The Self-of-the-Therapist Awakened

Abstract

The importance of use of self in therapy has been growing in recent years, in part because of the rise in popularity of postmodern therapeutic approaches. Such postmodern approaches, including Collaborative Language Systems, Feminist Therapy, and Narrative Therapy, espouse different ways for use of self in therapy. In this article, we briefly review the history of development of use of self through modernism to postmodernism. Next, we elaborate on how Collaborative Language Systems, Narrative, and Feminist approaches differentially use self in therapy. We conclude with three suggested ways to incorporate use of self into therapeutic practice along with a personal account of use of self in therapy.

Key Words:

• Self-of-the-therapist
• postmodern
• narrative
• feminist
• collaborative language systems