Glossary

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Each term starts with a plain meaning. Open one for the clinical detail, how it differs from similar ideas, and where to read more.

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226 terms

ABC model

An Activating event, Beliefs about it, and emotional and behavioral Consequences.

REBT

More about ABC model

REBT holds that beliefs, especially rigid evaluative ones, largely determine whether a negative event leads to healthy or unhealthy emotions.

Not the same as: Does not say events do not matter.

acceptance (willingness)

Making room for difficult feelings rather than fighting them, in the service of what matters.

ACT, DBT

More about acceptance (willingness)

Acceptance in ACT is active and chosen. It is not liking pain or resigning oneself to circumstances that could change.

Not the same as: Not approval, resignation, or tolerating harm.

accessibility, responsiveness, and engagement

Johnson’s description of a secure bond: Are you there for me? Will you respond? Do I matter to you?

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about accessibility, responsiveness, and engagement

Distressed couples lose these in the cycle; EFCT helps restore them.

Not the same as: Not constant agreement.

Related: attachment, safe haven

actualizing tendency

A built-in tendency to grow and develop in ways that maintain and enhance the person.

Person-Centered

More about actualizing tendency

Rogers’s foundational assumption. Therapy provides conditions in which this tendency can operate more freely.

Not the same as: Not a promise that people always grow in socially approved directions.

Related: self-concept, core conditions

ambivalence

Wanting to change and not wanting to, at the same time.

Motivational Interviewing

More about ambivalence

A common experience during change. MI helps people explore conflicting reasons and consider their own values. It is not a stage in a prescribed sequence.

Not the same as: Not resistance or lack of insight.

Related: change talk, sustain talk

assent

A young person’s agreement to take part, alongside a caregiver’s legal consent.

Child and Adolescent, Behavioral Parent Training

More about assent

Even when a guardian consents, clinicians explain therapy in age-appropriate terms and seek the young person’s agreement. Laws on adolescent consent vary by jurisdiction.

Not the same as: Not the same as legal consent.

attachment

The bond through which people seek safety and comfort from others, shaped early and revised over life.

Psychodynamic, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, AEDP, Child and Adolescent

More about attachment

Attachment research describes patterns of seeking or avoiding closeness under stress. In therapy, attachment ideas help explain why safety in the relationship matters and how expectations of others get carried forward.

Not the same as: Attachment style labels describe tendencies in research samples, not fixed identities.

Related: mentalizing, transference

attachment injury

A betrayal or abandonment at a moment of need that damages trust.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about attachment injury

EFCT has a specific process for repairing such injuries.

Not the same as: Not every hurt is an attachment injury.

automatic thought

A quick, often unnoticed thought that pops up in a situation and shapes the feeling that follows.

CBT

More about automatic thought

In Beck’s cognitive model, situations trigger automatic thoughts, which influence emotions, body sensations, and actions. They are often plausible and fast, so people react to them as facts.

Not the same as: Not deliberate reasoning, and not necessarily false. The question is whether the thought is accurate and helpful.

avoidance cycle

Avoiding something brings short-term relief, which makes avoiding more likely next time.

CBT, ACT, DBT

More about avoidance cycle

Learning theory explains this through negative reinforcement: relief rewards the avoidance. Over time life shrinks and the feared situation feels more dangerous.

Not the same as: Not laziness or lack of willpower.

awareness (Gestalt)

Noticing what one is sensing, feeling, thinking, and doing as it happens.

Gestalt

More about awareness (Gestalt)

In Gestalt therapy, awareness is both a method and an aim: when people notice how they are organizing their experience now, new choices become possible.

Not the same as: Not insight into the past; the focus is how things happen now.

Related: figure and ground, contact

awfulizing

Rating something as the worst possible, beyond bad.

REBT

More about awfulizing

One of the derivative irrational beliefs, alongside frustration intolerance and depreciation of self, others, or life.

Not the same as: Accepting that something is very bad is rational; calling it beyond bad is not.

behavioral activation

Re-engaging with rewarding and meaningful activities to break the depression cycle.

CBT

More about behavioral activation

Depression narrows life through withdrawal and avoidance, which reduces positive experiences and deepens low mood. BA tracks activity and mood and schedules values-linked activities, solving problems that block them.

Not the same as: Not “just keep busy”; activities are chosen for function and meaning.

Related: avoidance cycle

behavioral chain analysis

A step-by-step reconstruction of what led to and followed a target behavior.

DBT

More about behavioral chain analysis

Vulnerabilities, a prompting event, links (thoughts, feelings, sensations, actions), the behavior, and consequences. It shows where a different skill could break the chain.

Not the same as: Not an interrogation or a blame exercise.

behavioral experiment

A planned real-life test of a belief.

CBT

More about behavioral experiment

Client and therapist write the belief and a prediction, design an action that tests it, carry it out, and review what happened. The aim is learning from experience rather than argument.

Not the same as: Not homework for its own sake, and not a test the client can fail; any result is data.

best hopes question

An opening such as “What are your best hopes from our work together?”

Solution-Focused

between-session coaching

Brief contact between sessions to help apply skills in real situations.

DBT

More about between-session coaching

Part of comprehensive DBT, with clear limits agreed in advance.

Not the same as: Not open-ended crisis counseling.

Related: comprehensive DBT

biosocial theory

Intense emotional sensitivity meeting an environment that dismisses or punishes emotions.

DBT

More about biosocial theory

The biosocial theory proposes that emotional vulnerability and invalidating responses can influence each other over development and contribute to regulation difficulties. Do not infer a particular childhood history or a single cause from present distress.

Not the same as: Not blaming families; transactions run in both directions.

blamer softening

A stage-two event in which the pursuing partner reaches from vulnerability rather than criticism.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about blamer softening

EFCT uses this term for a partner expressing vulnerable feelings and attachment needs. Process associations should not be read as proof that an isolated intervention causes lasting improvement.

Not the same as: Not giving up needs.

Related: withdrawer re-engagement

boundaries

The limits that keep therapy a professional relationship in the client’s interest.

Psychodynamic, Person-Centered

More about boundaries

Boundary crossings, such as a brief self-disclosure, can be helpful when thoughtful and discussed. Boundary violations exploit or harm the client. Small, unexamined crossings can drift toward violations, which is why supervision matters.

Not the same as: Crossing and violation are different; neither is evaluated without context.

Related: the frame

boundaries (structural)

Invisible rules about who participates in what and how close people are.

Family Systems

More about boundaries (structural)

Structural family therapy describes boundaries ranging from enmeshed (too diffuse) to disengaged (too rigid).

Not the same as: Different from the therapy-frame meaning of boundaries.

Related: subsystem, hierarchy

broaching

Openly inviting discussion of how culture, identity, and power may affect the client’s concerns and the therapy relationship.

Multicultural Practice, Psychodynamic

More about broaching

Often includes the therapist naming their own identity when relevant and inviting the client’s view.

Not the same as: Not a script delivered at intake and then dropped.

Related: cultural opportunity

caregiver stress

The strain on parents from caregiving, work, money, health, and other pressures.

Behavioral Parent Training, Child and Adolescent

More about caregiver stress

Clinicians assess stress and parental depression because these may affect a family’s ability to participate and practice. A handbook topic listing does not establish that treating stress alone improves child outcomes.

Not the same as: Not a reason to blame parents.

Related: coercive cycle

CBT case formulation

An individualized map of how a person’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and circumstances keep their problems going.

CBT

More about CBT case formulation

Formulations range from descriptive (what happens) to cross-sectional (maintaining cycles now) to longitudinal (how beliefs developed). They include strengths and are revised as data arrive.

Not the same as: Not a generic diagram with the client’s words filled in.

change talk

Anything the person says in favor of change.

Motivational Interviewing

More about change talk

Includes desire, ability, reasons, and need, and mobilizing language such as commitment and taking steps. Process research links some subtypes to outcomes.

Not the same as: The therapist’s arguments are not change talk.

Related: sustain talk, evoking

changing emotion with emotion

EFT’s proposal that an adaptive emotional response can help transform a painful, unhelpful response.

Emotion-Focused

More about changing emotion with emotion

The model describes, for example, exploring assertive anger or compassion alongside shame. Treatment trials do not show that this mechanism explains every improvement.

Not the same as: Not venting or catharsis.

child-directed interaction (special time)

Short daily play where the child leads and the parent follows with praise, reflection, and description.

Behavioral Parent Training

More about child-directed interaction (special time)

A phase of Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) that strengthens the relationship before discipline skills are taught. Similar “special time” appears in other programs.

Not the same as: Not teaching or correcting during play.

Related: labeled praise, live coaching

circular causality

A systemic way of thinking about how people’s responses can influence one another in a loop.

Family Systems, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about circular causality

Instead of asking who started it, systemic therapists track loops: a parent’s repeated demands and a teenager’s withdrawal may feed each other.

