THERAPIST AS ALLY

• Mission Statement by Jessica Broitman, 11/9/96
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    • how people respond to trauma by Jessica Broitman, 12/14/96
      
      

We have certainly seen that patients do fit their work to the style and the length of their treatment. I agree with you - one's theoretical approach has a big effect upon the way in which you approach your patients. The Control Mastery approach encourages therapists to ally with their patients. We believe that patients want to get better and will with our help. We strive to help them understand the beliefs and fears that have inhibited their growth.

Anxiety rarely helps people feel safe enough to remember and understand what has inhibited them. We believe that their defenses were created in an adaptive attempt to ward off some real or imagined danger. We try to help people to re-appraise their current reality in order to determine if the danger is real or still present. We find that often it was exaggerated or imagined and with this understanding patients are freed to lift repressions and uncover repressed identifications, compliance's and gain insights into their difficulties. It is very different from approaches which feel that patients are resisting due to a desire to remain sick or continue to receive infantile gratification's.

We find our patients are unhappy and want to change. They are often unconscious about the reasons they find it so hard to do so. The use of the concept of pathogenic beliefs is very helpful. Patients can use and relate to the idea that they have unproductive ideas that impede their progress. It is amazing to see the relief patients experience when they come to understand that they aren't crazy- that they did what they thought would be the best thing or the best way to handle a situation.

• A Focus on Feeling by Ellen Dornelas, 12/27/96