R123: The Secret Lives of Clients

Like any intense connection between people, a good therapeutic bond takes more than two motivated, well-intentioned people. This Reading Course shifts the usual perspective of clinical literature to offer a collection of client essays about what worked and what didn't in the course of their experiences of psychotherapy. Each explores what clients had to say about the moments of truth in their therapy, even if their therapist might not have had a clue about how much was at stake in a seemingly incidental exchange.

Course Readings

The Secret Lives of Clients: Probing the Alchemy between Client and Clinician by Marian Sandmaier

Encountering the Shadow: Face to Face with the Seduction of Violence by Michelle Cacho-Negrete

Breaking the Spell: A Good Boy Learns to Become a Man by Stephen Lyons

Acts of Compulsion: Unmasking the Allure of the Illicit by David Guy

Flying Lessons: Discovering Another Way of Being by Marian Sandmaier

Learning Objectives

1. Identify qualities of the therapist that touched the clients
2. Discuss ways therapists creates safety in sessions
3. Describe the impact of the therapeutic relationship on change