Trying to be useful: Three different interventions for one therapeutic stance

This paper is an attempt to analyze actions or strategies that contribute to an effective therapy session and are clinically useful to the therapeutic process. In order to link the clinical practice to the empirical research, three kinds of therapist interventions, based on the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set (PQS), are described. They include: 1) an empathic attitude in dealing with the difficulties of the patient and his/her affective experience, 2) the identification and exploration of recurrent themes in the patient’s experience or conduct, and 3) addressing a patient’s defences, in order to ward off awareness of threatening feelings. For each of these interventions the author provides both clinical and research data that support their use, as well as verbatim clinical exchanges, which allow a better understanding of the mechanisms of therapeutic actions in real clinical practice.