Not the same as: Not denying individual responsibility, especially for harm.

circular questioning

Questions that ask family members about relationships and differences, such as “Who worries most when…?”

Family Systems

clarification

Asking or reflecting to make what the client said more specific.

Psychodynamic

More about clarification

Clarification gathers detail and reflects it back so both people can understand the experience. It is a common way to explore an account before offering an interpretation.

Not the same as: Not interrogating. The aim is shared understanding.

coercive cycle

A loop in which a child escalates, a parent gives in, and both behaviors are strengthened.

Behavioral Parent Training, Family Systems

More about coercive cycle

Described by Gerald Patterson. The child learns escalation works; the parent learns giving in stops the distress. Breaking it involves consistent responses and positive attention for alternatives.

Not the same as: Not a sign of bad parents or bad children.

collaborative empiricism

Therapist and client work as a team to test ideas against real experience.

CBT, REBT, Schema Therapy

More about collaborative empiricism

The therapist does not tell the client their thoughts are wrong. Together they treat beliefs as hypotheses, gather evidence, and design small experiments. The stance shapes every CBT technique.

Not the same as: Not debating or persuading the client.

committed action

Taking concrete steps in valued directions, including when it is uncomfortable.

ACT

More about committed action

Includes setting small goals, using behavioral methods such as exposure and skills training, and recommitting after lapses.

Not the same as: Not perfectionism.

Related: values (in ACT)

communication analysis

Reviewing a specific conversation in detail to see what was said, meant, and felt.

IPT

More about communication analysis

Helps identify communication patterns that maintain disputes and practice alternatives through role play.

Not the same as: Not blaming either party.

Related: role dispute

complex reflection

A reflection that adds meaning or emphasis beyond what the person said.

Motivational Interviewing, Person-Centered

More about complex reflection

It may reflect feeling, continue the paragraph, or capture both sides of ambivalence. MI coding counts complex and simple reflections separately.

Not the same as: Not an interpretation imposed on the person.

compliments (solution-focused)

Genuine, specific acknowledgement of the client’s strengths and efforts, direct or implied.

Solution-Focused

More about compliments (solution-focused)

Used throughout and in end-of-session feedback, along with any suggestions.

Not the same as: Not flattery; tied to what the client said or did.

Related: solution building

comprehensive DBT

The full treatment: individual therapy, skills training, between-session coaching, and a consultation team.

DBT

More about comprehensive DBT

Developed for chronically suicidal people with borderline personality disorder. Using one DBT skill in another therapy is DBT-informed, not comprehensive DBT.

Not the same as: Different from teaching a skill in isolation.

concordant and complementary countertransference

Feeling like the client feels, or feeling like someone important in the client’s life felt toward them.

Psychodynamic

More about concordant and complementary countertransference

A concordant reaction resembles the client’s own state, such as helplessness. A complementary reaction resembles the response of someone in the client’s relational world, such as a critical parent. These categories, from Heinrich Racker, are used heavily in object relations work.

Not the same as: The categories organize possibilities; they do not tell you which one is happening.

conditions of worth

Learned beliefs that one is acceptable only when meeting certain conditions.

Person-Centered

More about conditions of worth

In Rogers’s account, conditional acceptance can lead a person to reject experiences that conflict with the self they feel allowed to be. He called the mismatch between experience and self-concept incongruence.

Not the same as: Not simply having standards.

confidentiality with young people

Agreeing at the start what will be kept private and what must be shared with caregivers or authorities.

Child and Adolescent

More about confidentiality with young people

Explain who can receive information, the limits of confidentiality and how concerns will be discussed. Applicable law, age, consent arrangements and setting determine disclosure duties; a safety concern does not authorize every disclosure.

Not the same as: Not absolute secrecy.

Related: assent, safeguarding

conflict

Wanting two things that pull against each other, often without full awareness of one of them.

Psychodynamic

More about conflict

Psychodynamic thinking treats ambivalence as ordinary: wanting closeness and fearing it, wanting to succeed and fearing the envy or loss success could bring. Symptoms often appear where a conflict cannot be faced directly. Contemporary models also recognize deficits, such as difficulty regulating emotion or reflecting on minds, that are not best understood as conflicts.

Not the same as: Conflict is not the same as interpersonal arguing. It refers to competing motives within one person.

confrontation

Respectfully pointing out something the client may be avoiding or not noticing.

Psychodynamic

More about confrontation

In the technical sense, confrontation means bringing two things side by side: “You said you don’t mind, and your voice dropped when you said it.” Done with warmth and curiosity, it invites reflection.

Not the same as: Not aggression or arguing. A harsh response deserves reflection and supervision; do not automatically attribute it to countertransference.

Related: clarification, interpretation

congruence (genuineness)

The therapist being genuinely themselves in the relationship.

Person-Centered, Gestalt

More about congruence (genuineness)

Congruence means the therapist’s outward responses match inner experience. It sometimes includes careful, relevant self-expression.

Not the same as: Not disclosing everything one feels.

Related: core conditions

consultation team

A weekly meeting where DBT therapists support each other and keep to the model.

DBT

More about consultation team

Described as therapy for the therapists: it addresses burnout, therapist behaviors that interfere with treatment, and adherence.

Not the same as: Not optional in comprehensive DBT.

Related: comprehensive DBT

contact

The meeting point between a person and their environment, including other people.

Gestalt

More about contact

Gestalt therapists attend to how a person makes and avoids contact, in the room and in life. Classic Gestalt theory names patterns that modify contact, such as retroflection.

Not the same as: Not just physical touch or being sociable.

coping question

When things are very hard: “How have you managed to keep going?”

Solution-Focused

core affect (in AEDP)

AEDP’s term for a deeply felt emotional experience, such as grief, anger or joy.

AEDP

More about core affect (in AEDP)

In AEDP’s model, supported emotional processing is understood to help a person recognize needs and possible responses. This is a clinical change model; outcome studies do not establish a universal biological mechanism.

Not the same as: Not the same term as in affective science.

core belief

A deep, general belief about oneself, others, or the world, such as “I’m incompetent.”

CBT, Schema Therapy

More about core belief

A broad belief about oneself, others or the world. Timing of work depends on goals, formulation and readiness; themes and adaptive beliefs may be considered early as well as later.

Not the same as: Schema therapy’s “schemas” are broader patterns including emotions, memories, and body sensations.

core conditions

Empathy, unconditional positive regard, and congruence.

Person-Centered

More about core conditions

Three of Rogers’s six conditions, focused on the therapist. The full set also includes psychological contact, client incongruence, and the client perceiving empathy and acceptance.

Not the same as: Rogers proposed six conditions; “core conditions” usually names three.

core emotional needs

Basic needs such as safety and attachment, autonomy, expressing feelings, play, and realistic limits.

Schema Therapy

More about core emotional needs

Schema therapy links schemas to needs that were not met in childhood and aims to help them be met now.

Not the same as: Not a promise that therapy will meet all needs.

core psychodynamic problem

The central recurring difficulty that organizes much of a person’s suffering.

Psychodynamic

corrective emotional experience

A new relational experience that disconfirms an old expectation.

Psychodynamic, AEDP

More about corrective emotional experience

Franz Alexander introduced the phrase; contemporary relational and short-term models use it carefully. The therapist does not act a role; the client simply encounters a response different from what they feared, and both notice it.

Not the same as: Not manipulating the client by playing the opposite of a past figure.

countertransference

The therapist’s emotional reactions to a client and to the work.

Psychodynamic

More about countertransference

Older definitions limited the term to the therapist’s unresolved conflicts. Contemporary usage includes the therapist’s whole response, which may reflect the therapist’s own history, the client’s way of relating, the setting, or all of these. Reactions become useful when reflected on, discussed in supervision, and held as hypotheses.

Not the same as: A reaction is not proof of what the client feels. “I feel bored, so the client must be avoiding anger” skips several steps.

creative adjustment

A way of coping that fit an earlier situation and may now limit the person.

Gestalt

More about creative adjustment

Gestalt therapists respect old adjustments as solutions before inviting new ones.

Not the same as: Not a symptom to remove.

Related: retroflection

creative hopelessness

Recognizing that the control strategies a person has tried have not worked, which opens room for something new.

ACT

More about creative hopelessness

Done with compassion, it validates effort while noticing cost. Done harshly, it can feel shaming.

Not the same as: Not telling clients their situation is hopeless.

critic modes

Internalized harsh or demanding voices, often called punitive or demanding parent modes.

Schema Therapy

More about critic modes

Schema therapists actively limit critic modes while caring for the vulnerable child.

Not the same as: Not the same as healthy self-reflection.

Related: schema modes

cultural adaptation

Systematically modifying a treatment to fit a client’s language, culture, and context.

Multicultural Practice, IPT, Behavioral Parent Training

More about cultural adaptation

Adaptations range from language and examples to goals and delivery. Meta-analyses show adapted treatments outperform unadapted ones on average.

