Arthur C. Bohart

The Active Client: Therapy as Self-Help

A model of how therapy works is proposed that locates the source of therapeutic change in the client, while the therapist is the provider of opportunities, ideas, and experiences. Ultimately all therapy is self-help. This model is contrasted with the medical-like model of therapy as treatment and hopes to account for research findings of equal effectiveness among different therapies. Although the active client model developed from existential-humanistic ideas, it can be compatible with all approaches.

Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Means Evidence-Informed, Not Evidence-Driven

Some advocates of empirically-supported treatments (ESTs) argue that practitioners who do not use them are practicing unethically. I argue that it is unethical to try to impose EST criteria on the field of psychotherapy practice when (a) there is considerable controversy over these criteria, (b) there are alternative ways to construe evidence-based practice, and (c) by other criteria many approaches are evidence-based. I consider views of the relationship of science to practice, and other bases for practice such as practical knowledge and ethics. I conclude with a case history of client-centered therapy.

INTUITION AND CREATIVITY IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

Human beings use cognition creatively. Rather than concepts and schemas forming the structure of mind through which stimuli are filtered and processed, human beings are continually modifying and using concepts to try to deal with everyday life problems. Creativity also arises from tacit, intuitive knowing. Such knowing is grounded in bodily, experiential knowledge, which is nonconceptual. At the most basic level, human beings know the world more in terms of its aesthetics than in terms of the kind of conceptual analysis postulated by those who model the human after a naive scientist. The creative process is one of articulating tacit or experiential knowing in words or symbols, and then revising those words and symbols. Therapists also use this process. Creativity and the use of intuition in therapy are described, and a case history given.

Can you be integrative and a person-centered therapist at the same time?

I argue that person-centered therapy is a “fuzzy set” with a variety of members that bear a family resemblance to one another. I suggest that some members of this fuzzy set are approaches that integrate various activities and procedures into their practice along with traditional empathic understanding responses. Based on quotations from Carl Rogers I demonstrate that these approaches deserve to be included as members of the family and that if one follows what Rogers said there is no warrant for the idea that classical nondirective practice is the only “true” person-centered therapy. I argue that one can practice person-centered therapy in an integrative way by including techniques and procedures from other approaches, by meeting at relational depth, and by focusing on experiencing and emotions. I conclude by arguing that it is important that we be open to alternative ways of actualizing person-centered principles.

Configurationism: Constructivism from an experiential perspective

Abstract From an ecological perspective, humans are built to detect important meanings in their life spaces. These meanings are not so much imposed on reality as already there in reality. Howeuer, humans still construct their realities in the sense that what patterns of meaning they respond to are differentially determined by what they attend to. Thus they configure their realities. Humans experience their realities primarily in terms of nonverbal, nonconceptual detection of meaning patterns. Perception needs to be distinguished from cognition, and it is argued that the “human as aesthetic experiencer” is a better model of how humans function than the “human as naive scientist”. Implications for psychotherapy, such as for the concepts of resistance and transference, are discussed.

A client-centered perspective on ‘psychopathology’

ABSTRACT I present a client-centered perspective on psychopathology. People have a natural capacity for self-regeneration, self-healing, intelligent functioning, and self-organizing wisdom. Psychopathology occurs when various factors get in the way of people productively utilizing that capacity. Conditions of worth are a major factor. Conditions of worth are ubiquitous, not just occurring in early childhood. We need to change society in order to change psychopathology.

Response to Comment by Carere-Comes

Carere-Comas is concerned that I have elevated the client as a hero. I point out that what I really am arguing for is a paradigm shift from therapy as treatment to therapy as mutual, intelligent collaboration. I also discuss what it means to say that the client knows what he or she wants and needs. Finally I discuss the idea that it is the client who makes therapy happen.

Review of Charles O’Leary’s The Practice of Person-Centred Couple and Family Therapy

This review reflects the perspectives of the three coauthors. Although it was originally Arthur Bohart who was asked to do the review, he thought it would be of interest to have the opinions of two advanced graduate students. The three of us read the book and then met to discuss it. Art then wrote a draft and ran it by the other two coauthors. The final piece reflects the consensus of the three of us.

Two Methods of Interpersonal Skills Training; Conceptual- versus Response-Oriented Approaches.

It has been suggested that the effectiveness of a helping person or therapist is related more to basic interpersonal qualities-such as warmth, empathy, and genuineness (WEG)-than it is to the use of specific teahniques, or skills (Rogers, 1961; Truax and Carkhuff, 1967; Truax and Mitchell, 1971). Furthermore, it has been suggested that these qualities are important to a variety of interpersonal relations other than the counseling relationship (Carkhuff, 1971). Carkhuff and Berenson (1967) have even suggested that the high-level counselor is high in personal and interpersonal effectiveness in general. This suggests that the higher a person is in WEG, the more effective a person he or she will be in general. If, then, someone could be trained to be high in these qualities, it might lead to an increase in his/her ability to relate in situations other than those associated with counseling or helping relationships. In particular, such training might lead to an increase in &dquo;social comfort&dquo; or &dquo;ease to be around&dquo; for other people. The implications of this for a &dquo;community&dquo; approach to psychology