Looking Around: A Summer Reflection for Trainees

Around this time of year, many people training in counselling, psychotherapy, counselling psychology, and related professions find themselves in an unusual position. The intensity of the academic year has eased. Assignments have been submitted. Teaching has paused. Placements may continue, and life certainly does not stop, but there is often a little more space than there was a few months ago.

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What interests me about this period is that it sits between things. One year has ended, but another has not quite begun. It can be tempting to fill this gap quickly. There are books that could be read, papers that should probably be looked at, competencies that could be developed, and preparations that could be made for what comes next. Training has a way of encouraging us to continually think about how we might become better practitioners.

I remember spending a lot of time during training worrying about what I had not yet read. There was always another book that seemed essential, another paper that everyone else appeared to know about, another theory that deserved closer attention. At some point, however, I realised that this was not a problem that could be solved. There was always going to be more. The reading list was never going to be completed. The profession itself was bigger than any one person’s ability to master it. Oddly enough, I found that realisation quite freeing.

Looking back, I think part of what I was discovering was something close to Rogers’ notion of becoming. There was never going to be a point where I arrived fully formed as a practitioner. The task was not to reach a final state of competence, but to remain engaged in an ongoing process of learning and development. Realising that there would always be another book to read, another theory to encounter, and another perspective to consider was strangely liberating. Rather than trying to master everything, I found myself becoming more comfortable with the idea of remaining curious. That shift made me think differently about the periods between academic years.

Many of the experiences that ultimately shape us as therapists, counsellors, psychologists, and helping professionals happen outside of training. They happen through friendships, family relationships, hobbies, reading literature, travel, conversations, disappointments, mistakes, and moments of joy. They emerge through engaging with the world rather than studying it.

Training can create a necessary narrowing of attention. Entire months can become focused on theory, supervision, placement work, assignments, skills development, and professional identity. All of these things matter. They are part of learning the craft. But the people we eventually sit alongside do not arrive as theories or case studies. They arrive with lives. To work meaningfully alongside them requires more than professional knowledge. It also requires us to remain connected with our own humanity.

This is one reason why I find myself encouraging trainees to make use of whatever space becomes available during the summer months. Not as another developmental task, and not because every experience needs to contribute towards becoming a better practitioner. Rather, because there is value in allowing yourself to become absorbed in things that have nothing to do with training.

Read books that will never appear on a reading list. Go to concerts. Follow a sporting event. Spend time with people whose interests and experiences differ from your own. Wander around somewhere unfamiliar. Learn something simply because it interests you. Give yourself permission to become engaged in activities that will never find their way into an assignment or supervision discussion. There is something about looking around that can easily be lost during training.

Perhaps this is particularly relevant within professions that place such an emphasis upon reflection. Reflection is important, but it can sometimes leave us feeling that every experience needs to be analysed, understood, or translated into professional learning. Sometimes it is enough to have the experience. Sometimes a walk is just a walk, a conversation is just a conversation, and a summer afternoon is simply an opportunity to enjoy being where you are.

The irony, of course, is that many of these seemingly ordinary experiences often influence our professional work in ways that formal training does not. They shape how we understand people. They expand our perspectives. They remind us of the complexity, diversity, and unpredictability of life. Often this only becomes apparent much later.

Before long, a new academic year will begin. Reading lists will reappear. Placements will continue. New cohorts will start their training journeys, while returning students move into the next stage of their development. Questions about competence, practice, and professional identity will return with them. For now, however, there may be value in inhabiting the space between. Not because it is productive, and not because it can be justified as a form of professional development. Instead, because becoming a therapist, counsellor, or psychologist is only ever part of a larger process of becoming a person.

Further Reflections

If this piece resonates, you might also enjoy:

• A New Academic Year in Counselling, Psychotherapy, and Counselling Psychology – reflections on beginning and returning to training.

• The Everyday Therapeutic: On Humans – some thoughts on the value of human connection and experience.

• The Everyday Therapeutic: Where Football and Therapy Meet – reflections on how ordinary experiences can shape who we become.

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A Summer Activity

As a slightly tongue-in-cheek exercise, I’d be interested to know:

What is the book you’re not going to read this summer?

Or perhaps:

What is the professional thing that you’ve been telling yourself you were definitely going to get around to, but almost certainly aren’t going to fit in?

Read that article. Attend that webinar. Finish that chapter. Start that project.

Feel free to share your answer below. Sometimes accepting that there will always be more to read, learn, and do is part of the learning too.