Many therapists and therapeutic systems confuse therapy with intervention. If Presence is the Being of therapy, then intervening is the Doing. These must necessarily be joined in a marriage that allows action to arise spontaneously out of the process of the moment. Intervening is the intentional act of focusing energy towards some aspect of process in order to effect a shift in the pattern of flow. This definition covers every type and form of therapeutic endeavor.
In this definition of intervening, there can never be only one way of doing therapy; there are no definitive answers. An effective therapist tries to be present in every moment and uses whatever experience, skill, knowledge, or technique is available in that moment. This creative flexibility is tempered with a clear sense of the current limitations of therapeutic understanding and skill.
Working with transpersonal integrity means that the therapist does not act beyond his or her capacity—does not experiment randomly with new and exciting techniques. Always the intention to effect flow must be coupled with awareness of that individual’s needs and nature. The techniques of intervening are in the service of the client and are used, as with all tools, with care and precision.
So what is a tool? It is an extension of the energetic system of the human being that allows something greater to happen. This applies to every kind of tool, whether it is a computer, a hammer, a bulldozer or chalk on blackboard. Technique in psychotherapy is no different. Words are carriers of energy. Words direct attention. Interpretation, experiential exercises, reflections, questions and comment are tools that focus energy in particular ways. Even non-verbal actions, such as touching or vocal inflection have the same effect.
Modes of Intervening
The most basic intervention is to be present and pay attention and this can often be enough to allow process to deepen or become unstuck. When in doubt do less rather than more. If we do too much, we begin to create a different and competing process that will tend to add complexity or create distortion for the client. The client then gets confused and unbalanced or has to think too much.
The most basic active intervention is reflection and validation. This adds a certain amount of attentive energy to the existing process that helps to move it along. It is powerful for a client to know they are heard and understood without judgment. Also, as the therapist directs attention and energy towards certain aspects of the client’s experience, there is an additive effect so that the experiential process tends to become more powerful and flowing. Experience becomes more complex rich and tends to move towards the deeper aspects.
Socratic questioning, a kind of questioning that has the intention of directing attention rather than requiring an answer, also provide energy to the client’s process. The questions must clearly aid exploration of what is important for the client, rather than following the therapist’s agenda. In this sense, a question directs the attention of the client to aspects of their experience that they have neglected or not explored yet. It must be clearly within the train of thought or feeling or topic and not a distraction or interruption.
The therapist listens, not to the content of the answer particularly, but to the way in which the process expands or articulates or changes. The next question or comment is determined by the way in which the process moves. If a question does not move the process then the therapist works to get back on track, even if this means going back to some previous topic or item. The key to useful questioning is to be interested and simple and never assume that the answers will be as you expect.
As the therapist becomes more experienced, interventions tend to become more multidimensional. What look like simple questions or statements may be directed at differing levels of process simultaneously. Certainly, deeper more unconscious processes are always involved with whatever is occurring in the therapeutic space. It is the intention and attitude of the therapist that determines where and how the intervention creates an impact. If the therapist is in touch with his or her own unconscious, then a simple question will resonate more deeply for the client.
As in all human communication, there is a resonance between people that tends to move participants into similar states. As you become aware of the person’s processes, you will also notice the inherent invitation to join with that person in their state of experiencing. As the therapist, it is your presence and way of being that is most influential. As the client tends to resonate with your (hopefully) flowing process they will naturally move through their stuckness.
From a technical point of view, the pacing, tonality and rhythmicity of spoken words will influence which level of process becomes activated. With experience you can decide more fully what aspects of the other person you wish to influence and activate. Slower, rhythmical and softer tonality and pace will deepen process, while higher, faster and staccato pacing will move towards the surface.
When a process seems stuck at one level, we look for movement in a different place. The therapist is always more flexible and creative experientially than the client is — or there can be no therapeutic movement. As process awareness expands and deepens, there is no limit, except preference, for the kind of intervention that the therapist allows. Our own limitations rather than those of our clients always limit our effectiveness. Therapeutic development rests on the growing awareness of the therapist’s own processes and their relation to that of the client.
