Identify the type of therapy going on in each example. State the specific techniques being used by the therapist which indicated to you which approach is being used. Also, some of these (not all) are actual transcripts from real therapy sessions. Try to guess which famous therapist is doing the therapy. NOTE: Not all the types of therapy in the book are illustrated here.
Therapist: I don't know what you might want to talk about, but I'm very ready to hear. We have half an hour, and I hope we can get to know each other. Do you want to tell me whatever is on your mind?
Client: I'm having a lot of problems dealing with my daughter. She's 20 years old; she's in college; I'm having a lot of trouble letting her go...Yeah, I can really feel her stepping back.
T: Umm-Hmm, Umm-Hmm.
PAUSE
T: Pulling away from you.
C: Yeah...Going away.
T: You feel her sort of slipping away...and it hurts...
C: Yeah, I'm sort of sitting here alone. I guess, like, you know, I can feel her gone and I'm just left here.
T: Umm-Hmm. Umm-Hmm. You're experiencing it right now.
C: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel really lonely. [Cries.]
T: [hands C a box of Kleenex.]
C: Thank you. [Laughs.]
Therapist: All right, what do you want to start on first?
Client: I don't know. I'm petrified at the moment!
T: You're petrified--of what?
C: Of you!
T: No, surely not of me--perhaps of yourself.
C: [Laughs nervously.]
T: Because of what I am going to do to you?
C: Right! You are threatening me, I guess.
T: But how? What am I doing? Obviously I am not going to take out a knife and stab you. Now, in what way am I threatening you?
C: I guess I'm afraid, perhaps, of what I'm going to find out--about me.
T: Well, so let's suppose you find out something dreadful about you--that you're thinking foolishly or something. Now why would that be awful?
C: Because I, I guess I'm the most important thing to me at the moment.
T: No, I don't think that's the answer. It's, I believe, the opposite! You're really the least important thing to you. You are prepared to beat yourself over the head if I tell you that you're acting foolishly. If you were not a self-blamer, then you wouldn't care what I said. It would be important to you--but you'd just go around correcting it. But if I tell you something really negative about you, you're going to beat yourself mercilessly. Aren't you?
C: Yes, I generally do.
Therapist: Tell me about your holiday weekend.
Patient: I am not sure I am happy to be back in treatment. I didn't enjoy my visit to my parents. I feel so confined when I'm there. My mother was bossy, aggressive, manipulative, as always. I feel sorry for my father. She watches over him like a hawk. She has such a sharp tongue and cruel mouth. She makes people feel small. She is like a hawk. I always feel like she is hovering over me ready to swoop down on me. She intimidates me just like my wife.
T: Go on.
P: I feel restrained in the city. I need the open fresh air; I have to stretch my legs. I'm sorry I gave up the house I had in the country. I have to get away from the city.
T: You seem to be describing various situations in which you feel confined. You are afraid of being trapped. Tell me more about that.
P: I do get symptoms of claustrophobia from time to time. They're mild, just a slight anxiety. It happens when the elevator stops between floors or when a train gets stuck between stations. I begin to worry about how I will get out.
T: [Makes note to self about patient feeling claustrophobic about the therapy. Also, notes connection to the idea of being controlled by his mother. ] Let's talk more about your mother.
P: I'm really chicken. It's a wonder I was ever able to have relations at all and to get married. My mother was always after me, 'Be careful about getting involved with girls; they'll get you into trouble. They'll be after your money.' She made it all sound so dangerous. You can get hurt from this, you can get hurt from that.
T: Your fear of enclosed spaces is a conscious expression of your unconscious desire to have a relationship with your mother, and of your fear, stemming from her threatening personality, that like a hawk, she will swoop down and devour you.
Therapist: What types of situations are most upsetting to you?
Patient: When I do poorly in sports, particularly swimming. I'm on the swim team. Also, if I make a mistake , even when I play cards with my roommates. I feel really upset if I get rejects by a girl.
T: What thoughts go through your mind, let's say, when you don't do so well at swimming?
P: I think people will think much less of me if I'm not on top, a winner.
T: And how about if you make a mistake playing cards?
P: I doubt my own intelligence.
T: And if a girl rejects you?
P: It means I'm not special. I lose value as a person.
T: Do you see any connections here, among these thoughts?
P: Well, I guess my mood depends on what other people think of me. But that's important. I don't want to be lonely.
T: What would that mean to you, to be lonely?
P: It would mean there's something wrong with me, that I'm a loser.
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