The therapist's transitions in case of risk of suicide
Pasquale Brogna, Tiziana D'Andrea
Centro di Psicologia e Psicoterapia Costruttivista, Roma (Italy)
Abstract
We started from the presupposition that the therapist frequently undergoes
severe and not easily manageable emotional transitions in the treatment
of people at risk of suicide. Such transitions can result in therapeutic
attitudes not useful to the development of a process of change, and in
situa-tions of risk with possible severe repercussions for both the client
and the therapist. Starting from the different modalities that the person
at risk of suicide can present in therapy, we shall analyse the most frequent
transitions that the therapist can experience. We shall try to specify
the way they show themselves, how they are connected with the therapist's
personal organisation and the role he/she chooses to play in therapy, and
the effects they can have on the clients in such a difficult moment of
their personal path. In the last part of the paper some aspects of the
treatment will be discussed. The psychotherapy process has to start from
an understanding of the client by means of professional constructs and
therefore from a comprehensive and articulated theory of suicide.
Back to Berlin Abstracts