What we believe

A terrific supervisor once said to me that we practice what we believe. And I come back to it again and again as I see ever more clearly how much that is what our field is about. a few years ago I participated in an online seminar sponsored by IARPP (the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy) on the use of the telephone in analysis and therapy. Nearly all of the participants utilized the telephone for sessions at least once in a while and several had also experienced analysis as a patient utilizing the telephone. What interested me most was that it came down to whether the analyst is comfortable with the telephone, comfortable with the therapeutic space that forms between analyst and patient in that modality, which seems to be the determinant of how successful the work is. A few people, myself included, who have fairly clear ideas about how the therapeutic space is different -- different, not inferior -- from meeting in the office, expressed greater comfort with the use of the telephone than did those who simply do not like the phone. Using Skype or FaceTime adds sight to sound but it is still a matter of how comfortable both therapist and patient are with this kind of space for therapy.
Source: Jung At Heart - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs