The theoretical parameters and practical value of a love-based psychotherapy

Abstract

This theoretical dissertation explores the nature and value of a love-based psychotherapy. The value of this approach to psychotherapy is examined both in its currently employed implicit form—when elements of it are practiced within the context of other approaches—and in the forms it might take if practiced in a more explicit manner. The study investigates various understandings about the nature of love in the literature of philosophy and religion, and it shows how some of these understandings have contributed to the meaning of love within the context of psychotherapy. Several emergent themes in the literature review indicate that love-based psychotherapy is an approach in which psychotherapy can be defined as a process predominantly guided by the principle, power, and presence of a compassionate and benevolent intention to foster the client's fullest well-being, and that involves the cultivation of that intention in both the psychotherapist and the client.

The writer reveals the value of this approach through four areas of focus: (1) critical observations on the use of love in psychotherapy by various psychotherapists including several exemplifying a love-based psychotherapy approach, (2) a review of psychological and physiological research relevant to the use of love in psychotherapy, (3) a hypothetical case study, and (4) descriptions of numerous possible clinical applications of love-based psychotherapy along with their potential benefits.

The writer concludes that an additional value of love-based psychotherapy is that it could contribute substantially both as an integrative and unifying force for the field of psychotherapy, and as a resource serving the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal well-being of clients.