The Therapist’s Growth Journey: Understanding Your Development with the IDM Model

A reflective guide to Stoltenberg & McNeill’s Integrated Developmental Model — helping you make sense of your growth, doubt, and clinical identity over time.

🌱 Introduction (A Therapist's development journey)

Training as a counsellor, psychologist or therapist often begins with a deep immersion into theoretical models and therapeutic frameworks. We are taught to learn our chosen modality in depth — to understand the techniques, the stages, the theory. And yet, when it comes to applying that learning in real-life client work, many of us are left wondering:

“Am I doing it right?”

“Why don’t I feel like the therapists I read about or observe?”

“Am I the only one feeling this insecure?”

At the beginning stages, these questions are incredibly common. Many new professionals identify with feelings of imposter syndrome, or hold themselves to an unrealistically high standard of clinical competence — especially when they compare themselves to the refined practice of experienced clinicians.

Alongside internal doubts, many are also navigating academic evaluations, placement expectations, and the vulnerability of being observed. These pressures can amplify our uncertainty and self-doubt — making it even more important to have a developmental lens to make sense of it all.

This article offers a gentle, developmental framework - Integrated Development Model (IDM) to help trainees and early-career professionals make sense of their growing pains.

This framework gives language to where we might be in our development, not just about our external performance, but also (and often more importantly) our internal experiences. By understanding how therapist competence naturally unfolds over time, we can begin to normalise the inner experiences of anxiety, self-doubt, and the urge to “get it perfect” — and instead turn toward curiosity, reflection, and supported growth.

You may be wondering, “How do I know if I’m on track?”

There’s no single measure — but this framework can help you name what’s showing up for you. It’s not about ticking boxes, but about noticing your current inner experience and professional needs. If you’re asking this question at all, chances are, you’re already reflecting — and that’s a powerful sign of being on the path.

📚 A Model That Makes Sense of the Inner Development Journey

One model I have found particularly helpful — both as a clinician and a supervisor — is the Integrated Developmental Model (IDM) by Stoltenberg and McNeill (2010). It breaks down therapist growth into three key stages, offering insight into how our motivation, autonomy, and self/other awareness shift as we develop.

The IDM is one of several developmental models that help us conceptualise professional growth in helping professions. It shares philosophical roots with other stage-based models such as the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition, Benner’s ‘Novice to Expert’ in nursing, and Rønnestad & Skovholt’s model of therapist development — all of which highlight the importance of gradual, reflective learning over time.

This framework, originally is published as a supervision tool for supervisors. However, this model can also be a reflective map for therapists, counselling psychologists, educational psychologists, and other helping professionals who want to better understand where they are in their clinical journey, and how their needs evolve as they grow.

It’s not meant to prescribe or categorise, but to gently orient — especially for those who may feel unsure, underconfident, or overwhelmed in their early phases.

Stage	Motivation	Autonomy	Self/other awareness
1	High motivation high anxiety focus on skills acquisition	Dependent on supervisor, need for structure, direct feedback, minimal direct confrontation	Limited self-awareness: anxiety performance Difficulty seeing strengths/weakness
2	Fluctuating; More complexity shakes confidence	Dependency-autonomy conflict; Specific help Dependent/evasive	Focus more on client, can empathise. May become enmeshed, need balance
3	Stable Remaining doubts not disabling Total professional identity and how therapist role fits	Firm belief own autonomy Sense of when necessary to seek consultation	Accepts strengths/weaknesses Can focus on client and process info. Including use of own reactions.

Rather than seeing these stages as a checklist, use them as reflection points. You might notice that you relate to elements from more than one stage — and that’s normal. Development isn’t always linear. What helps most is to stay curious, name where you are, and allow supervision and self-reflection to support your next steps.

💭 Ask yourself: Which stage do I mostly relate to right now? What feels hard? What support is helping me? What support might be missing?

Development Stages in Therapy Practice

I will walk you through three broad stages of clinical competence and inner development particularly in therapy practice, using the IDM model as a guide and adding my own clinical reflections:

• Imitation Stage – when we are first starting out, often mimicking what we’ve learned, feeling highly anxious, and unsure of our voice.

