Book review

Book Review: Idiosyncratic Person-Centred Therapy: From the personal to the universal.

Suzanne Keys (Ed.).

Reviewed by Geiser, C.

Review | From volume/issue: 4.1 | Pages:

Carl Rogers and Eugene Gendlin on the Bodily Felt Sense: What they share and where they differ.

Ikemi, A.

Article | From volume/issue: 4.1 | Pages: 31 - 42

Keywords: bodily felt sense, Carl Rogers, Eugene Gendlin, client centered therapy, focusing-oriented psychotherapy

Abstract: Client-Centered Therapy developed by Carl Rogers and Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy developed by Eugene Gendlin share much, and yet they differ in many ways. This paper discusses the bodily felt sense as a significant phenomenon in both Rogers’ and Gendlin’s theories. Through an examination of their theories, the author suggests that it may have been Rogers who first made rudimentary
observations of bodily felt senses, or sensory and visceral experiences, and their significance in therapy.
Rogers also made some observations before Eugene Gendlin regarding the experiential process, although
Rogers made no explicit attempt to facilitate that process. Different theoretical paradigms used by Rogers
and Gendlin to understand the bodily felt sense are discussed. Moreover, the paper suggests that later, Rogers seems to have assimilated parts of Gendlin’s experiential theory, signifying a general understanding between them: that is, the experiential process happens in a certain manner of relationship characterized by empathy and acceptance.

Editorial : Expanding the Dialogue.

Elliott, R., Mearns, D., Schmid, P.F., Stiles, W.B.

Editorial | From volume/issue: 4.1 | Pages:

Book review

Grundbegriffe der Personzentrierten und Focusing-orientierten Psychotherapie und Beratung

Gerhard Stumm, Johannes Wiltschko, and Wolfgang W. Keil (Eds.).

Reviewed by Korbei, L and Sauer, J

Review | From volume/issue: 4.1 | Pages:

Process Differentiation by Space Differentiation in Experiential Psychotherapy

Depestele, F.

Article | From volume/issue: 4.1 | Pages:

Keywords: experiencing, experiential psychotherapy, therapeutic change, therapeutic spaces, focusing, process differentiation, psychopathology, diagnosis

Abstract: Upon coming into therapy, the client first creates with the therapist a relationship space, within which the reflection space then develops. Reflecting on a felt sense occurs in the focusing space, and explicating it happens in the symbolization space. When new ideas pop up after the session, experiencing symbolizes itself in the self-symbolization space. The spaces imply each other, and can be organized into a scheme. We can differentiate distinct manners of problematic being, e.g. by the way the client enters each consecutive space. The client’s manners of being are differentiated not so much on the macro-level (e.g. depressive or obsessional functioning) but on the micro-level, e.g. by self-criticism and rationalizing, which interrupt the person’s experiencing. In doing so we also can refine the necessary therapist responses; for example, how the therapist can respond to the rationalizing client so that a way is opened to the client’s experiential level.

The Integration of Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy into the Three-Phase-Model for the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Schwarwächter, P.

Article | From volume/issue: 4.1 | Pages: 4 - 19

Keywords: post traumatic stress disorder, focusing, three-phase model

Abstract: Focusing is a suitable method for the treatment of adults suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Most theorists regard the general three-phase model for the treatment of PTSD, proposed by Janet and Herman amongst others, as a general, standard model. In the literature, no description of the integration of focusing-oriented psychotherapy within the three-phase model for the treatment of PTSD can be found. This article is meant to fill that gap. It starts by describing PTSD and is followed by
a description of the three-phase model. A definition of focusing follows and its six phases are then presented. A description of the specific six-phase model of focusing within the general three-phase model for the treatment of PTSD is offered and is illustrated by case transcriptions. The article ends with a brief discussion.

The Inter-Experiential Field: Perceptions and metaperceptions in Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy.

Cooper, M.

Article | From volume/issue: 4.1 | Pages: 54 - 68

Keywords: interpersonal perception, metaperception, person-centered therapy, process-experiential therapy, interpersonal phenomenology

Abstract: How can we understand the complex nexus of interpersonal relationships from a
phenomenological, experiential standpoint? Drawing on theory and research from R. D. Laing’s
interpersonal phenomenology, social psychology, and interpersonal psychotherapy, this paper examines
the disjunctions that may arise in people’s perceptions of each other, and the highly destructive consequences
that such disjunctions can have. It explores the questions of how people perceive, and misperceive, other people’s experiences; how people perceive, and misperceive, others’ perceptions of their experiences
(‘metaperceptions’); and the implications that such an analysis has for the practice of person-centered
and experiential psychotherapy and counseling.

Working in forensic services in a person-centered way.

Proctor, G.

Article | From volume/issue: 4.1 | Pages: 20 - 30

Keywords: person-centered therapy, forensic settings, psychiatric setting, assessment, risk

Abstract: In this article, I describe how I attempted to work in a person-centered way in a forensic setting as a Clinical Psychologist in the UK. For five years I worked within a National Health Service mental health trust in the forensic services section. The three main clinical activities in my job were: clinical assessment, risk assessment and therapy. My greatest challenge was managing the ethical compromises I had to make, with little support, in order to try and help my clients within a fundamentally disempowering system. In this paper I reflect on these compromises and how far it is possible to work from a person-centered, theoretical and ethical framework within a forensic system.