ABSTRACT

In the previous point, we stressed how important it is for you to make clear at the outset of therapy your own contribution to the therapeutic process and the reasons why you will often take an active-directive stance. What we want to stress here, however, concerns the ongoing process of psychotherapy. We believe that it is important for you to explain, at fairly regular intervals, not only what you are doing, but why you are doing it. If you can explain to your clients the rationale for an intervention before you make it and if your clients can indicate that it makes sense to them, this is a good way of gaining their cooperation. This is particularly useful if you plan to make interventions that may otherwise be perceived as strange or even aversive by your clients. For example, if you plan to dispute your clients’ irrational beliefs in a vigorous, forceful manner, it is useful first to help them to understand why you plan to do this, so that your clients see that you are doing it in their interests and not attacking them. This preparatory work is generally, in our experience, more helpful than explaining to clients after the fact why you have intervened in this way. We do not suggest that you do this in a compulsive way or indeed in a needy way. However, particularly when you plan to make unusual or potentially aversive interventions, helping clients to understand their purpose in advance constitutes, in our view, sound educational practice.