You and your goals matter to me.
Various psychotherapeutic approaches and techniques can be healing when offered skillfully, but outside the context of a therapeutic relationship of care, presence, and warmth it is merely technique. Psychotherapy heals in the context of a relationship of care, mutual trust, concern, and respect between the client and the therapist. My theoretical orientation to psychotherapy is what I call “the self-in-context.”
What this means is
that within each person are scenarios from the early relationships in life, and these scenarios affect how one lives into adulthood. These scenarios (for example, my father ignored me when I was a child) interact with current relationships and systems (for example, at work I try so hard to impress my male boss).
I believe that healing takes place in part by both the client and the therapist taking seriously these early scenarios and the emotions and psychodynamics which arise from them, and by understanding the current relationships and groups in a client’s life. From these interacting and reinforcing scenarios that dwell within you, you and I will find the healing opportunities for you to successfully achieve the goals you bring to therapy. An important part of this will be learning to be attentive to and manage emotions, sensations, images, and behaviors, and to discover meaning in your life.
Have you heard someone say: "Why don't you just put it in the past?"
READ Dr. Rieth's article
on this issue and her bio at the
FaithTrust Institute.
Are you in an abusive relationship?
READ her article for the RAVE project -
Religion & Violence E-Learning
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Member - Faculty of the Carolina Institute for Clinical Pastoral Therapy
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Member - Advisory Council for the AdvocateWeb.org, a resource for those seeking healing from abuse by professional and other authority figures.
