Table Of ContentPragmatic Existential Counseling and Psychotherapy
2
To Viktor Frankl who lit a new path for my life
And to Susan Bernadett-Shapiro who has walked with me down that winding road
3
Pragmatic Existential Counseling and Psychotherapy
Intimacy, Intuition, and the Search for Meaning
Jerrold Lee Shapiro
Santa Clara University
4
FOR INFORMATION:
SAGE Publications, Inc.
2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320
E-mail: [email protected]
SAGE Publications Ltd.
1 Oliver’s Yard
55 City Road
London EC1Y 1SP
United Kingdom
SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area
Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044
India
SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte. Ltd.
3 Church Street
#10-04 Samsung Hub
Singapore 049483
Copyright © 2016 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shapiro, Jerrold Lee.
Pragmatic existential counseling and psychotherapy: intimacy, intuition and the search for meaning/Jerrold Lee Shapiro, Santa Clara University.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4833-6899-3 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Counseling. 2. Existential psychology. 3. Psychotherapy. I. Title.
BF636.6.S53 2016
158.3—dc23 2015024099
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Acquisitions Editor: Kassie Graves
Editorial Assistant: Carrie Montoya
Production Editor: Bennie Clark Allen
Copy Editor: Michelle Ponce
5
Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.
Proofreader: Annie Lubinsky
Indexer: Karen Wiley
Cover Designer: Glenn Vogel
Marketing Manager: Shari Countryman
eLearning Editor: Lucy Berbeo
6
Brief Contents
1. Preface
2. Acknowledgments
3. About the Author
4. 1. Context: The Author’s Life as an Existential Experiment
5. 2. How Philosophy Becomes Therapy
6. 3. Essential Concepts and Themes in Theory and Therapy
7. 4. Existential Counseling and Psychotherapy: Strategies, Qualities, and Methods
8. 5. The Centrality of Resistance in Counseling and Therapy
9. 6. Using All the Data: How Do Therapists Know What They Know?
10. 7. The Four Epigenetic Phases of Psychotherapy
11. 8. Show Me the Evidence! What Is the Proof That Existential Therapy Works?
12. 9. Beyond the I-Thou Dyad: Group, Couple, and Family Therapy
13. 10. Gender and Culture in Existential Therapy
14. 11. Life Transitions and Existential Psychotherapy
15. 12. An Existential Case Study
16. References
17. Index
7
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
1. Context: The Author’s Life as an Existential Experiment
The Personal: How I Became an Existential Therapist
Early “Existential” Moments
A New Context
Postgrad Existential Experiences: Renewed Contact With Dr. Frankl
Finding Meaning in a Chance Meeting in Guam
Another Strange Site for Insight
True Existential Moments
The More Things Change...
The Professional Context
The Reach of Existential Approaches to Counseling and Psychotherapy
Subjective Realities
The Salience of Context
An Existential Orientation
Our Journey
2. How Philosophy Becomes Therapy
Existential Philosophy
Dual Trends
Philosophy Becomes Therapy
Divergent Existential Therapies
European Schools
British Existential Therapy
Logotherapy (Meaning-Oriented Therapies)
European and American Existentialism
American Existential Psychotherapy
The Pragmatic Existential Orientation of This Book
3. Essential Concepts and Themes in Theory and Therapy
Roots
Related Influences
A Brief Introduction to a Pragmatic Existential Therapy
Subjective Reality and Seeking Meaning
Who Is the Patient: Disease or Person With Dis-ease?
It’s the Relationship!
Real Versus Transference Relationship
8
Inductive and Deductive
Hanging the Unmentionables on the Clothesline
Process Is Content in Context
Freedom and Security
Existential Anxiety; Neurotic Anxiety
Therapy in Real Time: The Here and Now
Attribution of Meaning
Parallel Process: Déjà Vu All Over Again
The Goals of Existential Counseling or Psychotherapy?
4. Existential Counseling and Psychotherapy: Strategies, Qualities, and Methods
Anxiety: The Engine of Change
Ahistorical Focus
Memory as Creative
Turning Report Into Reality
Asocial Interventions
Working From Within
The Benefits of a Positive Psychology
Positive Psychology Retrospective
Maximizing Therapeutic Effects
Hope
Consequences: Is It Working Out the Way You Hoped?
Therapist Self-Disclosure
Trust in the Therapist’s Ability
Existential Methods
5. The Centrality of Resistance in Counseling and Therapy
Resistance in this Existential Framework
A Brief History of Resistance and Healing
Rituals, Ordeals, and Witnessing
Maximizing Placebo in Psychotherapy and Counseling
Resistance Across Theories
Psychodynamic Theories and the Adaptive Nature of Resistance
Cognitive and Behavior Therapies and Resistance
Resistance Between and Resistance Within
A Pragmatic Model of Dealing With Resistance in (Existential) Counseling and Therapy
Systematizing Intuition
Resistance Styles
The Cognitive External Style
Joining Cognitive External Resistance
The Affective External Style
Joining Affective External Resistance
9
The Cognitive Internal Style
Joining Cognitive Internal Resistance
The Affective Internal Style
Joining Affective Internal Resistance
The Cognitive Away Style
Joining Cognitive Away Resistance
The Affective Away Style
Joining Affective Away Resistance
Joining Must Be Authentic
It Seems Counterintuitive. Why Does This Work?
Clara and the Wedding Invitation
The Case of Thomas
Think France in the Early 1940s: Join the Resistance!
6. Using All the Data: How Do Therapists Know What They Know?
The Nature of Human Communication
Verbal and Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal Messages Sent From Therapists to Clients
Metacommunication
Why Consequences?
Communication and the State of the Receiver
Confirmation Bias
The Therapy Context and Communication
The Psychotherapy Context
Therapists’ Processing Systems: The Use of Self
Content and Process: Revisited
Linear Sources (Empirical/Observable Data)
Nonlinear (Intuitive) Sources of Data
The Inner Life of Therapists
The Brain and Communication
Feelings (Kinesthetic Imagery)
Visual Imagery
Auditory Imagery
Symbols
Representational Systems
Metaphors and Stories
Free Association
The Value and Dangers of Self-Data
Know Thyself
The Aware Therapist
7. The Four Epigenetic Phases of Psychotherapy
10
