What is distinctive about the clinical interview in CT

The following excerpt from the chapter Dr. Beck and I are writing for the second edition of Major Theories of Personality Disorder highlights what we see as being distinctive about Cognitive Therapy's approach to the clinical interview:

"The approach used in Cognitive Therapy has been described as "collaborative empiricism" (Beck, et al., 1979, Chapt. 3). The therapist endeavors to work with the client to help him or her to recognize the factors that contribute to problems, to test the validity of the thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions which prove important, and to make the necessary changes in cognition and behavior. While it is clear that very different therapeutic approaches ranging from philosophical debate to operant conditioning can be effective with at least some clients, collaborative empiricism has substantial advantages. By actively collaborating with the client, the therapist minimizes the resistance and oppositionality which is often elicited by taking an authoritarian role, yet the therapist is still in a position to structure each session as well as the overall course of therapy so as to be as efficient and effective as possible (Beck, et al., 1979, Chapt. 4).

One part of this collaborative approach is an emphasis on a process of "guided discovery." If the therapist guides the client by asking questions, making observations, and asking the client to monitor relevant aspects of the situation, the therapist can help the client develop an understanding of his or her problems, explore possible solutions, develop plans for dealing with the problems, and implement the plans quite effectively. Guided discovery has an advantage over approaches in which the therapist unilaterally develops an understanding of the problems and proposes solutions in that it maximizes client involvement in therapy sessions and minimizes the possibility of the client's feeling that the therapist' ideas are being imposed on the client. In addition, since the client is actively involved in the process of developing an understanding of the problems and coming up with a solution, the client also has an opportunity to learn an effective approach to dealing with problems and should be better able to deal with future problems when they arise."

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