Therapist’s interventions immediately after exceeding the client’s therapeutic zone of proximal development: a comparative case study

Abstract

Objective When therapists’ proposals are too demanding exceeding clients’ readiness to move into change, clients may resist advancing. We aimed to understand how a therapist behaved immediately after the client resisted advancing into change within Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy. Methods We analyzed a recovered and an unrecovered case, both with Major Depression, and followed by the same therapist. Through the Therapeutic Collaboration Coding System, we analyzed 407 exchanges of interest. Results In both cases, clients resisted more in advancing at intermediate sessions, mainly by the therapist’s challenges to raise insight and debate cognitive beliefs in the recovered case, and to seek experiential meanings in the unrecovered case. Immediately after clients resisted advancing, the therapist tended to insist on challenging them in the same direction. In the recovered case, the therapist did so continually throughout the therapy, sometimes balancing between insisting or stepping back. In the unrecovered case, the therapist insisted on challenging, but mostly at the final session. Occasionally, the therapist insisted on challenging, and clients resisted over consecutive exchanges. Conclusion: Our results reinforce that to enact progress and change clients need to be pushed into change, however it requires therapists’ skillful assessment of clients’ tolerance to move in time.