The inner experiences of psychology interns

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inner experiences of psychology interns. It was intended to expand upon earlier work of researchers who explored the inner experiences of novice counselors and experienced therapists. Participants included 21 psychology interns who listened to an audiotape of a counseling session while completing the Inner Experiences Recording Booklet. The interns also completed the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI; Horvath & Greenberg, 1986, 1989); the Counseling Self-Estimate Inventory (COSE; Larson et al., 1992) and the Adult Attachment Scale (AAS; Collins & Read, 1990).;The inner experiences of the psychology interns were coded using the Inner Experiences Coding Scale (IECS; Susman et al., 1995). This scale is multidimensional and was developed to describe the inner processes of therapists at various stages of development. The two categories on Dimension I (cognitive complexity) used most frequently by the psychology interns were comprehension and application. The two most frequently used categories by the psychology interns on Dimension II (locus) were therapist and client. In addition, the majority of inner experiences coded had a zero value for Dimension III (judgment). Other results pertaining to therapist characteristics, the IECS, WAI, COSE, and AAS are also presented.;The results from this study suggest that the psychology interns produced a fairly large number of somewhat simple or lower level inner experiences. It was also found that the interns focused more on their clients than on themselves, and that their statements were mostly nonjudgmental. Results from the WAI, COSE and AAS show a relationship between the COSE and the IECS and also suggest that relationships between the WAI, AAS and the IECS may not exist. Limitations of the study and future research considerations are also presented.