THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL THERAPY ON THE EMOTIONAL MATURITY AND PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY FORMATION OF PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS: A BASELINE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of personal therapy on the emotional maturity and professional identity formation of psychology students, assessing whether therapy engagement enhances self-awareness, emotional resilience, and stress management, and whether it should be integrated into psychology training programmes.A cross-sectional baseline study was conducted with 173 psychology students (aged 17-21 years) from multiple universities in Ukraine.A stratified random sampling method was used to ensure participant diversity.The study employed validated psychodiagnostic instruments, including the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ-IV), the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), the Maslach Burnout Inventory -Student Survey (MBI-SS), and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire -Short Form (TEIQue-SF), among others.Data were collected through administration an offline and online survey, tests and scales containing both closed and open-ended questions.The analysis included descriptive statistics, correlation analysis (Pearson's r), independent t-tests, and thematic analysis of open-ended responses.Findings indicate that psychology students exhibit moderate levels of emotional maturity and professional identity clarity, yet a substantial proportion struggles with emotional resilience (32.94% low), burnout (29.47% high), and self-compassion (31.21% low).Correlation analysis revealed a positive association between personal therapy engagement and professional identity clarity ( = 0.45, < .01)and self-compassion ( = 0.37, < .01),while therapy engagement was negatively correlated with burnout ( = -0.44, < .01)and anxiety ( = -0.20, < .05).Independent t-tests confirmed that students who participated in therapy reported significantly higher professional identity clarity, lower burnout, and greater emotional resilience Vda a perspektivy 4(47) 2025