An Implicational View of Self-Healing and Personality Change Based on Gendlin's Theory of Experiencing.

There is relatively little theory on how psychotherapy clients self-heal since most theories of therapy stress the magic of the therapist's interventions. Of the theories that exist, this paper briefly discusses Carl Rogers' theory of self-actualization; and the dialectical theories of Greenberg and his colleagues, Jenkins, and Rychlak. Gendlin's theory is discussed in detail. It examines how we create new meaning, and in terms of psychotherapy, specifically how personality change can take place. Gendlin holds that as we encounter each new situation, there is an implicit potential for new development or "the carrying forward" of old concepts, rules, words, or ways of being. The theory proposes that the process of self-healing is a creative one of tuning into the implicit experienced complexity of a problem, from which implications or new steps arise. This paper discusses Gendlin's theory in relation to personality change and implications for theory. The concept of self healing is examined and two counseling cases that utilize self-healing in different ways are discussed. The theoretical integration of self-healing is also discussed. (Contains 45 references.) (MKA)