Enhancing the impact of therapeutic interventions.
A therapeutic intervention has impact if it reaches the patient's mind and remains available for times of need. Impact is the overcoming of attention, neglect and forgetfulness. Therapists enhance impact by: (a) building up patients' positive attention; (b) creating unusual and discrepant events; (c) strengthening the therapeutic message or the way it is conveyed; (d) drawing out patients' readiness for commitment and hard work; (e) creating bridges between therapy and the problem situation; (f) protecting the therapeutic message from trivializing and levelling events. These principles are nonspecific and are here illustrated by examples from widely different therapeutic approaches. Impact is not a substitute for the inherent value of a therapeutic message, but its lack can doom even our greatest inspirations.
Department of Psychology, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Israel.
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D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D010553:Personality Development; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*