Collaborative psychotherapy: characteristics and functioning

What is collaborative psychotherapy? It creates the link between the therapist and the patient.

The encounter between a therapist and the person who seeks his or her help implies the confluence of two lives in the common enclave of the consultation room, where an experience unfolds that treasures within itself a transformative potential.

Traditionally, the therapist has been perceived as an expert who has the key to open the doors to the well-being of others, so that the client will only have to adhere to what the therapist decides to "recommend" to ventilate the spaces vitiated by emotional pain.

What is really true, however, is that the client must set himself up as the key piece in the puzzle that is presented to him throughout the treatment, so that his experience and point of view will be the basis on which the whole process will be based.

This is the idea of Collaborative psychotherapy, an approach that moves away from the obsolete vision of the omnipotent and omniscient therapistIt emphasizes the direct protagonist of the experience: the client and the words that are shared with him.

Basis of collaborative psychotherapy

Collaborative psychotherapy is a form of intervention proposed by Harlene Anderson and Harold GoolishanIt emerges directly from the systemic paradigms and assumes constructivism as its basic model. It proposes an approach that views the person within the framework of the social influences provided by his or her direct environment, without which it is impossible to accurately approach the way he or she acts and feels.

In this way, constructivism, which is based on the idea that knowledge is formed on the basis of the social influences provided by the direct environment. knowledge is formed on the basis of the individual experiences of each person.would extend to the social dimensions of the person. He would therefore understand him as the active and generative receiver of the whole complex system of beliefs, expectations, longings, traditions and taboos that are formed around the family and social unit; which in some way will influence his development as an individual, despite being susceptible to reflection and particular analysis. All this has been accommodated under the general heading of "social constructivism".

Mental disorders and other psychological problems are not explained by the internal dynamics of the person, but by the way in which he/she relates to the rest of the links that make up the gear of his/her environment, which will define all the mechanisms that initiate or maintain the internal conflict over time. The pattern of interaction thus becomes the basic unit of analysis of collaborative psychotherapy, as an element constructed through the shared experiences of the group.

While this form of intervention poses a scenario that is based on postmodern thinking and rethinks is based on postmodern thought and rethinks the level of authority of the therapist, who is conceived as a collaboratorThe therapist is conceived as a collaborator (hence the very nomenclature of the procedure) in the understanding of the family fact, but traditional strategies of psychological assessment (such as interview or observation) are not denied or obviated, but are reformulated in order to adapt them to the epistemological (constructivist) substratum that characterizes it.

The language used in all cases (between therapist and client) is articulated in a colloquial register, which avoids technicalities and assimilates the information shared in the framework of an ordinary conversation. This reduces the verticality of the exchange and the professional is placed in a situation of total equality, avoiding value judgments and making public (for the client) the conclusions that can be reached throughout the process.

Functioning of the intervention and sessions

In collaborative psychotherapy, an individual's knowledge is understood through the way he/she exchanges information in the social scenario, while language becomes a symbolic entity through which he/she can explore reality and even transform everything he/she knows. From this basis, which emerges from its systemic and constructionist foundation, a form of therapy emerges that makes use of open and sincere conversation through the simplest possible verbal code..

In this conversation, the parties involved do not adopt positions of privilege, but come together with the common purpose of sharing points of view on the same issue and promoting the whole process of reflection to which it may give rise, without necessarily having to reach a consensus. As new ways of looking at the problem are constructed, always in close collaboration between therapist and client, the shared product motivates new descriptions of the problem and of the agents that may be involved.

In collaborative psychotherapy the therapist does not act in a directive manner, nor does he/she exhibit secrecy in his/her dissertations, but shares them with the client.Instead, he/she shares them with the client with extreme honesty and maintains an attitude of openness to the modification of his/her internal discourse on the issue. Everything arises from the principles of bidirectionality, making the client and his or her way of seeing the world the protagonist of the entire decision-making process.

This model also distances itself from drawing up a psychopathological diagnosis, preferring instead to understanding the other person's unique experience without labels that would lead to unnecessary generalization.. This perspective allows us to face the therapeutic situation with the nakedness of one who enters an unknown territory, discovering at each step the landscapes that unfold in front of his or her eyes.

In the following, and by way of a general synthesis, we will show the elements to be taken into account from the perspective of this form of psychotherapy and the position to be adopted by those who make use of it.

Basic elements

These are the pillars of collaborative psychotherapy.

1. Joint research

Both therapist and client assume that the relationship that unites them is social in nature and subject to the laws of reciprocity. This is why the research is chosen as a metaphorical a metaphorical format that describes the common progress that the two parties are facilitatingas the interactive process unfolds before both parties. It is therefore fundamental that responsibilities are assumed and an attitude of frank interest in the other and in his daily life is evidenced.

2. Relational balance

Collaborative psychotherapy flees from the classic model, of biomedical origin, which formulated the implicit authority of the therapist in the choice of the contents to be addressed and in the pace at which these were incorporated into the interaction. In this case, a relationship of tacit balance is assumed, where knowledge is a sort of shared project in which the contribution of the therapist and the client have the same value and relevance.

3. Position of openness

The therapist constantly reveals what he/she is thinking about during the session, without skimping on words or conclusions, showing an attitude of necessary openness to the reaction that all this may generate in the client. It is also key that the encounter is experienced from the full acceptance of the narrative that the other person unfolds.This is the privileged testimony of someone who experienced the events we are dealing with in first person.

4. Uncertainty

The therapist does not show preconceived ideas when entering therapy, but neither does he/she formulate them as the therapy progresses, since it is language itself that defines the extent to which new meanings are acquired. This fact implies that the ultimate outcome of a session should not be anticipated, since the knowledge derived from it cannot be foreseen from the point of view of only one of the parties forming the relationship.

5. Colloquiality

In addition to being a sort of tabula rasa on the subject to be dealt with (the position of one who "does not know"), the therapist should use the simplest possible words when conveying his or her part of the conversation. In any case, the most important thing is to avoid technical words or words whose degree of abstraction could interfere or hinder what is really important: the investigation that is undertaken with the client. It is therefore necessary to adopt a register that is accessible to both parties.

Emphasis on the client

The emphasis of the intervention should always be placed on the client. The client is the one who knows the most about the issues that are dealt with during the therapy, considering himself to be the true expert on the subject. For this reason the therapist will direct the attention and interest towards his individual experience, which will become the basic source of information in moments of uncertainty in which it is necessary to open a new horizon.

7. Emphasis on potential

Just as traditional biomedical practice has been oriented to evaluate, diagnose and treat a condition (also in the clinical field of Psychology); constructivist models have been preferentially concerned with identifying and enhancing the positive aspects of every human being, even in circumstances of severe emotional difficulty.even in circumstances of severe emotional difficulty. From this point of view, all the resources available to the person would be strengthened and the construction of new ones would be encouraged.

8. Orientation to practice

Since the issues dealt with in the consultation revolve around real, everyday events in the client's life, it is essential to provide a pragmatic and applied vision of the problems that arise, it is essential to bring a pragmatic and applied vision to the problems that arise.. In many occasions all the effort will be oriented to the resolution of some interpersonal conflict, being essential to provide communicative tools directed to that end; while in other cases the issue to be addressed will be of an emotional and intimate nature.

Bibliographical references:

• Agudelo, M.E. and Estrada, P. (2013). Narrative and Collaborative Therapies: a Look through the Lens of Social Constructivism. Revista de Facultad de Trabajo Social, 29(9), 15-48.
• Ibarra, A. (2004). What is collaborative psychotherapy? Athenea Digital: Journal of Social Thought and Research, 1(5), 1-8.