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Examples of psychotherapy processes
Situation: Woman in her forties, high school teacher, depressed, low self esteem and lonely.
Problem: Client ignored and disregarded her emotional experiences completely. She labeled paying
attention to herself as “selfish” and confused healthy compassion with herself as a “pity-party”.
Therapeutic task and outcome: Identified maladaptive perception of herself. Identified habits that
undermine healthy processing of her emotions. Began to develop habits which allowed for the healthy
processing of her emotions. Felt core emotional experiences. Depression resolved. Began to pursue
her interests and interpersonal relationships with vigor.
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Situation: 38 year old man, high level government administrator. Felt anxious and was suffering
from a driving phobia (e.g. felt unable to drive on major highways).
Problem: Client was unaware of deep internal conflict. He was detached from his emotional
experiences. Felt “fine” apart from chronic experiences of “stress”.
Therapeutic task and outcome: Recognized chronic experience of “stress” as result of chronic
anxiety. Began to regulate anxiety and learned about a strong connection between feeling anxious
and angry. Resolved this automatic connection and instead developed capacity to feel and process
anger productively. Chronic anxiety and driving phobia resolved.
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Situation: 30 year old mother of newborn and two year old. Felt she was “losing it”, depressed and worried about loss of impulse control, and berated herself for angry outbursts with her children.
Problem: Client was sleep deprived and needed help in the care of her older child. Client was oblivious to her own needs and overextended herself.
Therapeutic task and outcome: Began to appreciate her situation more fully. Saw that she needed temporary help with sleep deprivation. Began to attend to herself. Learned to recognize internal cues of her anger and began to express anger productively towards her husband. Learned to direct her anger toward her children productively.
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Situation: Man in his early fifties, high level manager, felt disrespected by sons and wife. Felt lonely.
Problem: Client disrespected himself in subtle ways. Was not aware that he also “invited” others to disrespect him.
Therapeutic task and outcome: Identified habits by which he dismissed himself. Learned to pay attention to his own experiences. Began to stand up for himself which increased family’s respect. Processed deep feelings and was able to develop more intimate relationships with his wife and son.
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