Unit on finding a focus in therapy

Slide 1: Focus...

Slide 2: In crisis, people

• Often feel shameful, bad, or broken
• Are lost and confused
• Think dichotomously and can't see options
• Have difficulty trying something new

Slide 3: Our job is help people find a way through the maze of the problems they face.

• But remember, they haven’t always been this way, regardless of what they say...
• Listen for successes & solutions

Slide 4: What do people do when in crisis?

• Avoid the problem
• Try their solution harder and faster
• Try something else
• Turn to the people around them
• Give up
• Go into therapy
• Note: Only the last of these involves seeing a therapist!

Slide 5: A first way of looking at focus:

• Therapeutic models

Slide 6: Models of therapy identify:

• Different problems
• Little self-acceptance?
• Maladaptive cognitions?
• Maladaptive coping mechanisms? etc.

Slide 7: Models of therapy identify:

• Different strategies for handling these
• Little self-acceptance.......accept, so they can self-accept
• Self-defeating thoughts.......teach healthier thought patterns
• Poor coping.......remove barriers to coping

Slide 8: The “problem” and therapeutic strategy are always related...

Slide 9: Models approach problems differently...

• But they are just different approaches to the problem
• But focus on different pieces of the same puzzle

Slide 10: A second way of looking at focus:

• Therapeutic models
• Treatment plans

Slide 11: Treatment plans

• Treatment plans
• Help client and therapist develop collaborative goals for their time together
• Provide therapist and client a “map” for treatment
• Can increase hopefulness and self-efficacy
• Make change easy to recognize
• Are always based on the model

Slide 12: Content of a treatment plan:

Slide 13: A third way of looking at focus:

• Therapeutic models
• Treatment plans
• Strategies within a session

Slide 14: Each intervention has a focus

• Client.  What does the client think, feel, or do?
• The problem. Develop the main theme or describe problems.
• Other.  What do other people think, feel, or do?
• Family. Focus on family patterns or relationships.
• Mutuality. Focus on therapist/client relationship.
• Therapist. What does therapist think, feel, or do?
• Culture and context. What is effect of context?
• How did you feel being the only woman at a meeting where women were sexualized and objectified?

Slide 15: Levels of focus

• Client
• Problem
• Others
• Family
• Mutuality
• Therapist
• Culture and context

Page by jms
URL= http://psy1.clarion.edu/jms/cptfocuspp.html

Last modified September 24, 2001.