A Puzzle With An Asterisk

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 16:05

Author: Gennady Maleichuk

Psychotherapy is a two-way road …

Client dynamics in psychotherapy

I will try to look at the process of psychotherapy and evaluate its effectiveness, focusing on the specifics of the client's interaction with the therapist in terms of working on their psychological problems. For this I will use the "task metaphor". I will highlight several stages in this process:

I can’t do anything myself. Decide for me …

The client, having encountered some problem (task) in his life and having defined it as a psychological task, which he himself cannot cope with, turns to a specialist for professional help. He perceives a psychologist as a specialist in "solving psychological problems." He brings his "psychological problem" to the psychotherapy session and waits for the specialist to solve it.

Most often, this task is presented by the client as a symptom and is perceived as "something that prevents me from living …". Accordingly, the client wants the psychotherapist to relieve him of this: “Life has given me a problem, solve it…”.

At this stage, clients have a clear medical model of relations with a specialist. The psychologist is perceived by him as an authority: "You are a psychologist … You know, you can …", on whom all responsibility for solving his problem is shifted with the expectation of concrete actions from him: "Give me advice, write out a recipe, tell me how …"

However, the truth of life is such that the solution of the client's problem by a specialist (getting rid of the symptom) by no means relieves him of this task once and for all. She, like the phoenix, is miraculously reborn every time. In order for the problem situation not to return, the task in therapy must be solved together. And here, in my opinion, it is not the solution of the problem itself that is more important, but the experience that the client receives in the process of this solution. This experience changes the client, opens up new facets of his identity, and provides "an increase in his personality."

The therapist, at this stage, should pay great attention to the psychological education of the client in parallel with the therapy process.

It is important to explain to the client the essence of the emergence of psychological problems, his role in their emergence.

This should be done gently, but persistently, inviting the client to a psychological vision of his problem, revealing to him a new reality - a psychic reality that lives according to its own specific laws.

The psychologist at this stage may encounter strong resistance from some clients who stubbornly refuse to accept the psychological picture of reality and agree with the idea of their own contribution to the emergence and solution of their problem.

In this case, the psychologist needs to frustrate his infantilism - I have nothing to do with it … and his irresponsibility - I don't know anything, I don't know how - decide for me …

In the event that this cannot be done, psychotherapy turns out to be impossible. Psychotherapy is a "two-way road" and the "magic of psychotherapy" is powerless if there is no oncoming traffic. I prefer to speak directly to the client about this.

The psychologist at this stage invites the client to interact at the second level - the level of cooperation.

Help me decide …

Having enlisted the client's support, inviting him to cooperate, the therapist ceases to be alone in solving his problem. The client, in turn, gets access to the resources of SAMO-.

The client begins, together with the therapist, to actively explore his life and his ways of contacting the world, others and himself, discovering in them (ways of contact) the possible causes of his problems. The client develops an interest in his I, in his life, understanding that he is not a passive observer of the series called "My Life", but at the same time its director and main character.

As a result of such research, the "territory of his I" is revealed to them, which was previously vaguely realized, previously unconscious desires-needs are discovered and the sensitivity to them increases. Understanding your needs opens up opportunities for choosing new ways to satisfy them, allowing the client to overcome old stereotypical, often problematic ways of dealing with himself and others.

The task of the psychologist at this stage is to teach him to solve such problems in the future through the joint solution of his psychological problems with the client.

I myself can decide …

The client's task at this stage is to introject, assimilate (include) the image of the psychotherapist into his self-image, forming a new facet in his identity - Internal psychotherapist … Achieving this goal is a good outcome of therapy.

At this stage, you can finish psychotherapy. There is no need for regular contact with a psychotherapist. The client has learned to solve psychological problems together with a psychotherapist and can try to do it on his own.

The need for a therapist may arise when the client has "problems with an asterisk" - situations where the client has no experience in solving them.