Helpful Hints for Therapists

“Every session with a client is like a new approach”

Irvin Yalom

The therapist discovers with each client how his or her current dilemmas make exact and exquisite sense.
As Harry Stack Sullivan points out (1953), much of what is ordinarily said to be repressed or suppressed is simply “unformulated”. The constant emotional attunement of the therapist helps clients explore, formulate, and tolerate their inner world. The primary focus in therapy is not then on assigning labels for dysfunction, or even on the tasks of change, but on the always evolving personhood of the client. The therapist’s central task is connecting with the client in a way that honors and expands this personhood.

Sue Johnson (Attachment Theory in Practice, p 27-8)