ABSTRACT
Whatever the chief complaint, be it anxiety, depression, compulsions, pho-bias, personality problems, and/or relationship conflicts, explanatory therapy is greatly complicated if people have difficulty talking. In most situations, si-lences of more than a minute or so are counterproductive to the therapeutic progress. Since most silence is volitional in adults, silent people are “resist-ing,” that is, breaking the working alliance.
THEORY
The working alliance is established between people and their therapists, and consists of a contract whereby the person in treatment agrees to
attend sessions at the scheduled time,
pay for the therapist's time in the manner the therapist requires,
pay for missed appointments as is the therapist's policy
agree they have a problem, and talk
In return, the therapist agrees
to listen carefully, and
to offer ideas about the problems that may help people in treat-ment better understand themselves.
