WHINGEING VERSUS WORKING - COMPREHENSIVE PROCESS ANALYSIS OF A VAGUE AWARENESS EVENT IN PSYCHODYNAMIC-INTERPERSONAL THERAPY

A client-identified significant event in psychodynamic-interpersonal t herapy is analysed using Comprehensive Process Analysis (CPA), a narra tive research method for describing and understanding the significance , effects, and context of clinical events. The analysis of the event i dentifies components of a vague awareness event, which match the stage s proposed in the allowing/accepting model of Greenberg and Safran (19 87). Four additional stages to this model are identified and discussed . Therapist management of vague awareness events are discussed. The an alysis of the event suggests that the therapist needs to attend to the therapy process, be active in managing the event through suggesting t o the client how to proceed, through confrontation and through reframi ng of the client's in-session behavior.