Hide and Seek: a grounded theory study of psychotherapists’ experience of needing and asking for help

Asking for help is an important aspect of a psychotherapist’s professional experience. This constructivist grounded theory research study explores psychotherapists’ experiences of needing and asking for help inside the profession, a helping profession. The purpose was to gain a better understanding of the core processes that underlie asking for help as a psychotherapist.
Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten senior psychotherapists from different modalities. These were transcribed and analysed using grounded theory to facilitate an inducted conceptualisation of asking for help.
The analysis yielded eight categories and twelve subcategories within three main clusters. Each cluster represented psychotherapists’ efforts to resolve the dilemmas arising from their experience of needing and asking, or not asking, for help. A core category was identified and the model of Hide and Seek was proposed encompassing the clusters of Hiding, Seeking and Managing Vulnerability. This was derived and clarified in response to feedback from participants and two focus groups.
This research suggests that asking for help is experienced as an act of courage to reach out, predicated on self-awareness of need(s) together with enough trust that the request will be met with dignity. The proposed model of Hide and Seek is a visual and dynamic grounded theory model that indicates and organises the significant factors relevant to acknowledging need and asking for help. The implications of psychotherapists’ struggle to ask for help are considered. These findings will be of interest for the training and supervision of psychotherapists. They may also have implications to the wider helping professions.