November 2007, VOLUME 35, NUMBER 2, Abstract 5
Reflections: The Essence of Therapy — as Old as Time
Harry Stanton, Private practice, Tasmania
Effective therapy is actually a very simple process, yet we have turned it into an arcane “science”. I believe that virtually all our patients come to us with a single problem, this being their insistence on thinking in ways that harm them rather than in ways that help them. Our main task is, then, to help them change this damaging pattern. Reduced to its simplest form, our therapeutic endeavours involve helping patients to think in different ways and to talk to themselves in a more helpful manner. To illustrate how this might be achieved, let’s look at four case studies. These affirm that there is no single path to excellence and that simple, straightforward methods will usually achieve desirable outcomes.