DEFINING THE LOGISTICS OF AN EXPERIENTIAL SESSION

Picture an office that is soundproof, with two large chairs very close to each other, both pointing in the same direction, both with armrests and footrests. Both people can lean back, close their eyes throughout the session, which ends when they both agree that work is done, usually after an hour and a half or so.

DEFINING EACH SESSION AS ITS OWN "MINI THERAPY"

Instead of the common picture of psychotherapy starting with an initial session, proceeding through a series of sessions, and ending with the final session, each experiential session is its own "mini therapy" in that (1) the work of this session begins with the person deciding what is to be front and center in starting this session, the focus of the work for this session; (2) the session unfolds over the same sequence of steps as virtually every other session; and (3) each session can be judged as successful or unsuccessful independent of other sessions. Did the session achieve the sequence of steps? Based on this session's picture of what the person can become, did the person achieve this magnificent transformation? Based on what the person identified as front and center in the beginning of this session, is the qualitatively new person essen­tially free of the identified painful scene and accompanying painful feelings?

DEFINING THE THERAPIST AS TEACHER-GUIDE OF THE PERSON WHO CARRIES OUT THE WORK

Throughout the session, the role of the therapist is that of teacher~guide who shows the person what to do next, how to do it, and why to do it, and who joins with the person in undergoing each step and substep, and in undergoing the changes fight along with the person. The uncommon aims and goals of each experiential session can help account for such a serious departure from the ordinary role of most therapists. 

The other person is the one who mainly undertakes and carries out the concrete work of the session. The therapist shows what to do and how to do it, and the person is the active agent in moving through the session, in determining what pace to follow, in determining one's own readiness to undertake the next sub step or not, or in determining whether to try again or to pause for a while. Although the therapist is mainly the teacher­guide, the other person does not readily fit the usual meanings of "client" or "patient" so much as the other person almost fits the meaning of "prac­titioner," or the one who undertakes the work of an experiential session.

Rather than conflicting or competing with the diagnosis and treatment of depression, the experiential alternative comes from a mind-set that differs in at least three ways: 

(1) The focus of attention is this particular person's particular cluster of painful bad feelings which, in this particular situation, can be described using words such as meaninglessness despair, depression, pulled in, withdrawn, lonely, giving up, what's the use, why try, failure, apathy, emptiness, lifelessness, gloom. In this mind-set, there is a person, in a given situation, and having a painful package or cluster of his own particular bad feelings. In this mind-set, there is no diagnostic entity called depression. 

(2) Instead of diagnosing and treating depression, one aim is to explore down into this particular person's particular cluster of painful feelings in this particular situation, to discover what lies deeper, and to use that to enable the person to become the qualitatively new person that the person can become. The aim is deep-seated transformation. 

(3) Instead of diagnosing and treating depression, the other aim is for the qualitatively new person to have a world essentially free of those painful scenes, and to be a person essentially free of that former cluster of painful feelings in those painful scenes.

Identifying What the Session is to Work on

In the beginning of each session, the therapist shows the person how to select a scene of strong feeling that the session can work on-some time, some situation, in which the person had a feeling that was relatively strong, full, saturating, notable. The therapist shows how to do it; the person identifies the "scene of strong feeling" for this session.

   The person is quite free to find (1) a scene from rather recently, from some time ago, from quite long ago; (2) a powerful, big, dramatic scene or one that is more mundane and everyday; or (3) a scene from real life or from a dream. The feeling can be painful and hurtful, or pleasant and thoroughly enjoy­able. The "scene of strong feeling" can be similar to one worked on in previous sessions or one that is relatively fresh and new. The scene of strong feeling may be exceedingly front and center for the person, the target of the person's attention, or the person can identify several possible scenes of strong feeling and choose one on which to work.

   He has a powerful, painful scene of strong feeling that is compellingly front and center on his mind. A few days ago, Sunday morning, as usual, he is sitting alone with his newspaper and coffee, in the neighborhood restaurant that his father, brother, and he had owned for decades. In his usual state of distanced withdrawal, deadness, and emptiness, this time things became worse. Much worse. Even the waitress was compelled by his sinking into a frightening state of utter detachment, withdrawal, empti­ness, nothingness, numbness, meaninglessness, apathy, despair, gloom, depression.

   He had not only identified where to start, he was already living and being in his scene of strong feeling.

THEORY AND CONCEPTUALIZATION

For those interested in a relatively full exposition of the experiential picture of human beings, there is a resource (Mahrer, 1989). The experiential conceptual model of psychotherapy is given in two other resources (Mahrer, 1996/2004,2002). For those interested in becoming master psychotherapists, the aim is to provide a sufficient overview of the theory and conceptualiza­tion of the clinical strategies.

Excerpt from:

Clinical Strategies for Becoming a Master Psychotherapist (Practical Resources for the Mental Health Professional) (Paperback)
by William O'Donohue (Editor), Nicholas A. Cummings (Editor), Janet L. Cummings (Editor) Academic Press, 2005.