Abstract
I first briefly review the “dodo bird verdict” and suggest that we should be responding to it by looking for a new way to conceptualize how therapy works. Then I describe the dominant “medical” or “treatment” model of psychotherapy and how it puts the client in the position of a “dependent variable” who is operated on by supposedly potent therapeutic techniques. Next I argue that the data do not fit with this model. An alternative model is that the client is the most important common factor and that it is clients' self-healing capacities which make therapy work. I then argue that therapy has two phases—the involvement phase and the learning phase—and that the involvement phase is the most important. I next review the five learning opportunities provided by therapy. Finally, I argue that a relational model of therapy focused on consultation, collaboration, and dialogue is better than a treatment model.
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Bohart, A.C. The Client Is the Most Important Common Factor: Clients' Self-Healing Capacities and Psychotherapy. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration 10, 127–149 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009444132104
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009444132104