A practical guide for ANZAP trainees on the personal therapy requirement
Starting ANZAP training is a significant step. The Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychotherapy offers one of the most clinically and academically rigorous psychotherapy pathways available in Australia and New Zealand. Training in The Conversional Model can be done either through the independent ANZAP training program or through Sydney University.
At the heart of that training is a requirement that sets it apart from many other programs: you must experience therapy yourself. For some trainees this is an exciting prospect. For others it raises questions. Either way, ANZAP trainee therapy is one of the most formative parts of your training — and choosing the right therapist matters more than most people realise when they begin.
This post covers what the personal therapy requirement actually involves. Also covered is when it becomes compulsory and what the Conversational Model offers you as a trainee. Also discussed is recommendations of what to look for in a therapist.
What Is the ANZAP Personal Therapy Requirement?
ANZAP requires all trainees to undertake their own personal experience of psychotherapy as part of the training program. This isn’t a tick-box exercise — it is considered a foundational element of becoming a skilled, self-aware therapist.
Key requirement: Personal therapy is strongly recommended from the first year of ANZAP training and becomes compulsory from year two onwards. Beginning early gives you more time to benefit from the process — and more to bring back into the room with your own clients.
The reasoning is straightforward: you cannot meaningfully offer a therapeutic process to others that you haven’t experienced yourself. Your own therapy teaches you things about the therapeutic relationship, about your own relational patterns, and about what it actually feels like to be a client. These are insights that no textbook or supervision session can fully replicate.
Why Personal Therapy Is Central to ANZAP Training
ANZAP training asks a lot of you. Academically, you are working with a sophisticated theoretical framework. Clinically, you are developing skills in some of the most nuanced and demanding areas of psychotherapy practice. Personally, you are being asked to develop the kind of self-knowledge that allows you to sit with another person’s pain without flinching, deflecting, or becoming lost in it.
That level of self-knowledge doesn’t come from reading alone. It comes from doing your own work.
What you can expect to gain from ANZAP trainee therapy:
- A lived, embodied understanding of the therapeutic process — not just a theoretical one
- Deeper awareness of your own relational patterns and how they show up in the room
- Greater capacity to tolerate and hold difficult emotional material with clients
- A clearer sense of your own psychological landscape — what activates you, what soothes you, where your edges are
- Insight into how the Conversational Model actually works from the inside
- A foundation of personal experience to draw on throughout your clinical career
Most ANZAP graduates reflect that their own therapy was one of the most valuable parts of their training. It is also, for many, one of the most personally transformative.
The Conversational Model: What It Offers ANZAP Trainees
The Conversational Model is the evidence-based psychotherapy framework at the core of ANZAP training. Understanding it academically is one thing. Experiencing it as a client is another entirely. For trainees, that experiential understanding is irreplaceable.
What is the Conversational Model?
Developed to address complex and chronic presentations that are often difficult to treat, the Conversational Model is grounded in attachment theory and the psychology of the self. It places the therapeutic relationship at the centre of the healing process. What happens between therapist and client as the mechanism of change.
It is supported by positive randomised controlled trials and is both theoretically sophisticated and practically grounded. Its principles apply across the full spectrum of clinical contexts. Covering from long-term depth psychotherapy through to brief assessments and acute mental health presentations.
Presentations the Conversational Model is designed to address:
- Borderline personality disorder (complex trauma)
- Dissociative disorders
- Other personality disorders
- Treatment-resistant depression
- Somatic disorders
As an ANZAP trainee, working with an ANZAP therapist who practises the Conversational Model means your own therapy and your clinical learning are aligned. You are not just fulfilling a requirement — you are deepening your understanding of the very model you are training in.
How to Choose a Therapist for Your ANZAP Training
Not all therapists are equally suited to working with ANZAP trainees. Here is what to consider when making your choice.
- Look for experience with the Conversational Model: This gives you direct experiential access to the approach you are studying — something that translates directly into your clinical work.
- Consider the practicalities of access: Access to Conversational Model therapists varies significantly by location. Online therapy via secure video is a fully valid format for meeting the ANZAP personal therapy requirement, and it opens up access to experienced therapists regardless of where you are based.
- Think about fit: The therapeutic relationship is everything in this work. Choose a therapist you feel genuinely comfortable with. A brief consultation before committing is a reasonable and sensible step.
- Start sooner rather than later: While personal therapy is not compulsory until year two, beginning in your first year gives you a significant advantage. You will have more time to work through the material that matters, and more of that experience to draw on as your clinical work develops.
ANZAP Therapist in Bowral and Online Across Australia and New Zealand
Laura Wilson offers personal therapy for ANZAP trainees and graduates — in person at her consulting rooms in Bowral in the Southern Highlands of NSW, and online via secure video for trainees anywhere in Australia or New Zealand.
With experience in the Conversational Model and a genuine understanding of what ANZAP training asks of you, Laura provides therapy that supports both your personal development and your clinical learning.
Bowral is accessible from Greater Sydney, Wollongong, Canberra and the Southern Highlands. For trainees further afield — in Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington, or regional areas — online sessions offer the same depth of therapeutic engagement without the need to travel.
To learn more about the ANZAP training program itself, visit anzap.com.au.
To enquire about personal therapy with Laura, visit the ANZAP Trainee Therapy page or get in touch directly.
