By Rich Simon As therapists, many of us practice in two different worlds. In the first, we see polite, well-behaved, articulate clients with solid values. They engage fully in therapy, talk cogently about their problems, listen attentively to our responses, make reasonably good-faith efforts to follow our suggestions, and sooner or later get better. No wonder we genuinely like these people! 
By Rich Simon A thousand years ago, during the palmy days of generous insurance reimbursement, therapists could maintain the illusion that, since therapy was paid for by an unseen hidden hand, clinical practice was somehow untouched by the tacky subject of money. Even the style of therapy reflected this disjunction: 
CE Credits: 2 • Price $29Like 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
© 2013 Psychotherapy Networker