2023-07-08 Sat 20:37 > One of the first steps in therapy is to identify the here-and-now equivalents of your patient’s interpersonal problems. > ... > You must develop here-and-now rabbit ears. > ... > The everyday events of each therapy hour are rich with data: consider how patients greet you, take a seat, inspect or fail to inspect their surroundings, begin and end the session, recount their history, relate to you. > To grow rabbit ears, keep in mind this principle: One stimu-lus, many reactions. If individuals are exposed to a common com-plex stimulus, they are likely to have very different responses. > ... > In addition to responses to office surroundings, therapists have a variety of other standard reference points (for example, beginnings and endings of hours, bill payments) that generate comparative data. And then of course there is that most elegant and complex instrument of all—**the Stradivarius of psychotherapy practice—the therapist’s own self**. I shall have much more to say about the use and care of this instrument. > [[Ref. Irvin Yalom 2001 - The Gift of Therapy]] > [!-cf-] [[Related notes]] > - [[Psychotherapy counseling skills]] > - [[Ref. Irvin Yalom 2001 - The Gift of Therapy]] # [[Journal section]] ### 2023-07-17 Mon 14:51 In [[CP 517 Process of psychotherapy with Taryn]] yesterday I had all this stuff on my heart. Thought it meant my instrument was out of tune. But a reframe: often people do their best work when they're tired, not expecting it, when their heart is broken. What arises in the dyad is the product of each soul in that moment. With that in mind I did beautiful work. 2023-07-17 Mon 15:08