Ida Stange Bernhardt

• Rasiah, Midja; Larsen, Maria Å.; Bernhardt, Ida Stange & Melinder, Annika Maria Désirée (2026). Barnefaglig sakkyndiges opplevelser av å arbeide i skjæringspunktet mellom juss og psykologi. Tidsskrift for Norsk psykologforening (Psykologtidsskriftet). ISSN 0332-6470. doi: 10.52734/XQDA1314. Full text in Research Archive
• Bernhardt, Ida Stange; Nissen-Lie, Helene, Amundsen; Moltu, Christian & Råbu, Marit (2024). "Feeling at home" or not? A qualitative investigation into therapists' experienced congruence between their personal self and their professional role. European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy (EJQRP). 14, p. 125–140. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Research suggests that conducting psychotherapy successfully involves an integration of professional and personal knowledge on the part of the psychotherapist. The concept of congruence has been used to convey an adaptive fit between the two, but less is known about how this integration is experienced by psychotherapists in their actual therapeutic work. Through in-depth interviews we aimed to explore how therapists experience their personal self as related to their professional role. Sixteen psychotherapists participated in the study, each interviewed twice. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis yielded the superordinate theme: “Feeling at home” in one’s professional domain. Three constituent themes conveyed both congruence and dissonance between the personal and professional domains: 1) Experienced correspondence between the psychotherapist’s professional and personal selves; 2) How handling personal challenges is reflected in their work as psychotherapists; and 3) How personal issues are experienced as disruptive in relation to the psychotherapist’s professional role. The findings both consolidate and expand on the view of congruence as a predominantly useful state by adding experiential detail to recent models of therapist development. The main implication is suggested to be the need to develop and maintain an active awareness of the potential tension and/or fusion between one’s personal and professional self.

• Bernhardt, Ida S.; Nissen-Lie, Helene Amundsen & Råbu, Marit (2020). The embodied listener: a dyadic case study of how therapist and patient reflect on the significance of therapist`s personal presence for the therapeutic change process. Psychotherapy Research. ISSN 1050-3307. doi: 10.1080/10503307.2020.1808728. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objective: There is a need to understand more of the dyadic processes in therapy and how the therapist’s ways of being are experienced and reflected upon by both patient and therapist. The aim of this dyadic case study was to investigate how the therapist’s personal presence was perceived by the patient and the therapist as contributing to change. Method: From a larger project on collaborative actions between patient and therapist, a dyadic case involving in-depth interviews of the therapist and patient was selected to examine the research question. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of four interviews with the therapist and one interview with the patient was conducted. Results: The analyses indicated that the therapist’s way of being, as perceived by both therapist and patient, was expressed at a superordinate level through the concept of embodied listening, which was of particular help for the patient, and influenced by the therapist’s theoretical orientation, as well as being rooted in his own personal history. Three sub-themes emerged from the analysis, each illustrating how embodied listening contributed to the therapeutic relationship and process. Our findings flesh out how the underlying phenomena of emotional attunement, presence, and genuineness are observable in therapeutic encounters.

• Råbu, Marit; Mcleod, John; Haavind, Hanne; Bernhardt, Ida S.; Nissen-Lie, Helene A & Moltu, Christian (2019). How psychotherapists make use of their experiences from being a client: Lessons from a collective autoethnography. Counselling Psychology Quarterly. ISSN 0951-5070. 34(1), p. 109–128. doi: 10.1080/09515070.2019.1671319. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  First-hand experience of being a client is regarded by many psychotherapists as making an essential contribution to professional development. Although research has not established any direct influence on client outcome, arising from therapist participation in personal therapy, qualitative studies have explored how therapists transfer learning from one context to the other. A group of six therapists-researchers engaged in a collective autoethnography in which we shared narrative accounts of our own experiences as clients. Together we covered a wide set of therapies, sought for varied purposes, and from different stages in the life-course. Different areas of learning were identified: negative experiences could strengthen own convictions for acting differently; positive experiences worked as inspiration and support; being in therapy early in life represented a significant formative experience; working through complex personal issues in therapy gave the courage to identify similar conflicts in phantasies and realities of clients. The link between having been a client and working as a therapist is a subjective, reflective process of reworking figure and ground in the search for professional sensitivity.

• Bernhardt, Ida S.; Nissen-Lie, Helene A; Moltu, Christian; Mcleod, John & Råbu, Marit (2018). "It's both a strength and a drawback." How therapists' personal qualities are experienced in their professional work. Psychotherapy Research. ISSN 1050-3307. 29(7), p. 959–970. doi: 10.1080/10503307.2018.1490972. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objective: The aim of this study was to gain knowledge about how the integration of personal and professional experiences affects therapeutic work. Method: Therapists (N = 14) who had been recommended by their leaders at their individual workplaces were interviewed twice with semi-structured qualitative interviews, which were then subjected to thematic and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results: All the therapists in the sample described their personal qualities as an experienced tension between their personal strengths and vulnerabilities in the therapeutic setting. This tension came to expression through four subordinate themes: (a) The tension between perceiving oneself as a helper while dealing with one’s own needs for attention and care; (b) The tension between the ability for embodied listening to the patient while tuning into oneself; (c) The tension between staying present while handling aggression and rejection from clients; and (d) The tension in striving for a constructive balance between closeness and distance. Conclusion: The results point to ways in which the personal selves of the therapists may affect their professional role performance. Drawing upon previous research and literature on the topic, the paper discusses how therapists’ personal qualities are experienced as affecting their work and suggests several implications for psychotherapy training and practice.

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• Bernhardt, Ida Stange; Nissen-Lie, Helene, Amundsen & Råbu, Marit (2025). Vi forsket ikke på karakteranalyse. Tidsskrift for Norsk psykologforening (Psykologtidsskriftet). ISSN 0332-6470. 10, p. 627–627. doi: https:/www.psykologtidsskriftet.no/artikkel/2025as10ae-Vi-forsket-ikke-pa-karakteranalyse. Full text in Research Archive
• Bernhardt, Ida Stange; Nissen-Lie, Helene, Amundsen & Råbu, Marit (2025). Vi forsket ikke på karakteranalyse. Tidsskrift for Norsk psykologforening (Psykologtidsskriftet). ISSN 0332-6470. 10, p. 627–627. doi: https:/www.psykologtidsskriftet.no/artikkel/2025as10ae-Vi-forsket-ikke-pa-karakteranalyse. Full text in Research Archive
• Bernhardt, Ida S.; Moltu, Christian; Nissen-Lie, Helene A & Råbu, Marit (2018). Feeling at home in theory – an echo of the therapist’s personal history in the professional domain. Full text in Research Archive
• Axelsen, Eva Dalsgaard; Benum, Kirsten; Bernhardt, Ida S.; Gullestad, Siri Erika; Halvorsen, Margrethe Seeger & Hartmann, Ellen Johanne [Show all 24 contributors for this article] (2017). Historien Psykologtidsskriftet ikke forteller. 54(12), p. 1197–1199. Full text in Research Archive
• Moltu, Christian; Råbu, Marit & Bernhardt, Ida S. (2016). The places that I shouldn´t go: Exploring good therapists´experiences of the areas in which they function poorly. Full text in Research Archive
• Moltu, Christian; Råbu, Marit; Nordberg, Samuel Schieffelin & Bernhardt, Ida S. (2015). Developing mixed methods to research: How collaborative action between client and therapist generates and sustains productive life change. Full text in Research Archive

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