THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS
20-03-2017
Viktor Frankl. Therapy is to make the other free but also responsible.
Starting a therapeutic process is talking about mixed feelings. On the one hand, you know that you will have to do an exercise of looking inward, finding fears and anguish; But on the other hand, it is talking about hope, about wanting to change to live in a more vital and fulfilling way. It is a path that awakens ambivalence, but it is not done alone. The therapist plays his role to accompany the subject and guide him in that adventure.
When initiating a therapeutic process, we dare not say an exact number of sessions. The certainty we have is that we will work to make them the least possible but all the necessary.
A therapeutic process is linked to general goals: disappearance of the symptom and relief of pain, facilitating personal growth and changing dysfunctional character traits.
Psychotherapy is a gradual process in which the therapist gets to know the patient as completely as possible. Naturally, we want to know the past of the subject, not to look for causal chains, but because it gives us the ability to empathize, to know what has lived to be able to understand its present; And from there to be able to influence and provoke changes in the here and now. The here and now refers to the immediate events of the therapeutic session, but that is better explained in another post.
Each case is unique and there is no standardized protocol for all cases. Obviously, there are common parts in all cases as the exploration phase, then, as Irving Yalom says, "the therapist must strive to design a therapy tailored to each subject."
The therapeutic process gives for many more paragraphs, so we would love to hear and be able to respond if you have questions or doubts to respect.