ABSTRACT
This chapter contains two Clinical Pearls (CP), aphorisms that the author has used during his career as a psychotherapist and a supervisor to advance the therapeutic process. Psychotherapy patients sometimes ask their therapists to undertake an action on their behalf. Neophyte therapists especially find such requests unsettling for several reasons. A basic rule of therapy assists therapists with this dilemma: Requests for action are to be explored before any decision regarding action is made. This chapter describes an example of how supervisory input helps avoid this misstep.
The second CP considers a variety of therapist considerations regarding patients’ questions: Is the question a real question or is it a demand; should the question be answered immediately, after its exploration or never; in what phase of therapy is the question being asked; what are the feelings or motivations that generated the question, etc. Answering patients’ questions truthfully without being shaming or judgmental is a therapeutic challenge.
The two CPs in this chapter are: To a patient who frequently requests that the therapist do something: “How would you feel if I did what you asked and how would you feel if I declined to do what you asked?” and “How did you think about the question your patient just asked you?” (spoken to my supervisee).
