Intervention-oriented client-centred psychotherapy

Domain III · Humanistic, existential & experiential · Jobst Finke · 1994 · Germany

What it is

Jobst Finke (German psychiatrist and psychotherapist) developed a version of Rogers' client-centred therapy that turns the three core conditions into named, teachable intervention forms at graded depths, and adapts them to particular disorders (depression, anxiety, somatoform pain, personality…

Format

• Format: Finke keeps a role for diagnosis, including disorder diagnosis, because it guides which intervention forms to emphasise. Rogers rejected status diagnosis.
• Session counts: The sources give none. Format is individual face-to-face talk therapy. Group, couple and family formats have their own chapters, which are not drawn on.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Blaming the client for others' reactions.
• The client experiencing this as being abandoned or blamed.
• Pushing through defences, which leads to anxiety or dropout.
• Telling your own story at length; the client starting to care for you.
• Approval becoming a new condition of worth. Balance it with acceptance of setbacks.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.