Seeking therapy is a good first step, but given Frank's stunted emotional life, having concrete behavioral goals might be helpful, especially at the beginning of the therapeutic process.
Q2: Integrationist point-of-view
No single personality theory can heal all individuals: every person presents the therapist with unique challenges. Some patients, for example, with personality disorders such as bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or schizoid personality disorder may benefit from having clear, concrete behavioral goals that they must perform, to help wean them from ineffective coping mechanisms (such as self-injury, obsessive rituals, or isolation). More searching types of 'talk' therapy alone may encourage patients to stall rather than to actively change their life in proactive ways and will not address some of the root, habitual causes of the patient's behavior.
Other patients who feel unfulfilled but have a more structured and healthy lifestyle might benefit from more exploratory types of therapy, including Rogers' self-actualization therapy. This therapy empowers the client through intense questioning, and requires the client to have a certain level of willingness, self-knowledge and stability to be effective. An integrationist will find an ideal balance between the types of approaches offered, as even someone with OCD might benefit from some discussion of the social impact his or her behaviors, while someone seeking fulfillment might benefit from having behavioral goals set by the therapist (such as volunteering in the community, for example). There is no perfect cookbook recipe of therapy that will work with every patient. While every therapist has his or her preference for certain types of therapeutic techniques, every patient presents the therapist...
An overly doctrinaire approach is seldom fruitful and can even be harmful. The patient's stage of life, stage of self-awakening, and what he or she desires from the therapeutic process will all shape the client-therapist relationship.
The patient is often striving to become someone 'new': the same, yet different, and fully actualized. That 'new' envisioned persona will not be the same for every individual, even if the goal for every patient is ultimately to create a more positive and new sense of self. Just as every spiritual figure's path to the divine is different, but ultimately leads to the same end, the same is true with therapy. To achieve a goal will require a different path for every patient, because every patient is operating within a unique social context, and is subject to different biological, social, and familial conditions.
The therapist cannot simply address the ideal and focus on the final goal: the therapist must address the needs of the client in the here and now, and only then can he or she lead the client to a satisfactory spiritual and psychological state of unity. The Gospels present different versions of Christ's life, and through these different windows onto His life, a unified truth is revealed. Just as every story about the divine offers a different facet or window onto the same, core truth, using a variety of therapeutic methods can often be the best way to lead the client down a path of self-actualization. The therapist can present the client with different ways of looking at his or her situation, and use a 'what works' approach. That is why most therapists today use a combination of behavioral goals, talk therapy, and often biologically-oriented treatments such as medication when addressing a patient's needs.
