ABSTRACT
Psychotherapy is a structured interpersonal process. The fundamental structural elements were discussed in Chapter 3. This chapter will discuss the fundamental process elements that operate over the course of treatment. Simply stated, process is how therapy works. The process of therapy involves tracking the content verbalized by clients and the interactional dynamics manifested in their behavior. From these two sources of information, the therapist constructs a conceptualization of the interactional and intrapersonal dynamics, generates hypotheses about the etiology, role, and function of the presenting problems, and formulates a treatment strategy. However, as the word “process” implies, these functions are not static.