Not the same as: Not stereotyping a group’s needs.

Related: cultural humility

cultural comfort

The therapist’s ease and openness when cultural topics arise.

Multicultural Practice

More about cultural comfort

Discomfort can lead therapists to change the subject or over-explain.

Not the same as: Not avoiding discomfort; growing tolerance for it.

Related: multicultural orientation

cultural humility

An other-oriented stance of openness about a client’s cultural identities, with awareness of one’s own limits.

Multicultural Practice

More about cultural humility

Hook, Davis, Owen, and DeBlaere describe it as part of a multicultural orientation, alongside noticing cultural opportunities and feeling comfortable discussing culture.

Not the same as: Not pretending to know nothing, and not a checklist of facts about groups.

cultural opportunity

A moment in session when exploring a client’s cultural identity could deepen understanding.

Multicultural Practice

More about cultural opportunity

An invitation to explore cultural identities when they matter to the client’s experience. Ask rather than assume, and allow the client to decide how far to explore.

Not the same as: Not forcing identity topics into every moment.

DBT skills modules

Mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

DBT

More about DBT skills modules

Taught in skills groups and practiced between sessions. Each module answers a different need, from surviving crises to asking for what you want.

Not the same as: Learning a skill is not the same as receiving comprehensive DBT.

Related: comprehensive DBT, wise mind

de-escalation

Stage one: the couple sees the cycle as the shared enemy and conflict calms.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about de-escalation

Achieved by tracking the cycle and accessing underlying emotions.

Not the same as: Not the end of therapy.

defense

Anything a person does, usually automatically, to keep an uncomfortable feeling or thought at a distance.

Psychodynamic

More about defense

Defenses include changing the subject, joking, intellectualizing, staying agreeable, blaming oneself, or seeing a feeling in someone else. Every person uses them, and many are adaptive. Clinicians ask what a defense protects against, what it costs, and how flexible it is. A defense is described by its function in a moment, not by a label for a person.

Not the same as: A defense is not a deliberate lie or a character flaw. The aim is not to strip defenses away but to make choices possible where the defense has become automatic and costly.

defusion

Seeing thoughts as thoughts, rather than as commands or facts.

ACT

More about defusion

Techniques such as saying “I’m having the thought that…” change the function of a thought without disputing its content.

Not the same as: Different from cognitive restructuring, which evaluates whether a thought is accurate.

detached protector mode

A coping mode that shuts off feelings and connection to stay safe.

Schema Therapy

More about detached protector mode

Often appears as flatness, intellectualizing, or going through the motions. Schema therapists approach it respectfully.

Not the same as: Not a deliberate choice.

Related: schema modes

developmental formulation

Understanding a young person’s difficulties in light of age, development, family, school, and culture.

Child and Adolescent

More about developmental formulation

Asks what is expected at this age, what developmental tasks are affected, and what supports exist.

Not the same as: Not applying adult models unchanged.

dialectics

Holding two seemingly opposite truths together and finding a synthesis.

DBT

More about dialectics

The central dialectic in DBT is acceptance and change: the person is doing their best, and they need to do better. Therapists balance validation with change strategies.

Not the same as: Not compromise for its own sake.

Related: validation, radical acceptance

dialogic relationship

A relationship of genuine meeting, in which the therapist is present, includes the client’s view, and is willing to be affected.

Gestalt

More about dialogic relationship

One of three foundations Yontef names, with phenomenology and field theory. It shapes self-disclosure and how experiments are offered.

Not the same as: Not a technique; an attitude.

differentiation of self

The ability to stay connected while thinking and feeling for oneself.

Family Systems

More about differentiation of self

Central to Bowen family systems theory, which also emphasizes multigenerational transmission.

Not the same as: Not emotional distance.

Related: triangulation, genogram

discord

Friction in the working relationship, such as arguing, interrupting, or disengaging.

Motivational Interviewing

More about discord

Often a signal that the therapist has moved ahead of the client or slipped into persuasion. Responding with reflection, apology, or emphasizing autonomy usually helps.

Not the same as: Not the same as sustain talk about the behavior.

disputing

Questioning irrational beliefs for evidence, logic, and usefulness.

REBT

More about disputing

Empirical (is it consistent with reality?), logical (does it follow?), and pragmatic (does it help?) disputes. Done collaboratively, it can be Socratic or didactic.

Not the same as: Not arguing to win.

dyadic affect regulation

Regulating emotion together, in relationship.

AEDP, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about dyadic affect regulation

Drawing on attachment research, AEDP holds that emotions too much to bear alone can be processed with an attuned other.

Not the same as: Not the therapist calming the client down.

Related: undoing aloneness, attachment

dynamic unconscious

Feelings, wishes, and fears a person keeps out of awareness because knowing them would be painful.

Psychodynamic

More about dynamic unconscious

Much of mental life happens outside awareness simply because attention is limited. The psychodynamic claim is narrower: some material is kept away actively, because it conflicts with values, attachments, or safety. That material still shapes choices, moods, and relationships. Clinicians infer it from patterns, not from a single remark.

Not the same as: Not a hidden basement of repressed memories waiting to be recovered. Contemporary writers emphasize ongoing processes of avoiding and disavowing, not retrieving buried events.

Related: defense, conflict

early maladaptive schema

In schema theory, a broad pattern of memories, emotions, sensations and beliefs that may develop through interactions among temperament, unmet needs and repeated experiences.

Schema Therapy

More about early maladaptive schema

Young described eighteen schemas grouped in domains, such as defectiveness or abandonment. Schemas feel like truth and are activated by situations that resemble their origins.

Not the same as: Broader than a CBT core belief.

elicit–provide–elicit

Ask what the person knows or wants to know, offer information with permission, then ask what they make of it.

Motivational Interviewing

More about elicit–provide–elicit

A way to share expertise without triggering defensiveness.

Not the same as: Not a lecture with a question at the end.

Related: righting reflex

emotion scheme

An internal organization of feelings, memories, body sensations, and meanings that produces emotional responses.

Emotion-Focused

More about emotion scheme

EFT aims to change emotion schemes through new emotional experience, not insight alone.

Not the same as: Broader than a belief.

Related: primary maladaptive emotion

empathic confrontation

Acknowledging why a pattern makes sense while honestly naming its cost.

Schema Therapy

More about empathic confrontation

Combines understanding of the schema’s origins with clear feedback about present harm.

Not the same as: Not harshness.

Related: limited reparenting

empathic understanding

Sensing the client’s inner world as if it were your own and communicating that understanding.

Person-Centered, Emotion-Focused, Motivational Interviewing

More about empathic understanding

Empathy includes following moment-to-moment experiencing, checking understanding, and capturing implicit meaning. It predicts outcome across therapies.

Not the same as: Not sympathy or agreeing.

empty-chair work

A task for unfinished business: speaking to an imagined significant other.

Emotion-Focused, Gestalt

More about empty-chair work

Helps express unmet needs and resolve lingering feelings. Contraindicated or modified in some trauma presentations.

Not the same as: Requires training; can be overwhelming.

enactment

When therapist and client unknowingly act out a familiar pattern together.

Psychodynamic

More about enactment

Both people contribute. A therapist may become more directive with a client who invites rescue, repeating a pattern the client knows well. Enactments are common and often recognized only afterward. Recognized and discussed, they can become some of the most useful moments in therapy.

Not the same as: Not a mistake to be hidden, and not something the client alone causes.

enactment (in EFCT)

The therapist guides partners to share emotions and needs directly with each other in session.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about enactment (in EFCT)

For example, inviting a withdrawer to tell their partner about feeling they can never get it right. Enactments create new interactions.

Not the same as: Different from the psychodynamic meaning of enactment, an unwitting shared pattern.

ending (termination)

The planned end of therapy and the feelings and meanings it brings.

Psychodynamic

More about ending (termination)

Endings can stir old losses and gains. Planning an ending, reviewing what changed, and making room for mixed feelings are part of the work.

Not the same as: An ending is also a practical transition; plan follow-up and resources.

Related: working through, the frame

epistemic trust

Trust that what another person tells you is relevant and reliable enough to learn from.

Psychodynamic

More about epistemic trust

A more recent idea in the mentalization literature: people who have been misled or harmed may close off learning from others. Feeling accurately understood may reopen it.

Not the same as: A theoretical proposal still being studied, not an established mechanism.

Related: mentalizing

equipoise

Deliberately not steering toward a particular choice.

Motivational Interviewing

More about equipoise

The helper does not favor one option. The MITI 4.2.1 manual says standard coding has limited value when the clinician is not trying to influence a particular target change; it does not offer a validated alternative equipoise score.

Not the same as: Different from MI aimed at a specific behavior change.

Related: MI spirit

evoking

Drawing out the person’s own reasons for change.

Motivational Interviewing

More about evoking

Strategies include asking evocative questions, using importance and confidence rulers, exploring values, and selectively reflecting change talk.

