Thanks to Ryan Howes for this next series of posts, for he is doing a project in which he contacted several influential psychotherapists and asked seven questions regarding their approach to psychotherapy. Over the next week or so, I will answer these questions in terms of my own work, so I can represent the not-influential Jungian psychotherapists.
Here are the questions:
1. How would you respond to a new client who asks: "What should I talk about?"
2. What do clients find most difficult about the therapeutic process?
3. What mistakes do therapists make that hinder the therapeutic process?
4. In your opinion, what is the ultimate goal of therapy?
5. What is the toughest part of being a therapist?
6. What is the most enjoyable or rewarding part of being a therapist?
7. What is one pearl of wisdom you would offer clients about therapy?
I want to start with this quote from Jung, because it establishes the ground for the approach I take.
"The psychotherapist...must decide in every single case whether or not he is willing to stand by a human being with counsel and help on what may be a daring misadventure. He must have no fixed ideas about what is right, nor must he pretend to know what is right." (CW 11, para. 53)
When a new patient comes to see me for the first time, I suggest she tell me about herself. That is usually enough to get things started. I do not do a structured interview. In this first session, I am listening for basic background information, for what she doesn't tell me as much as for what she does. I see how she frames the problems or issues which concern her most. I interrupt only to get clarification or if there is something I don't understand. This is a way to help her get used to the reality that this is her time, to use as she wished and that the subject of our sessions will be what she brings, that I do not set the agenda or the topic.