Theory, technique, and person: Technical integration in experiential constructivist psychotherapy.

From an experiential constructivist position, the distinction between the therapist as a person, the therapist's theory of psychotherapy, and techniques used within the therapy room is, in some ways, forced and arbitrary. Principles of experiential personal construct psychotherapy are presented along with illustrations of the ways many techniques from many other schools of therapy can be used by the therapist. After exploring some of the implications of this position, I describe four specific, theoretically relevant goals within experiential personal construct psychotherapy (initially connecting with the client, developing a felt understanding of the client's experience, establishing relational intimacy, and fostering creativity). For each of these goals, I illustrate some techniques, originally developed within other theories, which can be usefully integrated into experiential personal constructivist psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive psychology and the humanistic tradition.

Positive emotions are discussed within the context of experiential, client-centered, and related psychotherapies. An attempt is made to discuss the idea that the effects of such psychotherapies could be enhanced if positive emotions were viewed as a cause of positive psychotherapy outcomes rather than a consequence of focusing on painful and disturbing emotions. It is concluded that therapists within the humanistic tradition have highly positive views of persons and their tendency to be forward moving. Prizing patients while they express "negative" emotions seems much more likely to lead to positive emotions than the reverse. Thus, the positive psychology movement with its emphasis on giving preference to positive emotions seems misguided in a clinical context. Despite these reservations about the value of focusing on positive emotions in psychotherapy, the authors call for research to test the consequences of such a focus in experiential psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Holographic reprocessing: A cognitive-experiential psychotherapy.

Notes that holographic reprocessing (HR) is a cognitive-experiential psychotherapy based on S. Epstein's theory of personality, cognitive experiential self-theory (CEST). CEST is an information processing theory that can provide an integrative framework for therapeutic reprocessing techniques. This article overviews HR and introduces the concept of "experiential holograms." An experiential hologram describes a theme of experiences that reemerges throughout a person's life in various contexts. In HR, the dynamics of experiential holograms and the characteristic responses to the holograms are accessed through associations in the experiential system. The holograms are then reprocessed by using cognitive and experiential techniques. Case examples are used to illustrate these concepts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Therapeutic experiencing: The process of change.

Reviews the book, Therapeutic experiencing: The process of change by Alvin R. Mahrer (1986). In one sense, Mahrer makes the reviewer's task easy by summarizing in his introduction such key points as the purpose of his book, its scope, and its intended readership. Mahrer has two stated purposes: one is "to show how to do experiential therapy" and the other is "to build upon the various members of the experiential family and to propose a single theory of experiential psychotherapy complete with its own methods of bringing about therapeutic change." There are three conditions, however, which must be met in order to enable the reader to do experiential therapy. The first is that the reader is familiar with and sympathetic to existential-humanistic thinking. It is to all such therapists, as well as to their patients, that this book is addressed. The other two conditions that must be fulfilled in order to undertake experiential therapy are that the reader understands how to start each experiential therapy session and knows how to listen experientially. These latter two conditions are the subject of an earlier book by Mahrer, Experiential Psychotherapy: Basic Practices, which is thus basic reading for anyone intending to apply the method described in the current volume, as these two conditions together comprise the essential first of five steps that constitute each experiential psychotherapy session. The current volume picks up the method only at step two, "carrying forward of potentials for experiencing," and covers the remaining steps as well: "experiencing the relationship with deeper potentials, experiential being of the deeper potentials, and being/ behavioral change." In Therapeutic Experiencing , Mahrer stipulates that the patient should have a minimum of three hundred sessions, distributed over a 3-year period, and return for therapeutic work every two years or so for about 10 to 15 sessions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing a model of change in the experiential treatment of depression.

In this study, we measured emotional processing and the alliance across 3 phases of therapy (beginning, working, and termination) for 74 clients who each received brief experiential psychotherapy for depression. Using path analysis, we proposed and tested a model of relationships between these 2 processes across phases of therapy and how these processes relate to predict improvement in the domains of depressive and general symptoms, self-esteem, and interpersonal problems after experiential treatment. Both therapy processes significantly increased across phases of therapy. Controlling for both client processes at the beginning of therapy, working phase emotional processing was found to directly and best predict reductions in depressive and general symptoms, and it could directly predict gains in self-esteem. Within working and termination phases of therapy, the alliance significantly contributed to emotional processing and indirectly contributed to outcome. Surprisingly, beginning therapy alliance (measured after Session 1) also directly predicted all outcomes. Furthermore, only clients’ beginning therapy process predicted reductions in interpersonal problems. Therefore, although the proposed theory of change was supported, clients’ beginning therapy processes may constrain clients’ success in experiential treatment and in particular their outcomes in some problem domains related to depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can between-session (homework) activities be considered a common factor in psychotherapy?

