FREEDOM AND THERAPY - FROM SELF-LIBERATION TO SELF-CONTROL

This article focuses on how subjective feelings of freedom and lack of freedom can influence a client's motivation to change, Freedom can be expressed as a positive desire to act (freedom to), or by the negativ e impulse to escape constraints (a freedom from), More often, it is th e negative aspect that brings clients to therapy: the desire to be lib erated from the burden of thoughts and emotions which restrict their f reedom to be, or to act, as they wish. In therapy, the positive aspect of freedom is often raised in the context of establishing autonomy an d self-regulation as desirable goals, But shifting from notions of sel f-liberation to those of self-control involves exploring the complex i nteraction between subjective feelings of freedom, and objective limit s on freedom to act, Clients may become fearful at what they perceive as too much freedom to act, in the absence of meaningful limits on cho ice and behavioral possibilities. This ''freedom anxiety'' as a clinic al condition can inhibit the potential for change.