Re-visioning the ‘radical purist’ Barbara Temaner Brodley in relation to Gendlin’s process model

Abstract

ABSTRACT Four aspects of Barbara Temaner Brodley’s practice of ‘classical’ client-centered therapy (CCT) are appraised in ways to suggest a rapprochement with the process-guiding experiential therapies that she opposed. First, I discuss her affinity with, and alienation from, these therapies particularly in relation to her conceptions of the ‘empathic understanding response process’ and ‘presence.’ Second, her therapeutic work is analyzed utilizing Gendlin’s process model, particularly in terms of Gendlin’s ‘interaction first’ principle and his process conception of embodied time. Third, I discuss her scientific attitude in relation to her extensive empirical analysis of Rogers’ verbalized empathic responses that informed her distinctive CCT perspective and opposition to Gendlin. Finally, I focus upon the paradox of Brodley’s self-disclosure and therapist-frame responses when she responded to a client’s questions or requests for advice. I conclude that Brodley worked effectively with her clients at a deeper relational level than her theoretical exposition suggests.