecting it and seeing the value in that sort of care. (Meghna, 37 years)
Priya described how her friends, spouse and children had contributed to her value system in a significant manner.
My friends have contributed to my values of endurance or being able to unconditionally give and accept… my spouse and my children have contributed tremendously by not only admiring my values, and acknowledging them, but also valuing them… And that probably has cemented it further… (Priya, 48 years)
6.9.2 Training
Almost all the respondents of the study reported that their training was another important source of their values. Through training, participants reported that they were oriented to the ethics of practising therapy (i.e. confidentiality, honesty, focus on the clients’ needs and welfare, and equality, etc.). Meghna reported on how she was instilled with the value of growth through her training in psychotherapy, which continued to motivate her to develop herself as a therapist.
I think I got the value of growth from my training … it was not something that was ingrained in me but my training contributed to it … my training was so thorough in its ethical teachings and about how to conduct yourself as a therapist… [That] I got instilled with the value of growth, to keep myself moving ahead and not becoming stagnant.
(Meghna, 37 years)
Some of the respondents such as Shreya, Sonali and Vinita also reported that apart from training, their supervisors and trainers also contributed to their value of growth as therapists. Consequently, training was reported as an extremely impor- tant source of their value of growth as individuals and practitioners.
6.9.3 Clients
Out of the eight respondents, six described that their clients were one of the most important contributors to their values of care, compassion and commitment.
Therapists shared close and strong relationships with their clients within the pur- view of their therapeutic practice. As noted, majority of the participant therapists reported having learned many positive aspects from their clients including the val- ues of care, compassion and commitment.
Shreya described the level of connection she shared with her clients and how important they were in helping her understand the value of commitment in her life.
Some of my clients have been so accepting of me… with couples the kind of complete candidness and honesty with which they have shared their inner reactions to each other, like the level of suspiciousness, the level of jealousy, the level of hurt, the level of being caring and, commitment to the relationship regardless of how bad it was in that moment, the commitment to hang in there, I think has had a huge influence in the way I saw inti- macy in my own life and valued commitment. (Shreya, 52 years)
Ronnestad and Skovholt (2003) had found in their study on professional development of therapists that clients continued to be a very important source of
influence on the experienced therapists. Schwartz (1992) has suggested that one of the main sources of values for people is the interpersonal interactions and relation- ships they shared with other people.
Leena described a moving experience with her clients where she was influ- enced by the kind of contexts they came from and how she learned to value the quality of her life, and the value of empathy in practice. As a result, empathy also became an important tool to practice the value of care and compassion.
When I was in Delhi or Chennai, people we met had issues to do with things like…hav- ing an affair or being dumped by a boyfriend… and then when I came here, you suddenly met people for whom you have absolutely no idea what they would say because… They were struggling with issues like, there is no food to eat, they live in a house where there is severe water seepage during the rains and therefore they have not slept since the last one week… they are sitting in front of you and weeping away saying I can’t take all of this anymore. I had never seen anything like that before… My life is quite protected and…
here they were just facing issues of survival and you have no idea what to say. And that’s when I learned the value of compassion, of empathy, of being able to be there for some- body in greater need. There is no way I’m going to walk away complaining about the food I get in the mess when I know I met somebody who didn’t have two square meals to eat the same day. (Leena, 33 years)
6.9.4 Religion and Spirituality
Some of the participants expressed the role and influence of religion and spiritual- ity on their value systems. Leena reported how the spiritual relationship she shared with God contributed to her value system by helping her value each and every life.
She also reported that she practiced biblical counselling with her clients, indicating to the extent of influence religion and spirituality had on her professional practice.
Post and Wade (2009) acknowledged that often religious and/or spiritual inter- ventions for some clients may be more effective in addition to traditional therapy interventions.
Shreya described how she learned the values of equality and justice from myth- ological and religious stories she heard and read about as a child.
The fables or folklore about Krishna and some incidents in his friendship with Sudama, being humble and caring, valuing Sudama’s poverty and simple gifts. Stories about Guru Nanak and his calm demeanour, wisdom and clarity about faith … about the Mullas trying to move his feet as he lay under a tree so that they would not face Mecca, in the face of his assertion that God and thus Mecca is everywhere and appearing in every direction, they moved his feet back to how they were… some Zen fables and the Panchatantra tales that talked about fairness and justice. (Shreya, 52 years)
It was found that religion, religious fables and stories, and spirituality contrib- uted to some of the respondents’ value systems to a significant extent. Values of care and compassion, humility, wisdom, clarity about one’s faith, fairness and jus- tice were derived from religious stories and spirituality.