MBTI Type & Therapy: A Discussion with University of Texas at Austin Professor Dr. Raymond Hawkins

Earlier this year John Hackston, Head of Thought Leadership at The Myers-Briggs Company, held an in-depth discussion with Dr. Raymond Hawkins, Clinical Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin, and co-founder of the Austin Stress Institute, the first private clinic in Austin to specialize in biofeedback and clinical health psychology.

In this article we present a few highlights from the interview, in which Hackston and Hawkins discuss how MBTI types are applied in therapy and counseling settings, as well as how it can be applied to help individuals navigate the latter portion of life.

To watch videos of the interview, check out Myers-Briggs types and therapy preferences, MBTI type to develop therapeutic relationships and How counselors can use the MBTI as a map for self-esteem building in clinical psychology?

Myers-Briggs types and therapy preferences

Hawkins: Let me first say simply that some research has been done — I’ve done a little of it but most of the research was done by Dr. Alan Hammer of the Myers-Briggs company — which looked at coping styles and other manifestations of how people of different types respond to stress.

The very interesting finding is that, as a function of one’s psychological type preference, some people under stress will want to be alone and not seek counseling, and others will seek out social support and enter counseling.

And, would you guess that the Introverted types — particularly the Introverted Thinking types — tend to not seek out counseling under stress. Or, that Extraverted types with Feeling preferences tend to definitely move towards counseling. So that’s a general finding.

And we could talk more about how there’s a differential preference for counselors for the type of therapy that they do, based upon their types.

So Thinking types, like me, tend to prefer cognitive therapy, and Feeling types tend to prefer more emotion-focused work, and Extraverts prefer a group.

MBTI type to develop therapeutic relationships

Hackston: Let’s go back, if we may, to some of the things you were talking about in terms of your research and some of the studies you and others have carried out. One of the things I think you were talking about just before was the preference for people with different personality types to engage in or not engage in counseling.

And I guess, as someone with my own type preferences for INTP — so Introverted Thinking is very much central to me — that suggested that perhaps I’m somebody who, if I go along with other developed Thinkers, wouldn’t particularly want to engage in counseling, or not as much as other people. Is that the gist of what you were saying?

Hawkins: Not at first blush. You wouldn’t go to it immediately. And if you were under stress, like say with the pandemic, you wouldn’t want to reach out and say, “Oh, how are you dealing with this? I think this is terrible!”

You would probably think about it and analyze it, and be more introspective. My type preference is INTJ, and I think I’m similar.

Actually, though, the wonderful thing is that once all of the types, including the Introverted Thinkers such as yourself, get into the counseling relationship, if the counselor is skillful in using type — Dr. Jung called psychological type his compass. In other words, he would rotate among the preference dichotomies so that he would align with the client.

So if I were working with you I would value your Introverted Thinking [preferences] and then secondary Intuition and I would say, “Let’s use this. Let’s develop some models of what’s going on. And then gradually I’d say, “Now it seems like under stress you’re troubled by certain feelings that you can’t quite construe or understand intellectually. Does that sound right? And then we would move into other areas, and we would develop a good therapeutic relationship.”

Hackston: So I do have your email address, right, so if I feel I’m with the need for counseling I’ll be right in touch [laughs].

Hawkins: [laughs].

How clinical psychologists can use the MBTI for self-esteem building

Hawkins: I alluded to the idea that as we grow — and this was called by Isabel Briggs-Myers ‘good type development’ — to grow according to our nature, the way our type is intended to flower so to speak.

I alluded to that, and I talk about how counseling can use the Myers-Briggs type Indicator as a kind of map for self-esteem building people when they’re healthy.

There are 16 flavors of health and there may be 16 or more flavors of stress reactions. But we can use the Myers-Briggs to grow into health according to our type. We’re not all the same. But one of the things that’s been talked about, and really is a very rich area, is to see what happens across the stages of life.

Type development and navigating stages of life

Hawkins: What about type development and in different seasons of one’s life? And particularly, let’s say, midlife and beyond. This is where Carl Jung’s theory comes in again about the importance of individuation and spirituality broadly defined.

Recognizing something bigger than the ego or sense of self or sense of connection to the universe and our destiny, I think that the Myers-Briggs could be very helpful in understanding

people’s adaptation to aging, and the kinds of settings they would like to be in, in their final years.

Hackston: Yes, with an aging population that’s important.

Hawkins: I don’t think that regular personality testing or psychology looks at that sufficiently.

They’ve looked at dimensions of control that one can have or not have over one’s life, and choices at the end of life, but not in terms of different preferences.

One example would be my own fantasy that a retirement setting would be almost like a monastery, except different. There would be a central gathering point, it might be around a dining hall but more likely around a library, and then there would be like spokes of the wheel — individual cells [laughs].

Hackston: [laughs]

Hawkins: Now I’m sure that model would not appeal to my colleagues with Extraversion preferences who would rather have a communal home, a place where there’s a lot of family gatherings and so forth. But I wanted to say it in our final minutes because I think that this is lifelong learning.

To hear more perspectives on MBTI type from leading academic psychologists, read about how Dr. Aqualas Gordon of Maryville College developed his interest in Jung and MBTI personality type.