Sometimes I wonder how many therapists read the required textbook (at least at my school): "Escape from Babel", a book where Miller, Duncan and Hubble share that even though the realm of psychotherapy is dividing itself into an endless number of models, research shows that it doesn't matter which approach you adopt or technique you use; there are factors that DO matter, but that those elements are trans-theoretical.
Studies show that the healing effects of psychotherapy are not due to a particular method or technique; they are mostly due to the relationship between client and therapist. I think that's really helpful info because it keeps us from developing a guru-seeking approach to healing, drinking kool-aid in various flavours.
When I first wrote my thesis on my experience of Mindfulness meditation in 2010 people shamed me. Some said it was too Eastern for Christian clients, some said it was too obscure and too vague to have anything to do with therapy, some even said I shouldn't be interested in the East if I am white. Five years later, I could not pick up a counselling magazine or walk into a yoga studio WITHOUT seeing "Mindful (this or that - fill in the blank)".
Mindfulness was everywhere and no approach could now be more mainstream. I'm not sure if it's because so many meditation teachers learned Somatic Experiencing (SE), as well, but the next big wave that I noticed was SE. You had all the very cool new teachers who were doing trauma work telling the world that the era of talk therapy was done and "the real work" was all happening in the body (as if the mind and words are somehow not part of the package now).
Next it was EMDR that was all the rage. After that it became IFS. Therapists and clients alike got on whatever train was going and proclaimed it to be THE BEST, the thing that would "change the world". They proclaimed their allegiance to the masters and models that they liked best and said it was THE WAY.
Well, if you know me then you know that I like to shake free from dogma and rigidity whenever I get the chance!
Respect for the client's viewpoint means that we are going to have to know more than one theory well. Respect for our own clinical intuition means that if we know too many theories then we get bogged down by confusion and don't get to settle into a home-base. The client might ask for a particular theory, but they may not know why. For example, they may've heard that there was a therapy style that worked with parts called IFS and because they are not therapists they don't know that there are many styles that work with parts dating back to the first Western integrators of parts work, Freud and Jung, the very first psychiatrists in the Western world. Of course, Jung drew from Myths of various cultures and at various times in history so never proclaimed to create the idea of "parts".
If you are a therapist than in respect of your own personal style, you may choose to work in the way that the client is requesting, or ... with some clinical acumen ... you may share some information with them that helps them understand what you think might be most helpful right now based on your own particular lens and see if they want to give it a try.
I recently did a training in a style of therapy that is very, very popular and yet the clinician teaching it did not attune to the students needs at all. It left me feeling quite turned off by the whole approach. This is because the same rule applies for therapists in training that applies for therapists doing client work: the most important factor leading to successful outcomes is the therapeutic relationship.
I hope we can all remember that it's not about the techniques, as if the tools techniques are a panacea or something happening "to" us. The client is the hero/heroine of the story and the therapist is in a privileged role of companion. Approaches are only helpful in so far as providing structure for the clients to experience new ways of thinking and being.
I hope we all as therapists remember that this work is very sacred and can learn to be aware of any agendas we may have to use a particular or popular theory. In my experience, that confident humility is what keeps clients coming back - they feel your presence and care and they appreciate having another human who wants to witness and participate in their learning and growth.
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