Technique or Therapy

• The Case of Gary: Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself? by Jim Pretzer, 8/1/97
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    • Two therapeutic approaches.....Is there a patient profile that suggests a preference? by Sisyphus, 8/22/97
      
      

Hi- Norm it is nice to see you on line again.

It is hard for me to answer your question because there are many ways and approaches to treatment that one could successfully use. I have trouble finding a category for what kinds of patients would be helped by a kind of treatment. We all use similar language but often do different things alone in our consulting rooms. So it is hard to know what one cognitive person would do different from another cognitive person.

It works best for me to think about what a patient is trying to accomplish in a particular treatment at a particular time. I then think about how I can help the patient to accomplish his or her goal- for me that is conceptualized by what belief it is that he or her is trying to disconfirm.

Jim could help the same patient by encouraging him to see the irrationality of a fear. I focus on the function fearing something has played in a person's life in-order to try to help her understand the unconscious motivations that have held the fear in place. I bet that Jim's approach would also addresses these underlying fears whether it is consciously addressed or not.

Control Mastery is a theory about how therapy and the mind works rather than a technique so one is free to use whatever approach one is comfortable with. In truth I think that we are all comfortable interacting with patients and each other in different ways. I think that there are some patients who will be better served by therapists who prefer to interact in a certain way rather than another- so in that sense it is a personal process of self awareness that will allow a therapist to know who they can better treat.

• The Corrective Emotional Experience by Sisyphus, 9/9/97