The meaning and feeling of the time and space between psychotherapy sessions and everyday life: Client experiences of transitions

Abstract

Objective To explore how clients in psychodynamic or psychoanalytic psychotherapy, conducted in the traditional in-person setting, experience the transitions in time and space between psychotherapy sessions and everyday life. Method Twelve semi-structured interviews were analyzed with inductive experiential thematic analysis, focusing on how the participants experience and make sense of the phenomenon in focus. Results The participants described therapy as a sheltered space where they could be open, vulnerable, receptive, and present. Approaching and leaving psychotherapy sessions, the participants established different behavioral patterns and routines dealing with their anxieties and resistances. In this in-between area, the participants could handle interconnections and differences between therapy and everyday life. Participants stressed the clinical impact of transitions: transitions affect both therapy and everyday life; disturbed transitions have an adverse impact; transitions are insufficiently addressed in therapy. Conclusion Transitions between therapy and life appear to be an essential but seldom recognized part of the therapy process beyond the borders of therapy sessions. Implications of these findings for psychotherapy training and practice are discussed, and a tentative transtheoretical framework for further research is proposed.