• Moding Stage – when we begin to step into greater creativity and autonomy, but still fluctuate in confidence and seek validation.

• Guiding Stage – when we integrate theory, presence, and lived experience to guide the therapy process from a grounded, inner clarity.

Stage One: Imitation Stage

In the early stage of therapist development, we often operate from a place of imitation. We copy, reproduce, and apply what we’ve absorbed from textbooks, lectures, supervision, and observation. There’s often a strong desire to “do therapy right,” which can lead to inflexible practice — following scripts, trying to remember stages, or staying strictly within one modality.

“I kept checking my notes after every session, worried I’d missed something important. But the more I trusted myself, the more present I became — and that’s when I started to notice my clients opening up more.” — A supervisee's reflection

🧠 Internal Experience: This stage is marked by high motivation, but also high anxiety. Many trainees feel caught between wanting to help and fearing they'll get it wrong. Self-awareness is often limited — we might feel anxious about how we’re performing but struggle to name our strengths or areas for growth.

💬 Common Thoughts:

“What’s the correct thing to say here?” “Am I doing this wrong?” “They’re going to find out I’m not ready for this.”

💡 Support That Helps in This Stage:

• Structured supervision

• Clear theoretical frameworks

• Emotional containment from a supportive role model

• Normalising conversations around anxiety and imposter syndrome

• Practice under regular support

This is not a stage to rush through. With the right support, it becomes a safe foundation for deeper development.

If you're starting to feel more curious about adjusting the therapy process, or wondering how to bring your personality into sessions, this may be a sign you're moving toward Stage 2.

Stage Two: Moding Stage

In this second phase, therapists begin to feel more confident in making observations, engaging creatively, and adjusting the process to suit the client. There is more emotional bandwidth and less performance anxiety — which opens the door to more flexible, dynamic work.

We may start to use our own language in session. We make small judgments, not from rigidity but from intuitive sensing — “what might be needed here?” or “how is the client experiencing me?”

For instance, a trainee might begin adapting a CBT formulation to better suit a client’s cultural context or emotional readiness — something they would have felt too unsure to try in the early stage. This shift signals a move toward autonomy, creativity, and attunement.

Yet this stage is also characterised by fluctuations. We sometimes over-identify with clients or take responsibility for outcomes. Dependency and resistance to supervision may show up in subtle ways. At times practitioners mistake this stage as 'a worsening practice' than the initial stage. This is in fact a learning stage when practitioners step outside the own comfort zone, to make mistakes - which is often as part a necessary growth path, before they attain a greater confidence, autonomy and clarity.

“One trainee I worked with once said, ‘I feel like I’ve gone backwards — I used to feel more confident, but now I’m second-guessing everything.’ In reality, she was beginning to move beyond certainty and into complexity. What felt like regression was actually growth.”

🧠 Internal Experience: We feel more comfortable with discomfort. We can think more about the client and less about ourselves — but still need reassurance and affirmation when we doubt our effectiveness.

💬 Common Thoughts:

“This felt good — but was it enough?” “I want more freedom in session… but still need structure.” “Am I really becoming my own kind of therapist?”

💡 Support That Helps in This Stage:

• Supervision that fosters exploration over instruction

• Encouragement to experiment with personal style

• Feedback that challenges without shaming

• Support around boundary awareness and emotional regulation

This is the growth edge of therapist development — where autonomy and vulnerability meet. Holding both well is key.

In my experience as a supervisor, this is also the stage where supervisees often express the most self-doubt — not because they are failing, but because they are taking risks. It is where they start confronting the edges of their comfort zones, and that emotional tension is often a precursor to authentic integration.

If you're becoming more confident in holding complexity, and less reliant on external validation, you may be stepping into Stage 3 — where integration begins to take root.

Stage Three: Guiding Stage

At this stage, therapists develop a stable sense of identity and clinical presence. We move towards guiding clients — being present, responsive, and holding the therapeutic frame with integrity and emotional capacity.

This is often seen as the efficient stage as we land on as an experienced practitioner - we can guide the therapy process. We no longer worry about being challenged. We welcome it — because we know our work doesn’t depend on certainty, but on staying with what unfolds.

