Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy - Supplemental Materials

Chapter 5: Therapist Processes in Process-Experiential Therapy

5.2.1. Outline: Therapist Experiential Processes in PE Therapy

 


 

1. Presence/Genuineness.  The therapist being fully in the moment with the client, based on

            •wholeness and authenticity (genuineness)

•receptivity to client, inwardly attending to own experience, and extending and contacting the client (transparency)

2. Empathic attunement: The therapist enters, tracks and communicates client's immediate and evolving experiencing, following multiple client tracks (see Chapter 6)

3. Acceptance/Prizing.  The therapist also develops, maintains and communicates an inner experience of acceptance (tolerance, unconditionality) and warmth (active caring, prizing) toward the client.

4.  Collaboration.  The therapist develops, maintains, and communicates an attitude of interested engagement and egalitarian collaboration with the client.

5. Procedural Knowledge of the Model.  The therapist learns, accesses, and creatively adapts the treatment principles, therapist responses, and particular client markers, typical steps, dead-ends and resolution states associated with each of the main therapeutic tasks.

6. Process Awareness and Guiding.  Building on empathic attunement to current client task and mode of engagement, the therapist responsively selects responses which facilitate client work in ways that appear to be most optimal for the given moment and task.

 


 

Materials designed to accompany the book Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy: The Process-Experiential Approach to Change from APA Books.

©2003 Robert Elliott, Jeanne Watson, Rhonda Goldman, and Leslie Greenberg

http://www.process-experiential.org/learning