Blog

When does stuckness give way to change in therapy? How does a resisting client become a working partner? The key, of course, lies not in exerting pressure but rather in exploring the cost of old patterns and empowering a sense of choice. Susan Warren Warshow, psychotherapist, author and founder of Dynamic Emotion Focused Therapy, reflects on the painful intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of repressing feelings – and how identifying these with compassion can help our clients leverage their healthy internal force.

How can we coax dormant motivation out of hiding? What part might compassion play when goals and momentum prove elusive? Susan Warren Warshow, author of The Therapist’s Handbook to Dissolve Shame and Defense and its forthcoming sequel, describes her work with one man whose sessions had become beset by vagueness – and shares three signs that a client’s motivation for change may be mobilising.