Personal Growth: Psychotherapy Theory

Montage by Victor Bloomberg, December 27, 2016

Goals of talk-therapy are often pragmatic; at times the intention is transformational. I have seen this as I sat in the client’s and clinician’s chair. Here are some things that I learned while a client which inform my theory.

I have long been concerned that the psychotherapy profession often neglects societal dynamics that are connected to an individual’s suffering. My concern is rooted in personal experiences such as being bullied in elementary school for refusing to sing Christmas songs on the grounds that I’m Jewish. I’m sure that I got the idea for standing up for my rights because I was raised by parents who were nonconformists. Our father was a social justice activist and our mother was an artist; both were aligned with the Counterculture of the 1960s. After high school I worked in farm fields, canneries and restaurants; I was a cook while getting my undergraduate degree in studio art (which emphasized social justice). I kept cooking until returning to college to earn my Master’s in Social Work. For the next five years, I worked for and helped manage nonprofits that addressed community problems. Only after all of that did I become a licensed psychotherapist in 1991. I continued to manage nonprofit programs until I joined the Peace Corps in 2006.

What is the well-spring of my interest in transformative psychotherapy and how personal transformation is achieved? I’ve experienced both. (A commonplace, general story for many clinicians.) Sometimes I say to a client, “That’s a Big Change.”

Here is a brief version of my Big Change story.

I am one of four sons. Our mother and father, how shall I say this, were “complicated.” The four brothers, in adulthood, went in very different directions to live and work. But we had something in common, explosive anger, sometimes rage. We didn’t tell our stories amongst ourselves until both of our parents were dead. Sharing experiences turned out to be a good thing. I learned that I wasn’t the only one, I hadn’t imagined things. And I saw that two types of emotions dominated while we were growing up: fear that turned into terror and anger that became rage. Oh yes, we had fun, we did good things together. We all cared about social injustice. We still do. Speaking only for myself, it has taken me a lifetime to live comfortably in my own skin, be happy in my relationships and think clearly about it all. And yet, at any moment, a disturbance in “The Force” can knock me on my ass and when I get up my legs are wobbly before my gait becomes steady. What is the moral of my story? “I have faith in my own Big Change. I always reclaim a sensation of contentment. My relationships remain loving. My thinking serves as a useful perspective and helps me make good choices. My values lead me to make “Good Trouble.”

I’ve been considering the question: How do I explain my own necessity to persist, in order to maintain and reclaim my own Big Change? The answer can be found in my generalized theory of transformative psychotherapy which brings together theories from different disciplines. My theory’s cohesion flows through key insights of philosopher/theologian Martin Buber.

I agree with psychotherapeutic theory that says we use our methods to help people become more fully human. We exist as creatures before we experience ourselves as human beings, that is why no one is born a Mensch:

“Mensch can be [characterized as] responsibility fused with compassion, a sense that one's own personal needs and desires are limited by the needs and desires of other people. A mensch acts with self-restraint and humility, always sensitive to the feelings and thoughts of others." (Rabbi Neil Kurshan, quoted in Rocker, 2015)

It may seem contradictory to anyone outside of our culture; we are known as having a core trait of intellectual dedication. Yet the highest compliment that we give acknowledges “sensitivity to the feelings” as well as the thoughts. I can’t say for certain, but I imagine Martin Buber was influenced by our shared culture’s view of the Mensch.

Changes in cognition can generate incremental progress in emotional/behavioral stabilization, and then results can become global. Or cognitive processes consolidate gains that flow from healing release of emotions. These two cognitive pathways, incremental progress and reflective consolidation, can lead to the Big Change which engages I-You presence, recurringly. This is not a matter of so-called depth, an idea I have often heard from psychotherapists. It is about the nature of healing which occurs regardless of the intent of the session or the methods which are deployed.

Transformation is defined as a change in a person's self-image and perception about their own place in the world. I can paraphrase the comments I heard from clinicians: Transformation can happen without it being a goal of therapy. It can happen while a person improves their adaptation, their stability in a situation. Their transformation can be expressed as a reflection, like looking at oneself in a mirror, back-and-forth from where one has been even while moving further in a desired direction.

Transformation is evidenced by new behaviors (ad hoc and routine) which maintain and promote I-You experiences. Transformational learning alters beliefs such that a life can become dedicated to empowerment and emancipation from the forms of oppression which are woven together: personal, social, societal.

My concept of transformation includes society, it is essential to understanding individual suffering that any clinician witnesses. Individual transformation achieved through psychotherapy can lead to increased engagement in efforts to change society. And such involvement supports long-term personal healing.