Supervision becomes more collaborative, often process-oriented, and focused on refining nuance or addressing deeper personal-professional integration.

🧠 Internal Experience: There is more calm, even when faced with client resistance, crisis, or emotional complexity. There’s less fear of “not being good enough” — and more capacity to reflect, contain, and repair when things go awry.

💬 Common Thoughts:

“I trust myself here.” “Let’s explore what’s happening, together.” “I’m aware of my reactions, and I can use them therapeutically.”

💡 Support That Helps in This Stage:

• Reflective consultation on clinical dilemmas or blind spots

• Emphasis on personal-professional integration

• Space to co-create the supervision process

• Encouragement to mentor others or give back to the profession

This is not a place of perfection, rather a place to foster presence, flexibility, and ethical humility.

🌿 How to Use This Framework in Our Learning?

Understanding the stages of therapist development is not about putting yourself into a fixed category — it’s about building awareness of your current needs, strengths, and emotional landscape as a practitioner-in-training.

This model can be used not just as a mirror, but as a conversation starter, a self-reflection tool, and a way to reconnect with your learning journey when you feel unsure or stuck.

Here are some ways you can bring this framework into your professional growth:

🧭 In Shaping Your Learning Journey

• Let the model guide your goal setting. For example:

  • If you’re in Stage 1, you might focus on building confidence with core therapeutic tasks and understanding session structure.

  • If you’re in Stage 2, you might explore personal style, creativity, or emotional presence.

  • If you’re in Stage 3, you may seek deeper integration between your professional and personal identity — or begin mentoring others.

This is not a test to pass — it’s a map to return to.

💬 In Supervision

• Share which stage you most identify with at the moment. Is it the early imitation stage, where anxiety and performance concerns are high? Or are you beginning to experiment and stretch into your own voice?

• Use this language to talk about what kind of supervision feels most helpful right now — more structure, more reflection, or more autonomy?

• Ask your supervisor to reflect with you on how your development is showing up in client work.
  

🪞 In Self-Reflection

• Return to this model after challenging sessions. Ask yourself:

  • What part of me was activated in that moment?

  • Was I working from fear, from presence, or somewhere in between?

• Journal about which qualities you’re growing — autonomy, empathy, emotional tolerance — and where you’d like more support.

💭 Noticing Where You Are

• Do you feel more focused on “getting it right,” or are you experimenting with your own voice?

• Are you asking for structure, or starting to set your own boundaries in sessions?

• Do you notice growth in how you tolerate discomfort — both yours and your client’s?

🤝 In Peer Support or Training Groups

• Share your reflections with peers in a safe space. You may discover that others feel the same doubts or fluctuations, even if they express them differently.

• Use the stages to open non-judgmental conversations about progress, vulnerability, and growth edges.

Wherever you are, you are allowed to be there. What matters most is that you’re growing — with reflection, with support, and with compassion for yourself along the way.

You don’t need to use this model daily — but returning to it every few months, or after particularly challenging or meaningful sessions, can help track your growth and make your supervision or personal reflections more intentional.

💭 Reflections and Applications Across Modalities

Some therapists wonder if this model applies across different modalities — and the answer is yes, though how it shows up may differ.

This developmental model offers a broad framework to help us understand the evolving stages of a practitioner’s growth. While it provides general guidance, different therapy modalities each emphasise distinct aspects of competence — meaning the developmental journey may look and feel different depending on the therapeutic lens you are trained in.

For example:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) offers a clear and structured framework for skill acquisition, which can make early-stage learning (Stage 1) feel more concrete and directed. Trainees often feel supported by the clarity of techniques, protocols, and step-by-step interventions. However, when progressing to the next stage of development — where personal voice, adaptability, and clinical flexibility are needed — some may find it more challenging to transition beyond technique into deeper relational presence.

• Person-Centred Therapy, by contrast, centres the therapist’s presence, emotional availability, and humanistic values. These qualities naturally align with the developmental needs of Stage 2, where empathy, congruence, and intuition become more prominent. Yet, because the approach is less directive, trainees may initially feel uncertain about how to “build competence” in Stage 1 — especially when seeking structure or guidance on what to do in the therapy room.

