It’s great to be blogging on PsychCentral.com–thank you all for your warm welcome. There’s so much useful information on this web site and such terrific bloggers representing so many different points of view. Naturally I’ve been thinking about what topics would be most interesting and helpful to readers (if you have ideas, questions, or comments, please comment or send me an email), and I decided I wanted to keep this space direct and simple. But a funny thing happened on the way to the keyboard…

The following is a brief discussion of some therapy-related ideas I’ve been thinking about, ideas that make a useful—though complex—jumping-off point for future discussions about more clear-cut topics. Therapy is about change. I wanted to find a way to briefly describe some basic aspects of what actually changes in therapy and the concepts “space” and “time”  offered unique potential. Those who’ve read my book  know that generally I use very simple language to describe therapy—this is a slight departure.

Space is the arena where events and change occur and the three main spaces in which psychotherapeutic change occurs are:

1. Action: The world of concrete movements, behaviors, and speech. Events in this world are driven by thoughts and feelings and the way in which we describe these thoughts and feelings, and which may in return, influence our thoughts and feelings and how we describe them. Speech belongs also partially in all three worlds as it connects to our inner world and shares it with the outer world.

1. Emotion: The world of feelings and inner-responses that may or may not be able to be described with language and may or may not be demonstrated by actions.

1. Thought: The world that contains the ways in which we speak to, make sense of, choose, respond to, and define our emotions, actions, behaviors, and the world around us.

All three worlds interact with our belief systems, something I hope to address in later blogs.

Sometimes it is difficult to identify where therapeutic change or movement occurs first—in the world of action, emotion, or thought. However, we can over time and with effort, lead with our thoughts which may produce more core stability than leading with action or emotion—though of course, leading with action or emotion isn’t always ineffective. It is when our three worlds collide rather than harmonize that they produce incoherent or harmful effects.

Time is simply the period during which the changes in action, emotion, and thoughts occur. Time is as essential to change as the process of therapy itself.

Imagine if you will that action, thought, and emotion are the dough, therapy is the yeast that is added to the dough—and that a period of time must occur for the yeast to activate and make the dough rise.

I am a fan of transparency in the therapy process—I am a strong believer in relieving suffering as quickly as possible and addressing behaviors and dysfunctional  belief systems that cause suffering. I very much like describing therapy in very concrete terms.

However, therapy can often be about learning to describe and understand intangible subjects. Therapy turns our personal lens on our emotions/feelings and the ways in which they drive behaviors—it also focuses on learning and understanding behaviors and the ways in which they can drive emotions/feelings in return. When dealing with the realms of thought and emotion (and by extension, the behaviors/actions that are bound up in relationship with our thoughts and emotions) it is a challenging prospect to quantify processes and measure change.

But working towards meaningfully describing and measuring change is doable, even the deep, importance change that occurs during therapy.  In my experience I find that using to two essential therapy tools helps motivate, direct, and measure change.  These are a focused evaluation and a therapy treatment plan. Evaluations and treatment plans could be cropping up a lot in the Therapy Soup blog, so I will briefly describe them next time around.

Until then, may your journey through space and time be fruitful.

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    Last reviewed: 14 Jan 2010