Melanie Stehmeier

Psychotherapist and accredited life coach

What is the MBTI?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a questionnaire, based on the work of Carl Jung and his theory of personality preferences and it is designed to explain an individual’s innate psychological preferences, their strengths and how they make decisions. It is said to be the worlds most widely used personality assessment with as many as 2 million assessments being administered annually. MBTI can help individuals become more self-aware by helping them understand their strengths and weaknesses, their unique temperament, their own distinctive way of getting energised and how they can best organise their life.
 

How can MBTI help?

The goal of the MBTI is to understand and appreciate differences between people. As all types are equal, there is no best type and so the MBTI instrument sorts for preferences, rather than measuring for ability or character. Alongside enhancing one’s own self-awareness, MBTI can help people learn to accept themselves and others within all aspects of their life. Often by understanding their personality type individuals are more specifically able to:

  • Choose a career that builds upon their strengths and on a day to day basis, be able to manage their workload more productively, as well as enhance their working relationships
  • Set and more easily achieve life goals as well as being more able to cope life changes
  • Help appreciate similarities and differences within relationships thereby minimising the chance of conflicts and optimising shared understanding

 

How can I undertake the questionnaire?

Undertaking the MBTI can be part of any course of coaching or therapy at The Cove. Furthermore individuals who are not currently part of The Cove can choose to complete the assessment on a one-off basis. This means having completed the questionnaire online, they will then be invited for 1 or 2 session follow-up sessions where they will able to discuss and reflect upon their individual MBTI type and the implications it may have for their current patterns of behaviour and future choices.

There are 2 different MBTI questionnaires, STEP II being more detailed and longer than the more frequently used and shorter STEP I.

The STEP I MBTI follow up session provides participants with a print-out version of their Reported Type to take home with them.

The MBTI STEP II is more in depth and provides respondents with not only a four-page profile, but also an eighteen-page Step II Interpretive Report. This assessment shows respondents their preferences in further detail by breaking down each preference into five component-parts.

While there are many versions of the test available online, it should be noted that any of the informal tests that you may find on the Internet are only approximations of the real test. The real MBTI must be administered by a trained and qualified practitioner and must include a follow up meeting to discuss the results.
 

Contact:

 www.thecove-therapy.com/mbti
 melanie@thecove-therapy.com