Not the same as: Not supplying reasons.

exception

A time when the problem was absent, milder, or handled better.

Solution-Focused

More about exception

Exceptions are elicited, amplified, and reinforced: what was different, who did what, how it could happen again.

Not the same as: Not proof the problem is small.

experiencing

The felt, bodily sense of what one is going through.

Person-Centered, Emotion-Focused, Gestalt

More about experiencing

Eugene Gendlin, working with Rogers, described experiencing and developed focusing to help people attend to a felt sense. Depth of experiencing became an important process measure.

Not the same as: Not just naming emotions.

Related: nondirective attitude

experiential avoidance

Trying to escape or control unwanted thoughts, feelings, or sensations, even when it costs what matters.

ACT

More about experiential avoidance

Avoidance often brings short-term relief and long-term narrowing of life. ACT targets avoidance that limits valued living, not all avoidance.

Not the same as: Some avoidance is sensible; the test is workability.

experiment (Gestalt)

A collaborative try-out in session that heightens awareness, such as exaggerating a gesture or saying a sentence in a new way.

Gestalt

More about experiment (Gestalt)

Graded to the client’s support, offered as an invitation, and followed by noticing what happened. Chairwork is one kind of experiment among many.

Not the same as: Not a set exercise or a test with right answers.

exposure

Approaching feared situations, sensations, or memories in a planned way to learn something new.

CBT, ACT, DBT

More about exposure

Exposure is among the best-supported interventions for anxiety problems. Inhibitory learning models emphasize violating expectations and varying contexts rather than waiting for fear to drop.

Not the same as: Not flooding someone without consent or preparation.

expressive–supportive continuum

A range from uncovering and interpreting to strengthening and stabilizing.

Psychodynamic

More about expressive–supportive continuum

Expressive interventions explore and interpret; supportive interventions affirm, advise, empathize, and strengthen adaptive defenses. Most therapy moves along the range depending on the person’s capacity, the moment, and the goal. Gabbard’s teaching describes this as a continuum rather than two separate therapies.

Not the same as: Supportive work is not lesser or unskilled; it requires careful judgment.

externalizing

Talking about a problem as separate from the person.

Family Systems, Child and Adolescent

More about externalizing

Central in narrative therapy (Michael White and David Epston): “When Worry takes over, what does it make you do?”

Not the same as: Not denying responsibility.

Related: reframing

family accommodation

Caregivers changing routines to reduce a child’s distress in ways that maintain the problem.

Child and Adolescent, Behavioral Parent Training, CBT

More about family accommodation

For example, letting a child skip school when anxious. Accommodation is loving and understandable; reducing it is often part of treatment for anxiety.

Not the same as: Not bad parenting.

Related: avoidance cycle

family life cycle

Transitions families move through, such as a child entering adolescence or a grandparent moving in.

Family Systems, Child and Adolescent

More about family life cycle

Family therapists consider whether a transition has put strain on routines and relationships, while recognizing that families have different paths.

Not the same as: Families vary widely; no single normative sequence.

Related: genogram

field theory

The view that a person can only be understood within their whole situation, including relationships, culture, body, and the therapy itself.

Gestalt

More about field theory

The therapist is part of the field and affects what emerges. Contemporary Gestalt links this to difference and power.

Not the same as: Not physics; a way of seeing context as part of experience.

figure and ground

What stands out in experience (figure) against everything else (ground).

Gestalt

More about figure and ground

Needs and concerns become figure; when met, they recede and another emerges. Stuckness can be a figure that never completes.

Not the same as: Not a fixed priority list.

flexible preference

Wanting something strongly without demanding it.

REBT

More about flexible preference

The rational alternative to a rigid demand: “I’d prefer not to look foolish, but there’s no law that I must not.”

Not the same as: Not indifference.

Related: rigid demand

four processes

Engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning.

Motivational Interviewing

More about four processes

Engaging builds the relationship; focusing finds a direction; evoking draws out the person’s own motivation; planning develops commitment and a concrete plan. They overlap and recur.

Not the same as: Not rigid stages.

Related: evoking

frustration intolerance

Believing one cannot bear discomfort.

REBT

More about frustration intolerance

Also called low frustration tolerance. Its alternative is discomfort tolerance: “It’s hard, and I can stand it.”

Not the same as: Not lack of effort.

Related: awfulizing

functional assessment (ABC)

Identifying the Antecedents and Consequences around a Behavior to understand what maintains it.

Behavioral Parent Training, Child and Adolescent

More about functional assessment (ABC)

Asks when the behavior happens, what happens right before, and what follows. Different from REBT’s ABC model of beliefs.

Not the same as: Same letters as REBT’s ABC, different meaning.

Related: reinforcement

functional contextualism

Judging behavior by what it does in its context, not by its form.

ACT

More about functional contextualism

A philosophy that studies behavior in its present and historical context and evaluates explanations by their usefulness for predicting and influencing behavior toward specified goals. In clinical ACT, workability asks how responding to a thought affects valued action. Factual accuracy and real danger still matter.

Not the same as: Not relativism about facts.

generalization

Using skills in new settings and situations, not only in the clinic.

Behavioral Parent Training, CBT

More about generalization

Planned through homework, varying settings, and involving other caregivers and school.

Not the same as: Does not happen automatically.

Related: live coaching

genogram

A family diagram across generations showing relationships and patterns.

Family Systems

More about genogram

Used for multigenerational formulation and to make patterns visible to families.

Not the same as: A tool for curiosity, not a verdict.

grief (in IPT)

Depression linked to the death of a significant person.

IPT

More about grief (in IPT)

IPT facilitates mourning and helps the person re-engage with relationships and activities.

Not the same as: Normal grief is not a disorder; IPT addresses depression linked to loss.

Related: IPT problem areas

healthy adult mode

The part of a person that can care for needs, set limits, and act wisely.

Schema Therapy

More about healthy adult mode

Therapy aims to strengthen it, initially with the therapist modeling it.

Not the same as: Not perfection.

healthy and unhealthy negative emotions

Within REBT’s terminology, a distinction between negative emotional responses viewed as adaptive and those viewed as unhelpful.

REBT

More about healthy and unhealthy negative emotions

REBT examines beliefs and action tendencies, not whether a person feels good. These are model-specific categories; they do not mean all anxiety or clinical depression is irrational or inappropriate.

Not the same as: The difference is in the beliefs and the action tendencies, not in feeling good.

Related: ABC model

hierarchy

Who holds authority and responsibility in the family.

Family Systems

More about hierarchy

Structural and strategic models attend to whether parents can lead in age-appropriate ways. Culture shapes what a healthy hierarchy looks like.

Not the same as: Not authoritarianism.

Related: subsystem

identity diffusion

A sense of self that shifts sharply, so views of oneself and others change from moment to moment.

Psychodynamic

More about identity diffusion

A core feature of borderline-level organization in Kernberg’s model. Contrasts with an integrated identity that can hold mixed feelings toward the same person.

Not the same as: Different from ordinary uncertainty about work or values.

imagery rescripting

Revisiting a painful memory in imagination and changing what happens so needs are met.

Schema Therapy

More about imagery rescripting

An experiential technique used in schema therapy and other models. It requires training and careful judgment about readiness.

Not the same as: Not peer-practice material.

importance and confidence rulers

Asking how important change is and how confident the person feels, on a 0–10 scale.

Motivational Interviewing

More about importance and confidence rulers

Follow-up questions such as “Why a 5 and not a 2?” evoke change talk.

Not the same as: Not a measurement instrument.

Related: evoking

incongruence

A gap between experience and self-concept.

Person-Centered

More about incongruence

Rogers’s second condition: the client is incongruent, vulnerable, or anxious. In the therapist, incongruence means being not genuine.

Not the same as: Different from a cognitive distortion; it concerns experience and self.

inhibitory learning

In inhibitory-learning accounts, exposure builds new learning that competes with old fear associations.

CBT

More about inhibitory learning

Craske and colleagues propose strategies such as expectancy violation, removing safety signals, variability, retrieval cues, multiple contexts, and affect labeling to strengthen and generalize new learning.

Not the same as: Different from habituation, which focuses on fear decreasing within a session.

Related: exposure

instrumental emotion

An emotional expression used, often habitually, to influence others.

Emotion-Focused

More about instrumental emotion

For example, tears that reliably end conflict. EFT explores function with care.

Not the same as: Not necessarily deliberate manipulation.

Related: secondary emotion

intellectualization

Talking about a feeling in abstract or analytic terms so it is not felt.

Psychodynamic

More about intellectualization

The person may describe a loss with accurate insight and no visible emotion. Intellectualization can be a real strength, and many clinicians use it themselves. It becomes clinically interesting when explanation reliably replaces experience at the moments that matter.

Not the same as: Accurate insight is not the same as emotional contact with what the insight is about.

