On being 'up to other things': The nondirective attitude and therapistframe responses in client-centered therapy and contemporary psychoanalysis

摘要

In this article I start with a summary of Brodley's writings on nondirectivity. I note that she acknowledged that therapist-frame responses, at times, can have an important impact on clients. However, she felt that the risks of therapist selfrepresentations far outweigh the benefits. The main purpose of the article is to provide evidence of the usefulness of responses from the therapist's framework. In one example, I demonstrate the value of the kind of therapist-frame responses that give affirmation and support to clients. In other examples I show that being "up to other things," by suggesting a change in the direction of a session, can be therapeutically helpful. Another purpose of the article is to describe thesimilarities that exist between clientcentered therapy and contemporary psycho-analysis. For example, clientcentered therapy and self psychology minimize therapist input and emphasize empathic understanding with clients. Both client-centered therapists and relational psychoanalysts seem to share a nondirective attitude, but relational analysts value and offer responses from the therapist's framework. From the clinical examples reported, I conclude that an overemphasi son empathic understanding in the client-centered approach can limit the creative and intellectual resources of the therapist. Once in a while a therapist may be "up to other things" with self-representations, so long as nondirectivity as an attitude is internally present and not forgotten.