The definitive method by which a human being resolves his unfinished psychological issues is a continuing mystery to us all. However, many re-decisions about Self develop naturally as the human matures with or without, as you may have observed, the assistance or interference of psychotherapists. We all have our theories and opinions about how human beings work through their traumas and resolve their existential and developmental conflicts. But the truth is, none of us knows for sure. We can only flounder about, call on our fairies, paraphrase other theorists, and speculate in metaphors as we attempt to interpret the intrapersonal experiences of ourselves and others.

   The Process Model does not purport to put forth a definitive theory of psychological healing. The Process Model focuses mostly, not on the client, but on what you, the psychotherapist, attend to in session and how you relate to your client. It provides you with a way of being and doing. It encourages you to allow yourself to create a joyful and free relationship both with yourself and with the client while you invite him to experience a connection with his Whole-Self. It is an inner map for you to consult as the client wanders around in his psyche and acts that out in the room and in his life.

   Whether he is external and cognitive, lost in his transference, connected to or disconnected with his experience, mad, sad, glad, afraid or shamed, your challenge is to join your client however his process manifests itself and to invite him to be mindfully engaged with as much of his experience as is possible under the circumstances. We encourage you to provide a container of unconditional positive acceptance while inviting him to allow his natural flow as he moves through his incomplete processes. The Process Model offers a perspective through which to invite his mind, body and spirit toward expanded consciousness and a new decision about Self. And while the client does whatever he does, we invite you to stay separate and out of his system, not to get in the client's way and to trust both yourself and your client. You are enthusiastically encouraged Not to get lost in your countertransference.

   At PTI, your process-class instructor, your continuing education instructor, your mirror trainer, and your supervisor each lead with their own theory of psycho-healing that feels right and works for each of them. Mostly Transpersonal, Humanistic, Rogerian, and Existential in perspective, often Gestalt in action, remember our theories are, after all, just theories. You have been integrating other people's ideas with your own theoretical observations since you began your work in this field. If you have additional ideas about what transpires while a human's psychic wounds are healing, well that's okay with us. Clearly an absolute understanding of the process of psychotherapeutic healing is not necessary for participating in it, since, I assume you have noticed, healing appears to occur in your sessions whether you know what you are doing or not.

   The Process Model encourages you to invite your client toward your theory of whatever mental health is without having an agenda a) that your theory is The Truth, or b) that the person should actually take your invitation. So matter what theoretical model about the nature of change you hold as your belief system, find a way to attend to and work with, not the content, but the client's process in the session.

   As the process of the client shifts and transmutes, the metaprocess of the experienced psychotherapist stays more or less the same. Engaged in a open relationship with herself, she pays attention to and works with the client's ongoing and ever-changing rhythms as he relates to his inner conversations, his belief system, his projections and to the psychotherapist. She stays connected with and trusts herself, focuses on the other-guy, notices his many processes, chooses one, creates a way he might encounter himself in that process right here, right now, and invites him to connect with, acknowledge, and allow his experience.

   The Process Model is not an addition to the gestalt-cognitive-object relations-behavioral-family systems-psychodynamic-strategic-experiential-talk therapy controversy. You can employ techniques drawn strictly from one methodology or borrow freely from them all, and still be a Process Therapist. What we encourage you to study is not so much about why your client is doing what he is doing, but more about what you can do while he is doing it. What we teach is not so much about technique, i.e. what your arms, legs and mouth might do in session, but more about how to use yourself and what you might focus on while you invite your client to connect more fully with himself in session.

   PTI trainers often use physical enactments to make the understanding of and working with process more accessible to students. Our experiential interventions are not the definition of "process work." They are merely ways to represent a client's process explicitly. They are physical, tangible invitations to encounter oneself in the here and now. Most people who work and train here come to enjoy the simplicity and directness of these concrete interventions. After a while, most PTI-trained psychotherapists learn to refine their range of interventions from the very physical to the cognitive to the implicit to the imaginary to the abstract world of the relationship between the client and the therapist herself. The more mediums utilized by the therapist, the more enriching the environment provided to the client for self-exploration.

   Should you find yourself working in a setting with a supervisor or employer who espouses a "different" intervention model, there is no need to worry, "Oh no, I can't do process therapy at that agency; they want me to do XYZ therapy," "They discourage deep work," or "My job is just as a support person, intake worker, or social service provider so I can't do process work." Similarly if you become besotted with some famous person's amazingly effective techniques, remember that process work is not about "chairs and bears" or specific interventions. Process work is not about technique. Process work is about what you see, what you listen to, and how you perceive what your client is doing. Pay attention to the processes between the client and himself, the processes between the client and you, and to your own processes in reference to the client and within yourself. They are all dramatizations of some part of the client's work.

   In summation, Process Therapy is, essentially and fundamentally, a model of being. It is a personal guide which encourages you, the therapist, to trust that although you haven't a clue what to do, the universe, your client, and you are all "unfolding as they (and you) should."

Carol Nichols Hadlock 1995

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