Idea management among clinical psychologists and psychotherapists

Ideas and their management are deemed highly significant for practitioners in various creative professions, including designers, researchers, and music professionals (Inie & Dalsgaard, 2020; Inie et al., 2022; Rosselli Del Turco & Dalsgaard, 2023). Clinical psychologists and therapists, tasked with continually finding innovative strategies to assist patients amidst the absence of a one-size-fits-all treatment (Cohen, Ashar & DeRubeis, 2019), exemplify the demand for ongoing creativity in healthcare practice. However, surpisingingly little research has focused on how these practioners manage their creative ideas. This presentation focuses on findings from a study involving 60 clinical psychologists/therapists who participated in an online survey, supplemented by in-depth interviews with 16 of the practitioners. We delineate their conceptualizations of creative ideas in practice and identify the distinctive aspects of their workflow, including the tools and infrastructure facilitating idea development. Furthermore, we scrutinize specificities and commonalities in the approach to idea management between clinical psychologists/therapists and practitioners in previous research.