Learning Objectives
- Recognize therapist style and behaviours that support or hinder engagement.
- Identify common relational elements that make psychotherapy effective.
- Identify presenting problems and treatment targets from therapist–client interaction.
- Recognize that people can interpret the same situation differently.
- Understand that interpretations influence emotional and behavioural reactions.
- Identify the basic CBT idea of a thought–emotion–behaviour feedback loop.
Materials
- The two therapist–client case study scripts.
- A way for students to record observations and their Emotion Dollar bids.
Overview
Students first compare two interactions with the same therapy client to identify common factors which support effective therapy. They then use a Catastrophe Auction to examine how different interpretations of the same situation can influence emotion and behaviour.
Time Allocation
| Activity | Time |
|---|---|
| Common factors in effective therapy | Approximately 20 min |
| Catastrophe Auction | Approximately 20 min |
Common factors in effective therapy
Students review two therapy interactions involving the same client and take notes on the presenting concerns, specific helpful or unhelpful therapist behaviours, changes in the client’s comfort and openness, and whether the client would return.
Discussion prompts
- What did you notice about the therapist’s style in each interaction?
- Which behaviours were helpful and which were not?
- When did the client seem more or less engaged?
- What were the presenting problems, and what should treatment target?
Catastrophe Auction
Each student begins with 100 Emotion Dollars, representing their available emotional energy or stress. Read a series of everyday situations one at a time. Students privately bid how emotionally costly each situation would be for them and write down the automatic thoughts which guided the bid.
Keep the pace relatively quick so that the activity captures automatic interpretations. Students then compare bids and thoughts within their groups.
- Did people spend their Emotion Dollars differently?
- What thoughts led to higher or lower ratings?
- Did your peers’ thoughts surprise you?
- Would the different interpretations produce different next steps?
Take-home message
How we interpret a situation can strongly influence how we feel and what we do. Two people can experience the same event but respond differently because of what they believe it means. These differences can become part of a thought–emotion–behaviour feedback loop.