Scoping Review: What is known about the use of the self of the psychotherapist construct in different psychotherapy modalities

Research on common factors or therapeutic principles paradigm (Sprenkle, Davis, & Lebow, 2009)(Norcross & Halgin, 2005; Fuggeri, Balestra, & Venturelli, 2023), showed that a significant percentage of the effectiveness of different psychotherapy interventions has to do with the characteristics of the therapist such as, empathy, warmth, congruence, and her capacity to develop a good therapeutic alliance and facilitate hope in clients (Durtschi & McClellan, 2010). The self of the therapist – who is the therapist – is, thus, seen as an essential element of the therapeutic process (Aponte, 2022) regardless of the psychotherapy modalities, namely the specific approaches, methods and techniques used to deliver a psychotherapy intervention. This scoping review seeks to examine what is known about this element of the therapeutic process.