A Phenomenological Analysis of the Experience of Pivotal Moments in Therapy as Defined by Clients*

Headnote

Abstract

This study was concerned with the clarification of the experience of pivotal moments in therapy. By pivotal moment is understood an event within the therapeutic process that leads to enduring change experienced as an important improvement in the life-experience of the client. Retrospective descriptions of a therapeutic process were obtained from three clients in which a distinguishable chain of events could be discerned that the clients identified as a pivotal moment. The descriptive material was analyzed according to the descriptive phenomenological psychological method developed by Amedeo Giorgi on the basis of the philosophical phenomenology of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. The results show that the pivotal moment is experienced as a figural moment within the therapeutic process where a serious challenge to old assumptions takes place, necessitating a break from old cognitive, affective and behavioral patterns in a context of trust and safety within the therapeutic relationship.

Keywords

psychotherapy, phenomenological method, pivotal moment

Introduction

It is a truism to state that research on psychotherapy is voluminous and that many strategies are employed in conducting such research. It probably would even be impossible to enumerate all of the methods that have been employed, from case studies to multivariate analyses. A method that seems to be in the minority, although perhaps making more frequent appearances, is the phenomenological method. In this article, we will provide an example of the application of the descriptive phenomenological method to psychology. The emphasis in this article is on the application of a phenomenological method based on Husserl s (1983) descriptive phenomenological approach. While the term phenomenological does occasionally appear in psychotherapeutic literature (e.g., Friedman, Friedlander & Blustein, 2005; Tomura, 2009) one has to be aware that the term is not used consistently. In the two articles just cited for example, the authors do not mention that they adopted the attitude of the phenomenological reduction so their claim for being phenomenological in the strongest sense of the term is dubious. While subtle variations in the meaning of phenomenology are endless, there is one basic distinction that can be noted. In Anglo-American countries, the term is often used as a synonym for experience. However, as used in this article, the term refers to the continental philosophical movement initiated by Husserl and it...