Germain Lietaer

Moments of empowerment: A qualitative analysis of positively experienced episodes in brief person-centred counselling

38 positively experienced episodes in brief person-centred counselling with six clients were analysed. The Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) method was used as the prime research tool. Clients were asked to identify positively experienced moments in the counselling session during a post-session review interview. Clients and counsellors were invited to report on the feelings, perceptions and intentions they recalled experiencing during these moments. Three analyses were used to categorise the meaning and feeling quality of these moments, and a taxonomy of types of positively experienced episodes was also created. The most frequently reported positive client experiences were associated with empowerment, safety and insight. Other significant themes emerging from the analysis included: freedom in the relationship, shortcomings of the relationship, assurance of the relationship, unfolding of the clients personal meaning, and the importance of the counsellors presence. Taxonomy of episodes revealed nine cate...

Psychology and psychotherapy in health care: A review of legal regulations in 17 European countries

During the last 20 years, psychological interventions and Psychotherapy have acquired a modest but significant place in health care. The lack of a uniform legal definition of these professional activities in the domain of health care hampers quality control of training programs and delivered services and complicates coordination of care. Training requirements are not always made explicit, and often there are no mechanisms for quality control or for monitoring compliance with ethical codes of conduct. In this review, the legal regulation of the professional activity of psychologists in health care and of psychotherapists in 17 European countries is examined. Eleven of these have adopted a legal regulation the title and the professional activities of psychologists in health care. Seven have an additional law regulating the title and the professional activities of psychotherapists. In five countries, professionals other than psychologists and medical doctors can obtain a legally protected title and license to practice as a psychotherapist. Conclusions are drawn concerning the available models of regulation of psychotherapy and their respective consequences.

Working with the inner critic: Process features and pathways to change

The inner critic symbolizes the strict, inner normative voice that interferes with the individuals organismic experiencing process. It forms an essential characteristic for various psychological disorders (including depressive disorder, eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder) and leaves traces of its presence in therapy. Although self-criticism has been a topic of interest in psychotherapy literature for several decades, systematic model building and research on the self-critical process has been rather limited, with the exception of dialectical-constructivistic theories and Emotion-Focused Therapy. In this paper a comprehensive microtheory is presented that offers a detailed and differentiated look at the specific ways the inner critic manifests itself in the concrete psychotherapy situation. The microtheory has been developed by a profound literature review and a detailed analysis of a varied sample of therapy episodes (N = 75) in which the inner critic was salient. Diverse process aspects are distinguished that can be present to a lesser or greater extent; the configuration of these process aspects determines the specific “form” in which the inner critic manifests itself in therapy. Also various pathways to change are discerned which lead to the inner critic evolving into a more adaptive self-aspect, becoming part of the flexible and dynamic self-process in a coherent way. Not all of these pathways need to be explored in the psychotherapeutic process. Depending on the nature and intensity of the inner critic some pathways will be more appropriate than others.

De gewetensfunctie en de innerlijke criticus in het oeuvre van Rogers

Sinds de jaren tachtig is in de cliëntgericht-experiëntiële psychotherapie de klemtoon verschoven van een universele aanpak naar een meer procesdiagnostische en -directieve benadering. Een voorbeeld hiervan is het werken met de innerlijke criticus. Hier gaan we na of Carl Rogers in zijn geschriften impliciet een procesvisie heeft ontwikkeld met betrekking tot de problematiek van de innerlijke criticus. Vertrekkende vanuit zijn conceptualisering van de gewetensfunctie en de destructieve uitloper ervan hebben we een aantal proceskenmerken van de innerlijke criticus kunnen afleiden. We kregen inzicht in de wijze waarop de criticus op een constructieve manier kan evolueren en welke veranderingscomponenten hierin betrokken zijn. Ten slotte konden uit het werk van Rogers een aantal impliciete procesgedachten worden gedistilleerd over zijn therapeutische aanpak van de innerlijke criticus.

Working with the inner critic: Therapeutic approach

The inner critic refers to a well-integrated system of critical and negative thoughts and attitudes of the self that interferes with the individuals organismic experiencing process. In a previous article published in the same issue (Working with the inner critic: Process features and pathways to change), we demonstrated that the critic exhibits during therapy through a variety of manifestations and different degrees of intensity. Several pathways to change need to take place in order for this process blockage to evolve in a more adaptive self-aspect. In this article we offer a differentiated look of what therapists can do in concrete terms in order to facilitate these pathways of change. A comprehensive and varied sample of therapy episodes in which the inner critic was salient, was analyzed in depth. The research demonstrated that a variety of strategies was used to encourage the inner critic into motion. A flexible approach, tailored to the nature and intensity of the inner critic, appeared to offer the best chance of success. A critic-friendly approach that is attuning to the critics feelings and concerns and valorizing these appeared to be more beneficial when the critic manifested itself in a stubborn and intensive way. Where the critic presented a milder manifestation the critic could be more easily set aside at a distance or contact could be made with the suppressed organismic experience. Maintaining a uniform approach to the problem without any regard to the way in which the critic was gradually being expressed, appeared to delay the therapy process or even, in certain cases, to be counter-therapeutic, particularly where the critic was quite intense.

