Effective Therapists

There are specific therapeutic conditions that effective therapists attempt to create. When these elements are met successfully, it maximizes the opportunity for the patient to find profound healing and insight in their therapy. Patients can better release themselves from the non-helpful coping mechanism they utilized in their past and transcend from struggling to enjoying a more satisfying life. With an effective therapist, patients can progress, achieve, love, and transform into who they aspire to be. It is my objective to be such a therapist.

Trust-building

Effective therapists know how to gently nudge their patients to be vulnerable in session, expose their secrets and fears, and create a new way of relating to themselves and the world. This can feel uncomfortable for the patient, so the therapist must build a strong rapport with the patient for the process to occur. It is imperative that the therapist create an environment where the patient feels completely safe and unjudged. The therapeutic alliance begins when the pair form a strong sense of unity, safety, and collaboration.

Curiosity

The next quality of an effective therapist is a genuine and continuous sense of curiosity. The best therapists are infinitely fascinated by the variety of human experiences and eager to discover more about the individual sitting before them. When patients sense a genuine, non-judgemental interest in their story, they feel heard, perhaps for the first time in their life. As the patient feels safe and nurtured, a creative line of questioning flows, allowing insight and healing to develop.

Open-mindedness

Another quality of an effective therapist is that they do not begin with a fixed perspective. The best therapists can remain both objective and subjective. The patient’s desires guide them for the life they want, not just the therapeutic goals for treatment according to a diagnosis model.

Open-mindedness is especially important in couples therapy. So often, couples will enter treatment with ideas of what the ideal couple should look like and how they behave. The world has changed considerably since these notions initially developed. Exploring what will work well for the couple versus who they believe they need to be is fundamental to successful therapy.

Further, an effective couples therapist takes on a leadership role to unify a couple’s goals, not just empathize with one partner over another. The relational system is the identified patient in couples therapy. So, by identifying the relational needs of each partner, asking questions to help the couple develop a shared insight, having each partner reflect on what is heard in session, and checking in with the couple to understand if insight is aligned in both partners. An effective couples therapist can help unearth each partner’s concerns while simultaneously creating room for their dreams.

Compassionate Inquiry

Therapeutic inquiries must be infused with compassion, kindness, and curiosity. Exploration is at the heart of psychotherapy. It is the process of peeling back the layers of forces shaping a patient’s past defenses, how they act, and how they think of themself in relation to the world. Asking gently probing questions helps the therapist understand the patient, and the patient understands themself. With creative and wise questioning, the patient is afforded the opportunity for self-discovery (Fagan, 2022).

Keeping Patients Accountable

Once self-discovery is revealed in session, an effective therapist helps the client move into the realm of accountability and change. The patient is introduced to relevant reappraisal questioning, such as “how do you know that is true?” and “If that were true, what would it indicate?” This continued self-discovery revealed in the session helps the patient make the changes and progress that will lead them to the profound insight and objective goals they came to therapy to achieve. Further, if progress stalls, an effective therapist will collaborate, evaluate the patient’s motivation, and adapt their therapeutic modalities to adjust the treatment approach so that the patient continues to improve.

Self-reflection

Lastly, a truly great therapist continuously examines their own background, biases, and blind spots to be self-aware of their own presence in the therapy room. The therapist’s self-exploration is ongoing and takes the form of individual therapy, group work, peer supervision, or continuing education. By acknowledging the vast diversity of human experience, effective therapists do not lock themselves into a narrow perspective. These therapists also frequently ask patients to educate them about their worldviews. Such openness in session reduces resistance from the patient and enhances the freedom for the therapeutic relationship to continue to move forward.

About:

Meredith Fenton, MA-CMHC, LLC, NCC

Meredith is a Clinical Mental Health Counselor practicing in Birmingham, Michigan. She also has her Limited Licensed Counselor and National Certified Counselor credentials. Meredith received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Michigan State University and her Master of Arts degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Northwestern University, The Family Institute, where she focused her thesis on decreasing the misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder.

References

Fagan, A. (2022, November 1). 7 qualities of a great therapist. The best therapists possess both an existential understanding of human nature and the practical tools to overcome many of patients’ toughest challenges. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202211/7-qualities-of-a-great-therapist