Related: defense, isolation of affect

intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy

A short-term model that works actively with anxiety and defenses to help feelings be experienced.

Psychodynamic

More about intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy

Developed by Habib Davanloo and extended by Allan Abbass and others. It uses detailed assessment of anxiety and defenses and requires specialized training with recorded supervision.

Not the same as: Its pressure and challenge techniques should not be imitated in unsupervised peer practice.

intermediate belief

Rules, attitudes, and assumptions such as “If I make a mistake, people will think less of me.”

CBT

More about intermediate belief

They sit between core beliefs and automatic thoughts and often take an if–then form. They guide strategies people use to protect themselves.

Not the same as: More general than a single automatic thought, more specific than a core belief.

internal frame of reference

The client’s own way of seeing their experience.

Person-Centered

More about internal frame of reference

Person-centered therapists try to stay within it rather than replacing it with their own interpretation.

Not the same as: Not agreeing with the client’s conclusions.

interpersonal formulation

A brief, shared statement linking symptoms to a problem area and setting the focus.

IPT

More about interpersonal formulation

Agreed with the patient at the end of the initial phase.

Not the same as: Brief and practical rather than developmental.

interpersonal inventory

A structured review of important relationships, their quality, and changes.

IPT

More about interpersonal inventory

Used in the initial phase to link symptoms to interpersonal events and choose a problem area.

Not the same as: Not a genogram, though related.

Related: interpersonal formulation

interpersonal sensitivity (deficits)

A pattern of social isolation or unfulfilling relationships without a specific event.

IPT

More about interpersonal sensitivity (deficits)

Work focuses on building relationships and examining experiences in the therapy relationship. Older trial analyses found poorer outcomes in the interpersonal-deficits group; that does not mean these clients cannot benefit.

Not the same as: Not a judgment of social worth.

Related: IPT problem areas

interpretation

Offering a possible explanation that links feelings, defenses, and relationships in a new way.

Psychodynamic

More about interpretation

An interpretation offers a possible connection among feelings, protective responses and relationships. Clinical texts emphasize tentative wording, timing and checking how the client responds. Research on transference interpretation has mixed findings and possible subgroup effects; it does not establish that timing matters more than frequency.

Not the same as: Not a verdict about what the client “really” feels.

intersectionality

Identities such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and disability combine and interact with systems of power.

Multicultural Practice

More about intersectionality

A framework from Black feminist scholarship, adopted in APA’s 2017 guidelines, for seeing how overlapping identities shape experience.

Not the same as: Not adding identities like a list.

Related: power and privilege

invalidating environment

Surroundings that dismiss, punish, or oversimplify a person’s emotional experience.

DBT

More about invalidating environment

Within the biosocial model, repeated invalidation can contribute to self-doubt and may reinforce increasingly intense expressions of distress. It is a developmental hypothesis rather than a description of every family.

Not the same as: Not necessarily abuse; can be well-meaning.

Related: biosocial theory

IPT problem areas

Grief, role disputes, role transitions, and interpersonal sensitivity (formerly deficits).

IPT

isolation of affect

Remembering or describing something painful while the matching feeling stays disconnected.

Psychodynamic

More about isolation of affect

Facts are available but their emotional charge is not. Often seen with obsessional styles. Clinicians notice it as a gap between content and tone.

Not the same as: Different from dissociation, in which experience itself feels unreal or fragmented.

Related: intellectualization, defense

labeled praise

Praise that names the specific behavior: “Thank you for putting the blocks away.”

Behavioral Parent Training

More about labeled praise

Specific praise tells the child what to repeat and builds the relationship.

Not the same as: Different from general praise like “good job.”

levels of defense

Some ways of protecting oneself distort reality more than others.

Psychodynamic

More about levels of defense

Many writers arrange defenses from those that bend reality a great deal, such as splitting or denial of obvious facts, to those that allow feelings to be known while managing them, such as humor or anticipation. The idea helps estimate how much stress a person can tolerate and how exploratory therapy can be. Real people use defenses from several levels depending on stress.

Not the same as: Not a ranking of people’s worth. A level describes typical functioning under stress, which can change.

limited reparenting

The therapist meets some unmet needs within professional limits, such as warmth, validation, and protection.

Schema Therapy

More about limited reparenting

A core relational stance in schema therapy. It requires clear boundaries and supervision.

Not the same as: Not becoming a parent or friend.

live coaching

The therapist guides the parent in real time while the parent interacts with the child.

Behavioral Parent Training

More about live coaching

In PCIT, often through an earpiece or online. Coaching gives immediate feedback and repeated practice.

Not the same as: Not lecturing parents about skills.

maintaining cycle

A loop in which a problem’s consequences keep the problem going.

CBT, Schema Therapy, Family Systems

More about maintaining cycle

For example: a thought leads to anxiety, anxiety leads to a safety behavior, and the safety behavior prevents disconfirming the thought.

Not the same as: Explains why a problem continues, not necessarily why it began.

marker

A recognizable client statement or behavior signaling readiness for a specific kind of work.

Emotion-Focused

More about marker

Examples: a self-critical split, unfinished business with a significant other, a problematic reaction, or an unclear felt sense.

Not the same as: Not a diagnosis.

Related: task (in EFT)

measurement-based care

Using brief, regular measures to track progress and guide changes.

CBT, IPT, Child and Adolescent

More about measurement-based care

Routine measures let therapist and client notice when treatment is not working and adjust early. Persons emphasizes monitoring progress as part of hypothesis testing.

Not the same as: Measures inform judgment; they do not replace conversation.

Related: CBT case formulation

mentalization-based treatment

A structured treatment that strengthens the capacity to mentalize, especially in relationships under stress.

Psychodynamic

More about mentalization-based treatment

Developed by Bateman and Fonagy for borderline personality disorder and since adapted widely. It favors a curious, not-knowing stance and short, here-and-now interventions over elaborate interpretation.

Not the same as: Mentalizing is a capacity; MBT is a specific treatment.

mentalizing

Making sense of behavior in terms of thoughts, feelings, and intentions, one’s own and other people’s.

Psychodynamic, Child and Adolescent

More about mentalizing

Developed by Peter Fonagy, Anthony Bateman, and colleagues. Under stress, mentalizing can collapse into rigid certainty about what others think, or into feelings that seem like facts. Mentalization-based treatment uses a curious, not-knowing stance to help restore it, rather than offering complex interpretations when it is offline.

Not the same as: Not the same as insight. A person can have a sophisticated theory about themselves and still lose the capacity to mentalize in a heated moment.

metacommunication

Talking about what is happening between therapist and client right now.

Psychodynamic

More about metacommunication

Safran and Muran describe it as mindfulness in action: the therapist shares an observation about the interaction, owns their part, and invites curiosity. “I notice I’ve been pressing for details, and you’ve gone quieter. I wonder what that’s like for you.”

Not the same as: Not a disguised interpretation of the client’s motives.

metatherapeutic processing

Reflecting on the experience of change itself: “What is it like to share this with me?”

AEDP

More about metatherapeutic processing

AEDP processes positive experiences of transformation, which can lead to further positive affects.

Not the same as: Not asking for feedback about the therapist’s performance.

Related: transformance

MI spirit

In MI’s fourth edition: partnership, acceptance, compassion and empowerment.

Motivational Interviewing

More about MI spirit

Miller and Rollnick use empowerment for the fourth element in the fourth edition; the third edition used evocation. Techniques without partnership and respect for autonomy can become coercive.

Not the same as: Not being nice while steering covertly.

Related: righting reflex, change talk

microaggression

A brief comment or action that communicates a slight about someone’s identity, often unintentionally.

Multicultural Practice

More about microaggression

In therapy, microaggressions can rupture the alliance. Repair involves acknowledging impact, taking responsibility, and inviting the client’s experience.

Not the same as: Intent does not erase impact.

Related: rupture and repair

miracle question

An invitation to imagine the problem resolved overnight and describe the first signs noticed the next day.

Solution-Focused

multi-informant assessment

Gathering information from the young person, caregivers, and school, because each sees different things.

Child and Adolescent, Behavioral Parent Training

More about multi-informant assessment

Informants often disagree; disagreement is information, not error. Outcome effects also differ by informant.

Not the same as: Not deciding who is right.

Related: developmental formulation

multicultural orientation

A way of being with clients that includes cultural humility, attention to cultural opportunities, and cultural comfort.

Multicultural Practice

More about multicultural orientation

Emphasizes how the therapist engages culture in the room rather than what they know about groups.

Not the same as: Different from competence defined as knowledge alone.

negative interaction cycle

A repeating pattern in which each partner’s protective move triggers the other’s.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, Family Systems

More about negative interaction cycle

EFCT treats the cycle, not either partner, as the problem. Common forms include pursue–withdraw, withdraw–withdraw, and attack–attack.

Not the same as: Not blaming one partner.

nondirective attitude

Trusting the client to lead the direction of therapy.