Therapist Flexibility and Awareness
The therapist’s way of being has to be more flexible than that of the client. The more flexibility and creativity the therapist can bring to therapy, without becoming over-involved, the more ability there is to influence process. As you embody your own connection with yourself, the more the clients can know how to become whole. Our unconscious is always looking for solutions. The client finds some of those solutions in the way that the therapist handles the therapeutic relationship.
With time, the therapist develops a part of him/herself that is constantly aware of relationship. This part can signal the ego, the therapist’s conscious self, when there is disturbance in the flow of connection. This ability arises from the body ego, the body sense; it is not intellectual. Information about the flow of process comes not from words, nor content, nor directly from the information that the client is providing. Information flows from the unconscious, through the body into the feelings. Only then, from the conscious feelings can the information be translated into some sort of conscious, verbal formulation.
Into session with a new client the therapist brings experiences with every previous client. In some sense, each client becomes a part, an aspect of the therapist’s self. Experiences with clients – the depths, the intensity, the difficulties, and the joys – are distilled into the present moment. As the therapist learns to trust that inner knowing, creative and flexible response to the needs of the client naturally arise. Intervening is then not something you do but more who you are.
The Process of Intervening
Intervening is not simply the action that a therapist takes to effect some change in the client. It is an inherent aspect of the process of therapeutic relating and being with the client. If an intervention is separated out of this flow, it becomes unnatural and less effective. The process of intervening should ideally flow seamlessly from each moment and not be imposed by the therapist. Appropriate technique fits naturally with the needs of the client and the therapeutic context.
The process of intervening arises from Awareness, Intention and Influence.
Awareness: The therapist has to fully aware of their own implicit model of human beings. That includes a understanding of what is a human being, what is the nature of personhood and how a healthy person functions. Without an articulated model of human health and well-being there can be not sense of how to move in that direction
Intention: The basic therapeutic intention is to help create positive change in a person’s experience and being in the world. That means we have to have a sense of how people change for the better or worse and what prompts those changes. That does not mean that every intervention is planned and programmed; it has to arise out of the ongoing relational process and is often messy and not completely thought out. However, the intention behind the intervention needs to be free of therapist desire or self-seeking.
Influence: In some sense every interaction is an intervention, if it has the best interests of the client at heart. The therapist needs to be cognizant of their influence over the client. That means facing the reality of the inherent imbalance of power in a therapeutic relationship and how much more important they are to the client than visa versa. That said, the therapist must be comfortable using power and influence in service of positive change.
Intervening with Intention
Receptive Process:
- Create a healing container through Presence
- Hold the vision of healing and wholeness for the client
- Unconditional positive regard, acceptance and love
Active Process
- Move any stuck processes
- Help connect together all levels and aspects of process
- Create the opportunity for learning about the self, others and the world
- Foster experimenting with new and different positive experiences
- Help the development of self-awareness and connection to something greater
The Focus of Intervening
Outer Process: the surface level of experience, being and doing in the world — action
- Changing behavior
- Changing attitudes and thinking in relation to outer life
- Learning how things are — facing reality
- Learning skills for being in the world
Inner Process: the subjective sense of self with its internal feelings, thought and concerns — Body, Heart and Mind.
- Changing self-awareness
- Changing patterns of thinking, feeling and sensing
- Changing assumptions about self/other relationships
- Changing self-concepts, self-esteem and body image
- Resolving inner conflicts, ambivalence and polarities
- Reconnecting to the core or true self
Deeper Process: relationship with the personal unconscious with its dreams, impulses, compulsions, hopes, disturbances, fantasies, visions and resources.
- Changing connection with the natural unconscious aspects of the Self
- Contacting deeper resources and abilities
- Resolving traumatic experiences and memories
- Recognizing the symbolic meaning of experience
- Recognizing synchronistic and resonating connections
Greater Process: the Transpersonal and transcendent Ground of Being — God, Tao, Buddha nature, Life Force, Universal Spirit and Meaning of Life.
- Developing the sense of meaning, purpose and path in life
- Changing values, ethics, beliefs and relationship with the universe
- Developing spirituality, wholeness, serenity and wisdom