Interact Journal Integrative Ideas for the Process-Oriented Psychotherapist

Categories Supervision Dialogs

On attending to process

My other supervisor’s style is this way…. I think a more involved, enactive style like process therapy is better.

From psychoanalysis to behavior modification, whenever a therapist has her attention on the process in the room and is not countertransferred, a therapeutic environment is created. Resolution is invited. In that way, all effective psychotherapy is process therapy. Every therapist adopts a theory and a repertoire of techniques that is compatible with her belief system and her personality. Successful therapists attend to process rather than content although they do not necessarily name it in those words.

You enjoy creating physical enactments. Therapy seems to move along faster and you like that. One enactment is never better than any other enactment. An enactment with chairs and bears may be more concrete than the process it seeks to parallel, but it is never better. Less active therapists simply prefer to work with the process in a less material form.

Attend to process as it flows from one client response to another, trust yourself totally, stay out of the system, invite introspection in the moment, and work with client responses. Under these conditions, whatever techniques you or your supervisors use will be effective.

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