The Relevance of Personal Therapy in the Education of MSW Students

Much controversy exists among social work educators about the effectiveness and relevance of personal therapy during a MSW program. The current study examined this issue by surveying social work faculty at the 12 single-track clinical programs in North America (n = 148) and MSW students (n = 139) at one of these programs. Significantly more of the MSW students surveyed felt that personal therapy was essential or important to their social work education than did the faculty. Students surveyed expressed a desire to increase self-awareness and a willingness to participate in therapy when needed.