Good therapy – the kind of therapy that results in lasting change – requires a strong and individualized conceptualization. In other words, there needs to be a mutually shared understanding of the psychology that is interfering with someone’s wellbeing and functioning, as well as a strategic plan of how therapy can help. A clear and mutually understood conceptualization results in an agreement between therapist and patient as to what the problem is and how to go about working on it.

Good therapy requires critical thinking in both the therapist and the patient, and it requires a “working with” mentality versus a “working on” mentality. Good therapy is not going through the motions, and it is certainly not an algorithm. It is an active refinement process that is relational and requires both parties to engage in improv. It can be messy; though the mess is often what contains the information required for a good conceptualization and a targeted plan to create real change. It allows patients to be authentic, and it fosters real connection between patient and therapist. It creates a co-constructed relational world in which a person’s problems emerge in real time, offering both patient and therapist to see the problem clearly and find a way to address it.

These are the types of conceptualizations that are provided at this practice: a blueprint of the problem, a roadmap to work through it, and a dynamic relational process that is at the heart of it all. The Remaining Human philosophy is not a philosophy that is anti-technology or against artificial intelligence. It is a treatment philosophy focused on retaining these distinctly human relational experiences in the psychotherapy space. It is a philosophy that encourages therapists to think critically and to engage in the messiness, and it is a philosophy that fosters real connection between people and real change for patients.