Reflections About Being Offered Gifts in Psychotherapy: A Descriptive Case Study

Being offered a gift is one of the experiences nearly most had as practicing therapists. It can create upheaval in the minds of therapists. It can trigger pre-existing notions about accepting/rejecting gifts in therapy. These notions have significant impact on therapy process. However, there is reluctance on the part of therapists to openly experience it and talk about it in supervisory discussions. Present paper narrates experience of cognitive and emotional upheavals by a 25 year old female therapist to gift offers in therapy by a 28 year old female client. Thus, focus is on the experiences felt by therapist and on supervisory discussions, following a narrative account, which have significant relevance to clinical practice and training. Paper concludes with summary of supervisory discussions occurred.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (France)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Similar content being viewed by others

Gifting Knowledge for Long Life

Asking for Help Is a Sign of Weakness

Exploring Values of Therapists in India

References

• American Counseling Association (ACA), (2014). Codes of Ethics. http://www.counseling.org/Resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf. Retrieved 05/11/15.
• Brendel, D. H., Chu, J., Radden, J., Leeper, H., Pope, H. G., et al. (2007). Price of a gift: an approach to receiving gifts from patients in psychiatric practice. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 15, 43–51. ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
• Butler, G. (1998). Clinical formulation. In A. S. Bellack, & M. Hersen (Eds.), Comprehensive clinical psychology. Great Britain: Elsevier Science. Google Scholar
• Corey, G., Corey, M. S., & Callanan, P. (2007). Issues and ethics in the helping professions (7th ed., ). Belmont: Thompson Brooks/Cole. Google Scholar
• Gabbard, G. O., & Nadelson, C. (1995). Professional boundaries in the physician-patient relationship. Journal of the American Medical Association, 273, 1445–1449. ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
• Greene, E. & Dunn, B. G. (2013). The psychology of the body. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Philadelphia
• Grover, N. (2015). An experiential account of the journey of psychotherapy training in India. Psychological Studies, 60, 114–118. doi:10.1007/s12646-014-0284-4. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Grover, N., & Dang, P. (2013). Empty nest syndrome vs empty nest trigger: psychotherapy formulation based on systemic approach – a descriptive case study. Psychological Studies, 58, 285–288. doi:10.1007/s12646-013-0207-9. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Grover, N., Kaloiya, G. S., & Singh, T. B. (2008). Supervision in psychotherapy training. Psychological Studies, 53, 189–194. Google Scholar
• Hahn, W. K. (1998). Gifts in psychotherapy: An inter-subjective approach to patient gifts. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 35, 78–86. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Knox, S., Hess, S. A., Williams, E. N., & Hill, C. E. (2003). Here’s a little something for you: how therapists respond to clients’ gifts. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 199–210. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Koocher, G. P., & Keith-Spiegel, P. (1998). Ethics in psychology: Professional standards and cases (2nd ed., ). New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar
• Madan, N., & Grover, N. (2011). Therapy process: a reflective account from therapist’s perspective. Psychological Studies, 56, 393–397. doi:10.1007/s12646-011-0104-z. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Rimm, D. C., & Masters, J. C. (1979). Behavior therapy: Techniques and empirical findings. NY: Academic Press. Google Scholar
• Spandler, H., Burman, E., Goldberg, G., Margison, F., & Amos, T. (2000). A double edged sword: understanding gifts in psychotherapy. European Journal of Psychotherapy, Counseling and Health, 3, 77–101. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Tryon, G. S. (2002). Termination. In Hersen, M. & Sledge, W. Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy (M. Hersen & W. Sledge). Academic Press: USA
• Verma, S. K., & Kaur, H. (1999). Clinical psychologists’ oath of sacrifices (O.S.S.) for maintenance of high ethical standards: an open invitation and challenge. Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology, 26, 10–12. Google Scholar
• Williams, M. H. (1997). Boundary violations: do some contended standards of care fail to encompass commonplace procedures of humanistic, behavioral, and eclectic psychotherapies? Psychotherapy, 34, 238–249. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Wolberg, R. L. (1995). Techniques of psychotherapy. New York: Grunne & Stratton. Google Scholar
• Yourman, D. B. (2003). Trainee disclosure in psychotherapy supervision: the impact of shame. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 59, 601–609. doi:10.1002/jclp.10162. ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
• Zur, O. (2011). Gifts in Psychotherapy. Retrieved from http://www.zurinstitute.com/giftsintherapy.html.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Psychology, AIBAS, Amity University, Lucknow, 226028, India Anamika Srivastava
2. Department of Clinical Psychology, IHBAS, Delhi, 110095, India Naveen Grover

1. Anamika Srivastava