A Rational Model of Expressed Therapeutic Presence

Diverse psychotherapy traditions have long emphasized the fundamental importance of being fully present as therapists during psychotherapy. However, therapeutic presence has only recently become a topic of scientific research and thus much more research is needed to test and better understand its role in the process of therapy. One important direction for research on presence is the development of an observational measure of therapists' presence that can be used to closely examine how this phenomenon relates to other process and outcome variables. The current article attempts to contribute to this goal by describing an integrative rational model of expressed therapist presence that emerged from using task analysis methodology. The rational model proposes 4 core modes of presence each associated with concrete behaviors that reflect ways that a therapist can express or embody being present in-session. These are "being-here," "being-now," "being-open," and "being with and for the client."