Essential Activities in a Session of Brief Dynamic/Interpersonal Psychotherapy

Therapeutic discourse combines inquiry and dialogue strategies, which correspond, respectively, to the construction and deconstruction of a patient's maladaptive personal story line . This story line refers to a pattern of dysfunctional thinking/emotional management and a corresponding maladaptive interpersonal pattern that has been identified as the root cause of the patient's presenting problems. Identifying and critically examining a patient's personal story line is the superordinate technical strategy that guides our work each session. More specific technical guidance is provided by the change processes that we attempt to activate in each session: cognitive insight around emotionally loaded issues, corrective emotional/interpersonal experiences, and practice implementing the insights gained during a therapy session.