Person-Centered

More about nondirective attitude

Classical client-centered therapy is nondirective about content. Some contemporary person-centered and experiential approaches guide process while following the client’s content.

Not the same as: Not passivity or lack of skill.

not-knowing stance

Genuine curiosity about the client’s mind, without assuming you already know.

Psychodynamic, Solution-Focused

More about not-knowing stance

Central in mentalization-based treatment. The therapist asks, wonders aloud, and admits confusion, which models mentalizing and avoids imposing an expert account the client cannot yet use. Solution-focused therapists use the same phrase for curiosity that treats the client as the expert on their own life.

Not the same as: Not pretending ignorance or withholding a view.

Related: mentalizing

OARS

Open questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries.

Motivational Interviewing

More about OARS

The core communication skills of MI, used strategically to engage and to evoke change talk.

Not the same as: Skills alone are not MI without spirit and direction.

Related: complex reflection

object relations

Inner pictures of self and others, and the feelings linking them, formed in relationships.

Psychodynamic

More about object relations

The “objects” are people as experienced inwardly. Contemporary object relations theory, especially Kernberg’s, describes paired images of self and other linked by emotion that shape expectations.

Not the same as: “Object” is a technical term, not a dismissive word for people.

pacing

Matching the depth and speed of the work to what the client can manage now.

Psychodynamic, Emotion-Focused, AEDP

More about pacing

If exploration leaves the client overwhelmed, confused, detached or unable to think, pause and reassess the pace together. This is clinical guidance, not a claim that a particular pace necessarily causes harm.

Not the same as: Slowing down is a clinical choice, not avoidance.

paradoxical theory of change

Change happens when a person becomes more fully what they are, not by trying to become what they are not.

Gestalt

More about paradoxical theory of change

Arnold Beisser’s 1970 statement. The therapist does not push change but helps the client fully experience where they are, including conflicting parts.

Not the same as: Not passivity; awareness is active.

personality organization

How stable and integrated a person’s sense of self, others, and reality tends to be, especially under stress.

Psychodynamic

More about personality organization

Drawing on Otto Kernberg, McWilliams and others describe a range often called healthy, neurotic, borderline, and psychotic levels. The levels concern identity integration, the defenses typically used, reality testing, and the quality of relationships. Level guides technique: more exploratory work generally suits more integrated functioning; more structured, supportive, or mentalizing approaches suit less integrated functioning.

Not the same as: “Borderline level of organization” is not the same as the DSM diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, and none of these levels is a fixed verdict.

personality style

A person’s characteristic way of feeling, protecting themselves, and relating.

Psychodynamic

More about personality style

McWilliams describes styles such as depressive, obsessive-compulsive, narcissistic, schizoid, and others. Styles describe recurring themes and help the therapist adjust tone and expectations. Everyone has a mix.

Not the same as: A style is a way of understanding, not a diagnosis to assign.

phenomenological method

Describing experience as it appears, setting aside quick interpretations.

Gestalt

More about phenomenological method

The therapist brackets assumptions, describes what they notice, and treats all data (posture, voice, words) as equal until something stands out.

Not the same as: Not interpreting hidden meanings.

philosophical change

A lasting shift in core evaluative beliefs, not just a reinterpretation of one event.

REBT

More about philosophical change

Ellis distinguished elegant (philosophical) change from inferential change about specific situations.

Not the same as: Different from deciding the event was not so bad.

planned ignoring

Deliberately withdrawing attention from minor attention-seeking misbehavior.

Behavioral Parent Training

More about planned ignoring

For minor behavior maintained by attention, briefly withdraw attention and resume attention or praise when appropriate behavior returns. Behavior can temporarily increase. Never use it for unsafe behavior.

Not the same as: Not ignoring the child, and not for dangerous behavior.

Related: reinforcement

polarities

Opposing tendencies within a person, such as strong and fragile, or caring and resentful.

Gestalt

More about polarities

Gestalt work helps the person own both sides rather than identify with one and disown the other.

Not the same as: Not a diagnosis of splitting.

Related: paradoxical theory of change

power and privilege

Unequal access to resources, safety, and credibility shaped by social systems.

Multicultural Practice, Family Systems, Psychodynamic

More about power and privilege

The therapy relationship sits inside these systems; therapists attend to their own position and to institutional harms clients face.

Not the same as: Not individual guilt.

Related: intersectionality

preferred future

A detailed, concrete description of daily life when things are better.

Solution-Focused

More about preferred future

Good descriptions are observable, specific to situations, and focused on first signs rather than final outcomes. Asking what the client would do instead of the problem helps when a goal is stated as an absence.

Not the same as: Not a wish list; it is described in small, visible actions.

present-moment awareness

Flexible attention to what is happening now, inside and around you.

ACT, DBT, Gestalt

More about present-moment awareness

In ACT it supports noticing avoidance as it happens and choosing a response.

Not the same as: Not a relaxation exercise.

Related: psychological flexibility

primary adaptive emotion

A first, direct emotional response that fits the situation and guides helpful action.

Emotion-Focused, AEDP

More about primary adaptive emotion

Sadness at loss that leads to reaching for comfort; anger at violation that supports setting a boundary. EFT helps people access these.

Not the same as: Not every first emotion is adaptive.

primary maladaptive emotion

A familiar, core emotion learned from past experience that no longer fits and does not help.

Emotion-Focused

More about primary maladaptive emotion

Often core shame (“I’m worthless”) or fear. EFT works to transform it, often by accessing an adaptive emotion that counters it.

Not the same as: Not the same as a secondary reaction.

process comment

Pointing out how the conversation is unfolding rather than what it is about.

Psychodynamic

More about process comment

For example, noticing that a client changes topic each time their father comes up. A process comment shares an observation and invites the client’s view.

Not the same as: Describes; does not explain why.

process guiding

Following the client’s experience while guiding how they explore it.

Emotion-Focused

More about process guiding

EFT combines a person-centered relationship with active guidance of process, distinguishing it from classical nondirective therapy.

Not the same as: Guides process, not content.

Related: nondirective attitude, marker

projective identification

In some object-relations accounts, a way of relating in which another person may feel drawn into an emotional role that is difficult for the client to hold.

Psychodynamic

More about projective identification

The term is used differently across traditions. In object relations work, it describes an interpersonal process in which pressure from the client’s way of relating evokes a matching state in the other person. It is an advanced, contested concept that easily becomes a way to blame clients for the therapist’s reactions.

Not the same as: Not simple projection, which can occur without any effect on the other person. Treat with caution and supervision.

Related: countertransference, splitting

psychodynamic formulation

A working story of why this person struggles in this way, now, and what might help.

Psychodynamic

More about psychodynamic formulation

It links presenting problems, recurring patterns, internal conflicts or deficits, defenses, relationships, history, strengths, culture, and context, then proposes a focus and a way of working. A good formulation names its uncertainties and changes as new information arrives.

Not the same as: Not a diagnosis and not a final truth.

psychological flexibility

Being present, open to inner experience, and doing what matters.

ACT

More about psychological flexibility

ACT’s central aim. Often shown as six interacting processes (acceptance, defusion, present-moment awareness, self-as-context, values, and committed action), but these are facets of one capacity, not six separate techniques.

Not the same as: Not feeling good all the time.

pursue–withdraw

One partner pushes for connection; the other pulls away to calm things; each move intensifies the other.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about pursue–withdraw

Beneath pursuing is often fear of disconnection; beneath withdrawing, fear of failure or conflict.

Not the same as: Positions, not personalities.

Related: negative interaction cycle

radical acceptance

Fully accepting reality as it is, including what one cannot change, to reduce suffering.

DBT

More about radical acceptance

A distress tolerance skill. Accepting reality allows effective action instead of fighting what has already happened.

Not the same as: Not approval or giving up.

real relationship

The genuine, here-and-now relationship between two people, apart from expectations carried from the past.

Psychodynamic

More about real relationship

Includes how authentic the therapist is and how realistically each person perceives the other. A strong real relationship helps clients test old expectations against what is actually happening.

Not the same as: Not a friendship. The frame still applies.

reflective function

The measured capacity to mentalize, especially about attachment relationships.

Psychodynamic

More about reflective function

Reflective functioning has been scored from attachment interviews and studied through later self-report instruments such as the RFQ. These methods are distinct and should not be treated as interchangeable.

Not the same as: The term refers to an operationalized capacity, while mentalizing is the broader process.

Related: mentalizing, attachment

reframing

Offering a new meaning for a behavior that opens different responses.

Family Systems, Solution-Focused

More about reframing

For example, describing a teenager’s withdrawal as an attempt to keep the peace.

Not the same as: Must fit the family’s experience; not a trick.

Related: circular causality

reinforcement

Any consequence that makes a behavior more likely to happen again.

Behavioral Parent Training, CBT

More about reinforcement

Positive reinforcement adds something (praise, attention); negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant (a demand withdrawn). Attention, even negative attention, can reinforce behavior.