A common goal for psychotherapies is to enable patients to improve their functioning and reduce distress in the situations and interpersonal contexts in which their problems exist. Although generally associated with behavioral, cognitive, couples, and family therapies, the use of the time between consultation sessions through therapeutic activities is implicit to all psychotherapies. This special series in Journal of Psychotherapy Integration represents an initial effort to make explicit the role of between-session 'homework' assignments in behavioral, client centered, cognitive, experiential, interpersonal, psychodynamic, and systemic approaches. Expert theoreticians, researchers, and practitioners present theoretical and clinical case examples to illustrate homework's role in assisting patient therapeutic progress. We synthesize themes from the issue in a concluding piece in the interests of facilitating future theoretical and empirical work on homework in psychotherapy integration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of experiential psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, Handbook of experiential psychotherapy edited by Leslie S. Greenberg, Jeanne C. Watson, and Germain Lietaer (1998). The editors note in their introductory comment that the "influence of the humanistic approaches to psychotherapy has waned since their prominence in the sixties and seventies" (p. ix). What this book makes eminently clear, however, is that experientially oriented therapies have not disappeared in the shadow of more recent developments in theory and practice. This book is well written, well organized, and rich in content. Furthermore, it fills an important gap in the literature. In a climate dominated by the search for "scientifically validated treatments," for-profit mental service providers, and praxis dominated by issues of efficacy, concern for the fundamental underlying process responsible for positive human change tends to be relegated to the background. This volume not only highlights the contributions experiential/third-force psychotherapy has made and continues to make to our appreciation of these fundamental processes, but also manages to combine and balance interesting theoretical discussion with clinically useful practical material. While this volume is no "cookbook of experiential therapy," the authors respect the practical demands facing practitioners and provide useful examples of applying some of the basic tenets of the "third force" to a range of specific issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Good and very good moments in psychotherapy: Content, distribution, and facilitation.

10 clinical psychologists applied a twelvefold category system of good and very good moments of client movement, progress, improvement, process, or change to 2 consecutive middle sessions of experiential psychotherapy. Findings show (1) a large proportion of good and very good moments in both sessions, (2) the distribution of these moments into a distinctive subset of the 12 categories, and (3) the occurrence of series and phases of good moments rather than discrete events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Growth effects of experiential movement psychotherapy.

Examined growth effects promoted by experiential movement psychotherapy, a therapeutic approach integrating felt-movement, imagery, and thought through a single unified process. Pre/post measures obtained from 2 experimental groups (volunteer participants in experiential movement psychotherapy groups) were compared with pre/post measures obtained from 2 control groups (a ballet class and a waiting-list control group drawn from the same population as the experimental groups). Evidence of significant change attributable to experiential movement psychotherapy is presented with respect to 6 measures of degree of self-actualization (inner-directedness, existentiality, feeling reactivity, spontaneity, self-acceptance, and capacity for intimate contact) as measured by the Personal Orientation Inventory, and on physical body-self acceptance as assessed by the Body-Cathexis Scale. Preliminary findings relative to a measure of individual expressive movement range—the Dosamantes-Alperson Expressive Movement Scale—are described. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special series.

Provides an introduction to the special series on research in utilizing competency-based criteria for training psychotherapeutic skills. The introduction of manuals for practicing psychotherapy reactivates an old debate about the value of competency-based education for the mental health disciplines. In a general way, this special series approaches and explores this debate. The articles included are of two types: (a) those that address general issues of criteria-based training and (b) those that explore standards for training in specific approaches. Altogether, the articles cover a variety of therapeutic approaches, including most of those that are applied by contemporary mental health practitioners. Moreover, the articles address the problems of negative effects, common versus specific variables, and the roles of cognitive and experiential learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical Practice of Group Experiential Psychotherapy.

Ethical issues related to the practice of group experiential therapy are discussed. Particular emphasis is given to ethical considerations associated with group psychotherapy versus individual psychotherapy, therapist competency in the use of experiential techniques, leader power issues, and aftercare. The "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct" of the American Psychological Association (2002) and the "Association for Specialists in Group Work Best Practice Guidelines" (L. Rapin & L. Keel, 1998) are referenced to highlight ethical principles and guidelines as they relate to this discussion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How to use psychotherapy on, for, and by oneself.

Discusses how psychotherapists can use psychotherapy on, for, and by oneself. The author suggests that in order to feel better, and want to accomplish some of the wonderful things that psychotherapy can help bring about, one needs to have regular psychotherapy sessions, preferably experiential sessions, on, for, and by oneself. There are several questions that the author addresses: What personal life circumstances invited me to search for some way of undergoing self-care? What can a practitioner do to have deep-seated sessions by oneself? How can a psychotherapy be created for one's own self-sessions? What does one do in an experiential session on, for, and by oneself? If you trust what you do with clients, why not do it with yourself? If you trust what you do with yourself, why not do it with clients? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aptitude–treatment interactions based on clients' assimilation of their presenting problems.

