IJSP Number 4, 2022

27 enter the field of psychotherapy and build their professional identities during a period of deep changes in both theory and practice [3]. Thus, assuming the psychotherapist’s identity means accepting the change that will begin with oneself and also accepting the fact that this cha nge will “hurt” , as it will hurt the client. The psychotherapist ’s identity doesn’t refer only to a permanent acquiring of information and knowledge or lifelong learning, but also to the many transformations reaching the most inner parts of the psychotherapist. The psycho therapist’s clothes are put on every time the professional enters the office, so that in time “the psychotherapist profession is absorbed through one’s skin” and is no longer exposed for the others to see. The psychotherapist ’s identity starts with the desire to become a psychotherapist and continues to develop during the training program and during the supervision program and thus becomes a permanent task of self-improvement and self-learning. During training the psychotherapist is trying to define oneself, but also chooses and learns more about the type of psychotherapy, the approach one practices. This can become a complex and ambiguous task, involving reflection on one’s profession and clinical work [4]. The psychotherapist ’s identity is the result of a lifelong learning in the context of the relationships established with oneself, with the trainers, the supervisors, the clients and with one’s colleagues; it involves contact between the psychotherapist and the others [5]. According to Schwartz, professional identity represents a specific domain of identity [6]. According to Erikson’s definition of identity [1, 2], the professional identity of psychotherapists can be the answer to the question “who am I as a psychotherapist?” The answer can be conceptualized on all three dimensions of identity, outlined by Erikson: ego, personal, and social. The idea standing at the base of the psychotherapist ’s identity has as a starting point the professional relationship established between the one who learns and strives to become a psychotherapist and the one who offers learning. This relationship holds models of good practices, information and emotions. The strength and resilience of the training and learning relationship will shape the manner in which the future psychotherapist will practice this profession, will build therapeutic relationships with clients and will maintain interpersonal relationships in one’s life. The psychotherapist ’s identity includes: the desire for training in psychotherapy and lif elong learning; the willingness to accept change and transformation one’s benefit and that of the client’s; permanent willingness to create therapeutic relationships / supervision alliances / peer supervision relationships; constant attention to self-care (not to reach exhaustion, to dose one’s professional effort, to schedule the necessary free time, to take care of oneself) and many others. When it comes to psychotherapist trainees, they enter the psychotherapy domain in a time when transformations in meta-theory, knowledge and the psychotherapy authority take place. The psychotherapist must now respond to a pluralism of techniques and theories, to respond to the unique individual needs and to the unique needs of each group, to new technological challenges and to multiple social changes that demand attention. In these circumstances and through different interactions during their training and supervision period, trainees develop their psychotherapist identities.