Each modality brings its own strengths and blind spots to the developmental journey. This framework doesn’t replace those teachings — it complements them by offering a way to reflect on your inner growth process, regardless of the modality you’re learning through.

Whatever modality we train in, the IDM model offers a meaningful lens through which to reflect on our current stage of development. It gently prompts us to consider what kind of support, self-awareness, or challenge we may need to grow with depth and direction.

It can also support practitioners in bringing these reflections into supervision — opening up conversations about how competence might evolve differently depending on their modality, learning style, or therapeutic identity.

In supervision, you might say: “I noticed I was relying on a script again — not because I didn’t know what to do, but because I got anxious when the client was silent. Can we explore that?” This kind of self-reflective curiosity is exactly what supports your movement from imitation to moding.

🕯 Closing Reflections on the Journey of Becoming

The start of a clinician’s journey is not about securing a prestigious training or collecting well-known qualifications. We live in a time where access to knowledge, research, and clinical theory is more abundant than ever — and we stand on the shoulders of decades of therapeutic wisdom. From published studies to inspirational case work, we are privileged to learn from those who have shaped this field.

But the real question is not just what we’ve learned — it’s who we are becoming as we step into this work.

The true heart of therapy lies in the therapist’s individual qualities: empathy, presence, cultural sensitivity, emotional intelligence, relational humility, and the willingness to keep learning. These aren’t things we earn through exams — they are cultivated over time, through reflection, supervision, and lived experience.

We aspire to develop a professional field, in which practitioners lead the roles via self-reflection and self-compassion, rather than comparison or performance-driven growth.

Mental health care is not a performance or a job title. It's a human responsibility — to sit with people in their pain, to make space for their stories, and to help them move from darkness toward a sense of light, even if just a flicker. It’s not always glamorous, and it’s rarely easy. Some leave this path after burnout or disillusionment. Others stay, but forget why they began.

We are reminded that our training is not meant to boost ego or status. A qualification alone does not make someone a great therapist. And being 'good enough' is not a limitation — it’s a practice of integrity.

What truly brings value to the therapeutic space is not perfection, but presence. It is the ongoing commitment to self-work, and the ability to remain deeply human — for ourselves, and for those we serve.

We recommend to use this framework as an accompany tool, not a defining tool. You can revisit it as a reflective checkpoint — in moments of doubt, growth, or even burnout — to gently ask: What’s emerging in my development now?

✨ About Dr Tiffany Leung

Dr Tiffany Leung is a UK HCPC-registered Chartered Psychologist, clinical supervisor, and intercultural therapist specialising in self-development, emotional wellbeing, and culturally responsive care. With years of experience supporting therapists, psychologists, and counsellors-in-training, she offers a unique blend of depth-informed supervision and reflective guidance.

Her work bridges evidence-based models with human complexity — helping practitioners grow not only in skills, but in self-awareness, relational presence, and clinical confidence.

🌿

Looking for supervision or personal therapy as a therapist or psychologist?

I offer reflective, trauma-aware, and culturally attuned spaces for clinicians navigating growth, uncertainty, or emotional fatigue in their roles.

🔗 Visit my website to explore clinical supervision or book a free 15 minutes consultation for therapist-focused therapy.

 Reference

• Stoltenberg, C. D., & McNeill, B. W. (2010). IDM supervision: An integrative developmental model for supervising counselors and therapists (3rd ed.). Routledge.

• Rønnestad, M. H., & Skovholt, T. M. (2003). The journey of the counselor and therapist: Research findings and perspectives on professional development. Journal of Career Development, 30(1), 5–44. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025173508081

• Benner, P. (1984). From novice to expert: Excellence and power in clinical nursing practice. Addison-Wesley.

• Dreyfus, H. L., & Dreyfus, S. E. (1980). A five-stage model of the mental activities involved in directed skill acquisition. California University Berkeley Operations Research Center. (Original report for Air Force Office of Scientific Research)

• Ladany, N., Friedlander, M. L., & Nelson, M. L. (2005). Critical events in psychotherapy supervision: An interpersonal approach. American Psychological Association.

• Holloway, E. L. (1995). Clinical supervision: A systems approach. Sage Publications.