Client perception of hindering factors in group psychotherapy and growth groups: no growth without pain? An empirical exploration

As part of the Leuven Group Psychotherapy Process Study, a questionnaire to assess group participants’ perceptions of hindering factors in group sessions was administered to 489 members of 78 psychotherapy and experiential learning groups of client-centered/experiential, psychoanalytic, behavioral, Gestalt, drama- and body-oriented orientations. In this article we focus on the specific meaning and impact of these hindering factors. Within this inquiry the following questions are empirically investigated: To what degree do group members experience these hindering factors and to what degree do they experience them as harmful? How do these hindering factors relate to therapeutic factors and to intermediate outcome ratings? Are they experienced differently as a function of severity of group members’ problems and as a function of therapeutic orientation? The central finding of the study points to the ambiguous character of hindering factors and their potential to become converted into corrective therapeutic experiences.

The research tradition in person-centered/experiential psychotherapy and counseling: bibliographical survey 1940–2015

ABSTRACT The bibliography presents an overview of empirical research publications 1940–2015 within the person-centered-experiential-humanistic (PCE) paradigm. The survey consists of three parts: Part A. PCE outcome and process studies: A survey of overviews and meta-analyses Part B. Research instruments based on/akin to PCE concepts Part C. PCE perspectives on ideological, professional and methodological research issues: Reflections and proposals.

Introduction to the special issue on person-centered/experiential group psychotherapy and growth groups

Although many person-centered/experiential colleagues are working with groups, not much has been published during the past 15 years about group psychotherapy and counseling from a person-centered and experiential (PCE) point of view (see www.pce-literature.org), except for some survey chapters in handbooks (Lietaer & Dierick, 1996; Page, Weiss & Lietaer, 2002; Schmid & O’Hara, 2013). Therefore we wanted to invite the group therapists of our PCE community to write about their work. We were happy to receive seven manuscripts. Several authors describe how they are working in their specific settings, with specific client populations and how they try to deal with process difficulties they are confronted with. Other contributions consider important theoretical and research questions. The first three articles refer to group work with specific client populations. Spence and Smale describe the development of a time-limited group for bereaved people in a UK hospice setting. They pay particular attention to participants’ need for both the security provided by adequate structure, and the therapeutic opportunities offered by openness to the process as it develops. They also focus on areas of exploration often encountered within this group setting. Snijders, Amons and Dierick describe a person-centered/experiential approach of group therapeutic treatment for borderline clients in out-patient and day treatment. They look at the general directives that are distilled from different borderline-focused treatment models to investigate to what extent these directives can be assimilated in a PCE approach. Typical borderline processes and challenges for the group therapist – in the beginning, middle and termination phases of group development – are illustrated with clinical vignettes. Brouzos, Vassilopoulos and Baourda describe an empirical study in which they investigated the impact of member-perceived Rogerian core conditions of the group leader in a psycho-educational group for children with social anxiety problems. Their findings provide tentative support for the association of member-leader relationship with group counseling outcome and also suggest that children presenting a moderate level of change in their perception of facilitative conditions are most likely to benefit from a brief psycho-educational group. The following two articles focus on “process difficulties” in group psychotherapy. Hutchison discusses the issue – more common in group psychotherapy than in individual therapy – of anxiety-provoking situations where members may feel temporarily overwhelmed. He emphasizes the special responsibility of the group facilitator to assist in affect regulation and to help provide a safe reflective environment in which members can optimally symbolize and process their experience. On the basis of a large empirical study (on 78 groups facilitated by therapists of different orientations) Lietaer and Dierick focus on the specific meaning and impact of client-perceived

Herinneringen aan Wim Trijsburg (2)

SamenvattingToen Wim Trijsburg mij (E.C.) in 1996 belde en vroeg of ik zitting wilde nemen in de redactie van het ‘Handboek voor integratieve psychotherapie’ (het werd uiteindelijk: Trijsburg, Colijn, Collumbien & Lietaer, 1998-2005), was ik aangenaam verrast én geïnteresseerd vanwege het onderwerp ‘integratie’, maar vooral geïmponeerd door de opzet en de ambitie van dit project.