Staring at the Sun

"Why so self-referential?" they often ask. "Why refer everything back to the unreal relationship with the therapist?

"We're close to the end of the hour, and I'd like to focus a bit on how the two of us are doing today. How do you feelabout the space between us today?" Or "How much distance is there between us today?"

At that point, a therapist can focus on the patient's role in the creation of the problematic issue occurring in the therapy relationship.

Frieda Fromm-Reichman that therapists should strive to make every session memorable.

therapy situation is a social microcosm; that is, patients will sooner or later exhibit in the therapy situation the same behavior they exhibit in life outside.

Here-and-now interactions (that is, comments about the other's immediate behavior) seldom occur in social life.

In the therapy hour, the here-and-now is a focus on what is happening between the therapist and the patient in the immediate present. It is not a focus on the patient's historical past (the there-and-then) nor on the patient's current outside life (the there-and-now).

only therapists are likely to encounter you in the here-and-now.

Mark posed an uncomfortable question, but, when faced with it, I followed Terence's maxim and searched my own mind for some similar recollection and then shared it.