Therapists often seek to learn about new modalities and gain innovative skills designed to improve their practice. While searching for new methods is certainly important, what often goes unaddressed is the ‘other side of the coin’.

This ‘other side’, refers to the therapist’s ability to trust his personal awareness or ‘use-of-self’ in the therapeutic process. In this manner, the therapist is conscious of himself as a ‘tuning fork’ to gauge his ability to connect and empathize with the client. This means engaging and trusting the flow of treatment on a non-verbal level. Within this non-verbal interaction, the therapist is sensitive to the client’s needs combined with the ‘right timing’ to introduce a promising intervention or technique.

In therapy, ‘timing is everything’. While it is surely possible to learn new techniques, the timing aspect of use-of-self is an abstract idea that cannot be learned by reading a book. Use-of-self means that the therapist is in touch with his own feelings, and uses this awareness as a way to strengthen his flow with the client.

Therefore the use-of-self is not a ‘one-way street’ designed to only influence the client, but rather encompasses a broader perspective toward a ‘two-way’ interactive bond. From here we recognize that the implementation of new and various techniques are actually secondary to the main function of developing a trusting and healing alliance. When the therapist is able to balance the ‘inside and outside’ of doing both, he becomes a catalyst for change.