Not the same as: Negative reinforcement is not punishment.

Related: coercive cycle, labeled praise

relational and intersubjective approaches

Views of therapy as two people co-creating what happens, with both contributing.

Psychodynamic

More about relational and intersubjective approaches

These approaches emphasize mutual influence, enactment, the therapist’s subjectivity, and repair. They shifted the field from the therapist as neutral observer to the therapist as participant.

Not the same as: Mutuality is not symmetry; the therapist still holds professional responsibility.

Related: enactment, metacommunication

relational frame theory

A behavioral account of language and thinking as learned ways of relating things.

ACT

More about relational frame theory

Explains how words can carry the emotional weight of experiences, which is why thoughts can feel as dangerous as events. It underlies ACT’s emphasis on defusion.

Not the same as: A basic science program, not a technique.

relationship question

Asking how others would notice change: “What would your roommate see?”

Solution-Focused, Family Systems

resistance

Whatever in the therapy works against the work, often from the same fears that brought the person in.

Psychodynamic

More about resistance

Gabbard and others treat resistance as information about what feels dangerous, not as opposition to defeat. It includes both client and therapist contributions.

Not the same as: Not a client being difficult. A cooperative-seeming client can resist quietly.

Related: defense, rupture and repair

retroflection

Turning an impulse back on oneself, such as tensing the jaw instead of saying something angry.

Gestalt

More about retroflection

One of the classic patterns that modify contact. Understood as a creative adjustment that once made sense, not a defect.

Not the same as: Not simply “suppression”; the energy is redirected into the body or self-criticism.

Related: contact, creative adjustment

righting reflex

The urge to fix, persuade, or warn someone who is considering change.

Motivational Interviewing

More about righting reflex

MI cautions that arguing for change can invite a person to voice reasons against it. This is a clinical tendency, not an inevitable response. Process studies examine associations between therapist behavior, client language and outcomes.

Not the same as: Giving information is still possible, with permission and in a collaborative way.

rigid demand

An absolute “must” or “should” about oneself, others, or life.

REBT

More about rigid demand

For example, “I must not look foolish.” REBT sees rigid demands as the core of emotional disturbance.

Not the same as: Different from a preference (“I’d really like not to look foolish”).

role dispute

A disagreement with a significant person about expectations in the relationship.

IPT

More about role dispute

IPT identifies the stage of the dispute (renegotiation, impasse, dissolution) and works on communication and options.

Not the same as: Focus on the relationship, not blame.

role transition

A life change such as retirement, moving, or becoming a parent that is linked to depression.

IPT

More about role transition

Work includes mourning the old role, recognizing gains and losses, and building skills and support for the new role.

Not the same as: Not every change; one linked to symptoms.

Related: IPT problem areas

rupture and repair

Strains in the working relationship, and the process of noticing and mending them together.

Psychodynamic, CBT, Person-Centered

More about rupture and repair

Withdrawal ruptures are quiet: agreeing too quickly, going vague, missing sessions. Confrontation ruptures are direct: complaints or anger. Repair usually means noticing, inviting the client’s view, owning the therapist’s part without defensiveness, and exploring what the moment means.

Not the same as: Repair is not apologizing until the client feels better, and not explaining away the client’s complaint.

safe haven

Turning to a trusted person for comfort under stress.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, Child and Adolescent

More about safe haven

An attachment idea: a secure partner offers comfort, and a secure base supports exploration.

Not the same as: Not dependency in a pejorative sense.

safeguarding

Protecting young people from harm, including legal duties to report suspected abuse or neglect.

Child and Adolescent, Behavioral Parent Training, Family Systems

More about safeguarding

Procedures vary by jurisdiction and setting. Trainees consult supervisors and policies; peer practice does not rehearse real disclosures.

Not the same as: Not optional, and not a therapist’s private judgment alone.

safety behavior

A behavior intended to prevent a feared outcome that can interfere with testing a prediction or learning to cope with uncertainty.

CBT

More about safety behavior

Examples may include overpreparing or avoiding eye contact. Ask what the behavior does in this situation: realistic danger may remain, and not every protective behavior prevents learning.

Not the same as: Not all coping is a safety behavior; function decides.

scaling question

A 0–10 scale used to locate progress, confidence, or motivation and to find what is already in place.

Solution-Focused, Motivational Interviewing

schema coping styles

Surrender, avoidance, and overcompensation: three ways people cope with schemas that keep them going.

Schema Therapy

More about schema coping styles

Surrender acts as if the schema is true; avoidance steers away from triggers; overcompensation acts as if the opposite were true.

Not the same as: Coping that once protected may now maintain the schema.

schema modes

Moment-to-moment emotional states and coping responses, such as a vulnerable child mode or a detached protector mode.

Schema Therapy

More about schema modes

Mode work maps the states a person shifts between: child modes, maladaptive coping modes, internalized critic modes, and the healthy adult. Mode models are especially used with complex personality difficulties.

Not the same as: Not separate personalities.

secondary emotion

An emotion that reacts to another emotion or thought, often covering it.

Emotion-Focused

More about secondary emotion

Anger that covers hurt, or hopelessness that follows self-criticism. EFT explores beneath it.

Not the same as: Not “fake”; it is real but not the core.

Related: primary adaptive emotion

self-as-context

A sense of self as the place from which experiences are noticed, rather than the experiences themselves.

ACT

More about self-as-context

Helps people hold self-descriptions (“I’m a failure”) more lightly, as content observed by a stable perspective.

Not the same as: Not a claim about a metaphysical self.

Related: defusion

self-concept

How a person sees themselves.

Person-Centered

More about self-concept

In Rogers’s theory, the self-concept can come into conflict with actual experience, especially when it was shaped by conditions of worth.

Not the same as: Not the same as self-esteem.

sick role

Treating depression as a medical illness that temporarily limits what a person can do.

IPT

More about sick role

IPT gives the person permission to recognize temporary limits while committing to recovery. It is intended to reduce self-blame; that rationale is not a separate component-effect finding.

Not the same as: Not passivity or permanent excuse.

Related: IPT problem areas

signal anxiety

A rise in anxiety that warns a feeling is getting close.

Psychodynamic

More about signal anxiety

In the triangle of conflict, anxiety is information: it marks the edge of what feels safe to feel. Short-term dynamic clinicians track how anxiety shows in the body and in thinking, and slow down when it overwhelms. Some models, such as intensive short-term dynamic therapy, describe specific anxiety pathways and require formal training to assess them.

Not the same as: Not a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder.

Related: triangle of conflict, pacing

Socratic dialogue

Asking questions that help the client reach their own conclusions.

CBT, REBT

More about Socratic dialogue

Padesky and others describe guided discovery: asking informational questions, listening, summarizing, and asking synthesizing questions. The therapist stays genuinely curious rather than steering to a predetermined answer.

Not the same as: Not cross-examination.

Related: collaborative empiricism

solution analysis

Finding where and how to change links in the chain.

DBT

solution building

Building a description of what the client wants and what already works, rather than analyzing the problem.

Solution-Focused

splitting

Seeing people or oneself as all good or all bad, with no middle ground at the moment.

Psychodynamic, DBT

More about splitting

A defense that protects good feelings from being contaminated by bad ones. It can make a therapist seem perfect one week and useless the next. Understanding splitting helps the therapist stay steady and avoid taking either position personally.

Not the same as: Not lying or manipulation.

subsystem

A smaller unit within the family, such as the parents or the siblings.

Family Systems

More about subsystem

In structural family therapy (Minuchin), healthy functioning includes a parental subsystem that can make decisions together.

Not the same as: Defined by function, not only by biology.

support (Gestalt)

The internal and external resources a person needs before taking on more contact or challenge.

Gestalt

More about support (Gestalt)

Includes breath, posture, relationships, and the therapy relationship. Skills texts treat strengthening support as a priority, especially with trauma.

Not the same as: Not reassurance alone.

Related: experiment (Gestalt)

sustain talk

What the person says in favor of keeping things as they are.

Motivational Interviewing

More about sustain talk

Sustain talk is part of ambivalence. It is reflected and understood, not argued with. More sustain talk in session tends to predict worse outcomes.

Not the same as: Different from discord, which is about the relationship.

Related: change talk, discord

task (in EFT)

A structured process matched to a marker, such as two-chair dialogue or empty-chair work.

Emotion-Focused

More about task (in EFT)

Tasks have stages and resolution points. They require training to deliver safely.

Not the same as: Not a technique applied without a marker.

the frame

The stable arrangements of therapy: time, place, fees, contact, confidentiality, and roles.

Psychodynamic

More about the frame

A reliable frame makes the work safe and makes departures meaningful. Lateness, missed sessions, fee questions, and requests for extra contact are practical matters and possible communications. Clinicians handle the practical issue respectfully and stay curious about meaning.

