GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION
Over the years, psychotherapists have moved away from the notion of seeing their clients as having one unified personality to the idea that each client's identity is composed of many parts. Personality is now seen as something of far greater complexity than the result of a struggle between id, ego and superego as they still try to rework and re-enact early childhood experiences. Instead of Freud's model several psychotherapies now see the ego as a multi-tiered structure in constant dialog with itself. Personality is now seen as something more fluid, which changes daily and situationally throughout each day as the client interacts with others.
The role of the psychotherapist has also shifted from being the only expert in the room to that of a co-explorer with the client in search of the client's identity, and the material of this exploration involves the somatic, cognitive and emotional experiences of both the therapist and client. Therapy has become more of a postmodern process, which envisions each client's truth. It is seen not as a fixed narrative encompassing the client's entire life, but as more of a fluid phenomenon, forged from moment to moment between the client and therapist and between the client's various personality parts.
This introductory level course presents audio podcasts of several different psychotherapy orientations, which help psychotherapists connect and explore their clients' various personality parts. Part One of the course presents a podcast overview of a parts orientation.Part Two presents podcasts on specific psychotherapy orientations: Transactional Analysis, Gestalt, Internal Family Systems, and Psychosynthesis. Part Three presents a list of resources for further study.
David Van Nuys, PhD
Creator/Host of Shrink Rap Radio
Replies