Multimodal Therapy
with Arnold A. Lazarus, PhD     
  
Purpose of the Series

The American Psychological Association Psychotherapy Video Series presents distinguished psychotherapists of different theoretical orientations demonstrating their own ways of conducting psychotherapy in entire sessions.

Designed for clinical training as well as for continuing education, the videotapes show spontaneous and unscripted sessions, typically representing the third or fourth session in an ongoing course of psychotherapy and typically lasting 40 to 45 minutes. The clients are portrayed by professional actors on the basis of real case materials.

The session you will view attempts to capture the feminist theoretical approach and clinical style in as close to real circumstances as possible.

Toward this end, a number of steps were taken to ensure that both the therapist and the client were anchored, conceptually and experientially, in the clinical material, each other, and previous sessions. First, therapists indicated the type of client and clinical problem with which they typically work or believed allowed the best demonstration of their approach. Second, a client profile was independently developed that included demographic data, clinical history, presenting problem, precipitating event, and other background information. Third, the therapist reviewed this profile for its representativeness and then described what he or she typically would do and would have hoped to accomplish in the first two or three sessions. Fourth, professional actors adept at improvisation were immersed in this clinical history and presentation through formal role induction of the actors by an independent practitioner, to assure that the actor had both a cognitive understanding and an experiential sense of what the client was struggling with, thinking, and feeling. Finally, the actor (in role) and the therapist reviewed the content and process of their earlier sessions immediately before the videotaping so that they were both anchored in the context of the course to date of the particular therapeutic relationship.

Multimodal Therapy

The multimodal approach rests on the assumption that unless seven discrete but interactive modalities are assessed, treatment is likely to overlook significant concerns. Initial interviews and the use of a Multimodal Life History Inventory (Lazarus & Lazarus, 1991) provide an initial overview of a client's significant Behaviors, Affective responses, Sensory reactions, Images, Cognitions, Interpersonal relationships, and the need for Drugs and other biological interventions. The first letters yield BASIC I.D., an acronym that is easy to recall. These modalities exist in a state of reciprocal transaction and flux, connected by complex chains of behavior and other psychophysiological processes.

The therapist, usually in concert with the client, determines which specific problems across the BASIC I.D. are most salient. Whenever possible, the choice of appropriate techniques rests on well-documented research data, but multimodal therapists remain essentially flexible and are willing to improvise when necessary. They are technically eclectic, but remain theoretically consistent, drawing mainly from a broad-based social and cognitive learning theory (because its tenets are open to verification or disproof). Multimodal therapy is essentially psychoeducational and contends that many problems arise from misinformation and missing information. Thus, with most outpatients, bibliotherapy, the use of selected books for home reading, often provides a springboard for enhancing the treatment process and content.

An assiduous attempt is made to tailor the therapy to each client's unique requirements. Thus, in addition to mastering a wide range of effective techniques, multimodal counselors or clinicians address the fact that different relationship styles are also necessary. Some clients require boundless warmth and empathy, others prefer a more austere business-like relationship. Some prefer an active trainer to a good listener (or vice versa). Because the therapeutic relationship is the soil that enables the techniques to take root, it is held that the correct method delivered within and geared to the context of the client's interpersonal expectancies, will augment treatment adherence and enhance therapeutic outcomes. Another issue that requires careful scrutiny is whether individual therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, or participation in a group (or some combination of the foregoing) seems advisable. Judicious referrals are effected when necessary and feasible.

ORDER CODE: APA4310210B
VIDEO