Not the same as: Not rigidity. A frame can bend for good reasons; what matters is noticing and discussing the change.

Related: boundaries, enactment

therapeutic alliance

The working partnership: agreement on goals and tasks, and a bond of trust.

Psychodynamic, CBT, Person-Centered, Motivational Interviewing

More about therapeutic alliance

Across approaches, alliance is consistently associated with outcome, although that association is correlational. In psychodynamic work, the alliance also changes over time and can carry the client’s relational patterns, so ruptures are expected and workable.

Not the same as: Not the same as the client liking the therapist.

therapy-interfering behavior

Anything by client or therapist that gets in the way of the work.

DBT

More about therapy-interfering behavior

Missing sessions, not completing diary cards, or a therapist who is late or overextends. Addressed directly and without blame.

Not the same as: Includes the therapist’s behavior.

time-limited dynamic psychotherapy

A brief, integrative psychodynamic model focused on recurring interpersonal patterns.

Psychodynamic

More about time-limited dynamic psychotherapy

Levenson describes a focus on cyclical maladaptive patterns, attachment, and new experiences and understandings in the therapy relationship.

Not the same as: Brief does not mean superficial; the focus is narrower.

time-out

A brief, calm removal from attention and reinforcement after a specific behavior.

Behavioral Parent Training

More about time-out

Used in several evidence-based programs with clear rules. Its use is debated publicly; clinicians explain rationale and alternatives and adapt to families.

Not the same as: Not isolation, shaming, or punishment by fear.

transference

Expectations from earlier relationships shaping how someone experiences the therapist.

Psychodynamic

More about transference

A person who learned that needing others brings disappointment may expect the therapist to be impatient. The expectation colors what they notice and how they act. Contemporary traditions differ: some work with transference directly and often; others note it quietly and work with it only when it blocks the alliance. Every reaction to the therapist mixes old templates with perception of what the therapist actually does.

Not the same as: Not every reaction to the therapist is transference. If the therapist was late or dismissive, irritation may be a realistic response. Begin by asking what actually happened.

transference-focused psychotherapy

An object relations treatment that works with the patterns that appear in the therapy relationship, within a clear contract.

Psychodynamic

More about transference-focused psychotherapy

Developed by Otto Kernberg, John Clarkin, Frank Yeomans, and colleagues for borderline personality organization. It uses a treatment contract and focuses on dominant relational patterns as they appear with the therapist.

Not the same as: Its interpretive work with transference is designed for a specific structure and training model.

transformance

AEDP’s name for a proposed motivation toward healing and growth.

AEDP

More about transformance

AEDP looks for and amplifies signs of this motivation from the first session.

Not the same as: Related to Rogers’s actualizing tendency, but framed within AEDP’s model.

transformational affects

Feelings that accompany change, such as relief, pride, or being moved.

AEDP

More about transformational affects

AEDP’s state model follows processing from stress and defense through core affect to transformational affects and a calm, integrated core state.

Not the same as: Described clinically; research on these states is limited.

Related: metatherapeutic processing

treatment hierarchy

An order of priority for what to address in session.

DBT

More about treatment hierarchy

Life-threatening behaviors come first, then behaviors that interfere with therapy, then quality-of-life problems, then building skills.

Not the same as: A guide to session focus, not a rigid script.

triangle of conflict

A map linking a feeling, the anxiety it stirs, and the defense that keeps it away.

Psychodynamic

More about triangle of conflict

Associated with David Malan and short-term dynamic therapy. One corner holds a feeling or impulse (often anger, grief, longing, or love). When it approaches, anxiety rises. A defense lowers the anxiety by moving away from the feeling. The map is drawn standing on its point, with the feeling at the bottom. It is a way to organize hypotheses about a moment, not proof of what someone “really” feels.

Not the same as: Not a universal model of psychopathology, and not the only psychodynamic formulation model. It says little on its own about deficits in regulation or mentalizing, culture, or the therapist’s contribution.

triangle of experience

AEDP’s version of Malan’s triangle: defenses, inhibiting affects (such as anxiety and shame), and core affect.

AEDP

More about triangle of experience

AEDP adds signals of openness and safety, sometimes called green-signal affects, alongside red-signal inhibiting affects.

Not the same as: An adaptation of the triangle of conflict with an emphasis on safety and positive signals.

triangle of persons

A map of where the same pattern appears: current relationships, with the therapist, and in the past.

Psychodynamic

More about triangle of persons

Malan drew on Karl Menninger’s work to describe how a relational pattern shows up in present relationships, in the relationship with the therapist, and in earlier relationships. Linking corners can help a person recognize a pattern as theirs, but a link is only useful when the client can test it against their own experience.

Not the same as: A link to the past is not a causal explanation, and the therapist corner includes the therapist’s real behavior, not only the client’s expectations.

triangulation

When tension between two people is managed by drawing in a third.

Family Systems

More about triangulation

In Bowen theory, triangles are the basic unit of relationship systems; a child pulled into parents’ conflict is a common example.

Not the same as: Different from Malan’s triangles, which describe internal and relational patterns in individual therapy.

two-chair dialogue

A task in which two parts of the self, such as a critic and the criticized self, speak to each other.

Emotion-Focused, Gestalt, Schema Therapy

More about two-chair dialogue

Used for self-critical splits. Aims toward softening of the critic and access to needs.

Not the same as: Requires training and supervision; not a peer-practice exercise.

unconditional positive regard

Warm acceptance of the person as they are, without conditions.

Person-Centered

More about unconditional positive regard

The therapist values the person even when disagreeing with choices. It counteracts conditions of worth.

Not the same as: Not approving every behavior.

unconditional self-acceptance

Accepting oneself as a fallible human without global rating.

REBT

More about unconditional self-acceptance

REBT extends this to unconditional acceptance of others and of life. It replaces global depreciation (“I’m worthless”).

Not the same as: Not approving of every action.

Related: awfulizing

undoing aloneness

Helping a person feel accompanied in experiences they once had to bear alone.

AEDP

More about undoing aloneness

A central AEDP aim: the therapist is actively present and emotionally engaged so that overwhelming feelings can be processed together.

Not the same as: Not reassurance; it is felt presence.

Related: dyadic affect regulation

unfinished business

An incomplete experience, often unexpressed feeling toward someone, that keeps pulling attention.

Gestalt, Emotion-Focused

More about unfinished business

Gestalt and emotion-focused therapists may use dialogue or chair tasks to help complete it, with attention to support and readiness.

Not the same as: Not every memory; one that stays active and unresolved.

validation

Communicating that a person’s feelings, thoughts, or actions make sense in context.

DBT, Behavioral Parent Training, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about validation

Linehan describes levels of validation, from attentive listening to radical genuineness. Validation can communicate understanding and support collaborative problem solving. Responses vary with the emotion, person, context and wording; it does not invariably lower arousal.

Not the same as: Validating the valid, not endorsing harmful behavior.

Related: dialectics, biosocial theory

values (in ACT)

Freely chosen qualities of action that give life direction.

ACT

More about values (in ACT)

Values are directions (“being a caring friend”), not goals that can be finished. They guide choices when feelings are hard.

Not the same as: Not rules, morals imposed by others, or goals.

Related: committed action

willingness

Choosing to have an experience fully, as it is, when doing so serves your values.

ACT

More about willingness

Often used interchangeably with acceptance. ACT therapists sometimes ask, “Are you willing to have this feeling, if it means you can do what matters?”

Not the same as: Willingness is about stance, not intensity.

Related: acceptance (willingness)

window of tolerance

The range of arousal in which a person can feel and still think.

Psychodynamic, DBT, AEDP, Child and Adolescent

More about window of tolerance

A teaching metaphor for discussing when emotional intensity leaves someone overwhelmed or shut down. It can guide a conversation about pacing, but it is not a diagnosis or a standardized physiological threshold.

Not the same as: Use as a clinical metaphor rather than a measured limit.

wise mind

A balanced state that integrates emotion and reason.

DBT

More about wise mind

A mindfulness idea in DBT: emotion mind and reasonable mind combine into an intuitive, grounded knowing.

Not the same as: Not suppressing emotion.

Related: DBT skills modules, dialectics

withdrawer re-engagement

A stage-two event in which the more withdrawn partner becomes emotionally present and able to state needs.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

More about withdrawer re-engagement

Usually precedes blamer softening.

Not the same as: Not forcing a quiet partner to talk.

workability

Does this way of responding move you toward what matters, in the long run?

ACT

More about workability

ACT asks about the effects of a response instead of treating factual debate as the only route to change. This does not require ignoring accuracy or consequences.

Not the same as: Not a judgment of the person.

working through

Recognizing a pattern again and again in new situations until change becomes possible.

Psychodynamic

More about working through

Insight rarely changes a pattern on its own. Change usually comes from repeated recognition, emotional experience, and new choices, including in the therapy relationship.

Not the same as: Not repeating the same conversation without movement.