Assigning clients to treatments on the basis of their differential aptitudes for those treatments may reduce variability and improve the mean outcomes of psychotherapy. The assimilation model suggests that in time-limited treatments, clients with well-assimilated problems would do better in cognitive or behavioral therapies than in psychodynamic, experiential, or interpersonal therapies, whereas the reverse should be the case for clients with poorly assimilated problems. Results for high-, moderate-, and low-assimilation subgroups (based on rating the level of assimilation of problems presented in the first 20 min of first sessions) of clients (N?=?112) randomly assigned to time-limited cognitive-behavioral or psychodynamic-interpersonal treatment supported the first suggestion but not the second (clients with poorly assimilated problems did equally well in both treatments). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The general practice of psychology.

Psychology has developed a variety of specific techniques that are applicable to specific emotional problems, thus enabling brief psychotherapy to be particularly effective. In the past it was said that therapist and patient had only one chance to solve present and future emotional distress, a criterion applied to no other form of intervention. By combining dynamic and behavioral therapies into intervention designed to ameliorate the presenting life problem, using a multimodal group practice, professional psychology can define its own area practice. This general practice of psychology postulates that throughout the life span the client has brief, available, effective interventions designed to meet specific conditions as these may or may not arise. When such techniques are available, brief psychotherapy is the treatment of choice for about 85% of those seeking help, leaving long-term therapy for those clients who are best benefited by a protracted intervention. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy and new religions in a pluralistic society.

Although some scholars have contended that psychotherapy and new religions are competitors in the therapeutic and experiential marketplace, few attempts have been made to examine the nature of this alleged competition in contemporary society. One reason for this may be the dominant role played by psychologists and psychiatrists in defining reality in today's "psychological society." The authors address this problem by positing the functional equivalence of these 2 approaches to reality, individual adjustment, and growth. Six commonalities between psychotherapy and new religions are identified and discussed as the basis for understanding the functional equivalence of different practices in a pluralistic society. It is concluded that rivalry between new religions and psychotherapy can be best understood from a sociological conflict perspective and may be indicative of larger stresses and strains in society. (128 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical practice and scientific psychology: Can this marriage be saved?

Discusses the relationship of scientific psychology to the practice of psychotherapy. The use of research to change psychotherapy techniques is examined in each of 3 major orientations of psychodynamic, experiential, and behavioral psychotherapy. Common factors that may be responsible for the success of all therapies are described, and the controversy between those who see psychotherapy as a cultural ritual and those who see it as a scientifically-based procedure is reviewed. The consequences of a split between researcher and clinician roles in clinical psychology are predicted. It is concluded that scientific psychology and psychotherapy can together contribute meaningfully to society and a divorce would not be in the best interest of either discipline. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observed & experiential integration (OEI): Discovery and development of a new set of trauma therapy techniques.

Psychotherapy integration leaders have recently asserted that the future of psychotherapy will involve incorporation of neuroscience. In the past 18 years, techniques have been discovered and developed to treat trauma and dissociation at all three neurobiological levels of Porges' (2001, 2007) polyvagal theory. This approach is known as Observed & Experiential Integration (OEI). The originator incorporated elements of Focusing, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, and Educational Kinesiology. OEI theory emerged from experiential psychotherapy, and relational psychoanalytic and behavioral concepts were assimilated during 45,000 hours of psychotherapy. Five sets of OEI techniques are used for titration of affective and somatic intensity, reduction of negative transference, and deepening of social connection. OEI involves neuro-activation & microattunement (NAMA). It has been applied with body therapies and neurotherapy and used with children, couples, and families. OEI has also been applied to addictive and self-destructive urges, panic attacks, and eating disorders. Case examples illustrate applications of this treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strategies for preparing clients for treatment. A review

Substantial numbers of mental health clients do not return following their initial therapy visits or drop out of treatment prematurely. Two general classes of strategies designed to reduce premature attrition and enhance treatment participation are reviewed. Research on psychotherapy preparatory techniques (role induction, vicarious therapy pretraining, and experiential pretraining) indicates that these educational techniques are effective in reducing early treatment attrition and may be especially effective with populations at high risk for dropout (e.g., lower socioeconomic groups, chronically mentally ill clients, and institutionalized juvenile delinquents). Motivational interviewing, a technique originally developed for clients with alcohol problems, is designed to reduce client ambivalence toward therapy and change and enhance commitment to and motivation for treatment. Research in the alcohol field suggests that a session of pretreatment motivational interviewing enhances treatment outcome. Both motivational interviewing and psychotherapy preparatory techniques are relatively brief and easy to incorporate into existing mental health care.