From fear toward confidence: Understanding change in clinical concerns and self-efficacy in couple and family therapy students.

Abstract

Objective: Given their professional developmental stage, couple and family therapy (CFT) students are likely to have clinical concerns or fears about potential negative experiences that could occur in their clinical work as they progress through their training. A recently developed self-report measure was used to increase awareness of these clinical concerns and ultimately decrease the potential of their negative impact during clinical care.Method: 71 CFT students (mostly female, 87.3%, and White, 70.4%) completed this measure and other potentially relevant measures (e.g., clinical self-efficacy, attachment security) at bi-monthly intervals throughout their clinical training.Results: Results suggest that clinical concerns decreased over the course of their training and that increases in clinical self-efficacy led to a greater decrease in clinical concerns over time.Conclusion: This study has important practical implications for clinical training programs, particularly for ways through which supervisors can support clinicians in growing awareness of potential clinical concerns, and their impact on care delivery.