ABSTRACT
This chapter describes in practical detail the nuts and bolts of the author’s method. The specific protocol is outlined: from the first patient phone call and initial sessions to termination and all that happens in between. The content functions as a guidebook for easy reference throughout a therapist’s career. Skill development is enhanced overtime. Establishing a stable container (Jung’s term) is an essential element in creating successful treatment outcomes. The author encourages therapists to create their own individualized treatment contract, including purpose of therapy, therapist’s approach, treatment goals, confidentiality agreement, fees, scheduling, cancellation policy, legal arbitration agreement, and a paragraph on resistance. Patients have persistent resistance to change and often break rules in life; therefore the frame holds patients in stable way and allows progress without treatment unraveling due to breaks or impulsive terminations. Masterson used the term therapeutic frame and Reich discussed teaching the patient how to do therapy. The chapter discusses business aspects of therapy practice: marketing, websites, creating a business model that encourages a lucrative practice—skills not taught in graduate school that many mature professionals have not mastered. Clinicians falter at holding the therapeutic frame, thus compromising treatment as well as affecting the bottom line. Supervision sessions provide examples of difficulties therapists encounter.
