Mark Tarlow's use of play and self-disclosure in psychotherapy

Mark Tarlow and the Role of Play And Disclosure in Psychiatry

Self-disclosure and therapy sessions

Self-disclosure generally refers to the concept of the therapist disclosing to the patient he is handling his own personal experiences that they have gone through and how they handled them. This is often done in an attempt to win the trust of the patient and the confidence in you that you hold a common ground with them. It is also an attempt to let the patient know that the therapist is one who can be trusted with the information they are giving since they too have been in a similar situation. My persona opinion on self-disclosure is that it should be the last device in the options of the therapist. The therapist should not disclose the content of their lives and psyche to the patient as this may amount to the therapist attempting to influence the patient to look at themselves as the therapist looks at himself, yet the therapist should strive to help the patient have an objective and balanced look at their situation. It also means the therapist tries to scale up or scale down the psychological challenge of the patient to theirs, yet each patient has unique levels of individual challenges. However, the self-disclosure may in special circumstances be used in a case-specific and as a way of fortifying the decisions already made by the patient and not manipulating the patient to make the decision. Once you have walked with the patient through the challenge and they have attained the tipping point, then self-disclosure can help in giving the patient assurance that they have made the right decision.

Revealing inner state to patient

In the process of psychotherapy, the use of play is important in helping the patient with opening up bout some information that they may try to intentionally hide yet could be important for the counselling session. Here, if found by the patient, the therapist should only reveal information that is helpful in the counselling session. His developmental history can be revealed so that it can act as guide for the patient in the process of self-discovery and leading them to the tipping point. I have in some instances revealed events from personal life, but only those that do not have attachment to my relationship dynamics since I believe each relationship is unique in its own way.

The therapeutic license

This approach to psychotherapy is used in varied ways by different therapists. In my case, in cases where I m not sure if the patient finds value in the therapy or not and would like to gauge the attachment he has in the entire process of therapy, I often write an email, detailing his successes and progress and implicitly suggesting a possible termination of the process despite the fact that not all goals have been met yet. This helps me see how the patient may react, if with remorse at the termination, then I know I the patient is in the right path in the psychotherapy, if they easily agree with the suggestion to terminate, I know there is need to emphasize for the patient role in the therapy and importance of staying the course to the very end.