Meta-Therapeutic Processes and the Affects of Transformation: Affirmation and the Healing Affects

Abstract

When successful therapeutic experiences themselves become the focus of therapeutic inquiry and work, it becomes possible to deepen and broaden the treatment's effectiveness. The systematic exploration of phenomena associated with therapeutic change—through exploring the patient's experience of having a therapeutic experience—activates meta-therapeutic processes associated with characteristic affects of transformation. The aim is to raise the consciousness of therapists of all orientations, a fortiori those interested in integration, of the therapeutic potential inherent in the exploration of such nondenominational processes. First, three meta-therapeutic processes—acknowledging mastery, mourning-the-self, and receiving affirmation—and their respective affective markers—joy, emotional pain, and the healing affects—are identified. Then, the focus is on the dynamics of the affirmation process and the phenomenology of the healing affects. Therapeutic benefits and possible sources of resistance to receiving affirmation—in both patients and therapists—are discussed. In the last part of the paper, a transcript of a clinical vignette illustrates integrative therapeutic work with the response to affirmation and the experience of the healing affects.