The Phenomenology of Anxiety in the Process of Client-centered Psychotherapy

P. 117–117.

Orlov A. B.

Anxiety is a state of uncertainty, unpredictability and ignorance. That's why its important phenomenological manifestation is invisibility (opacity). The inner world of the client experiencing anxiety - the world of twilight, viewed only in part, including darkened areas in which lurk unseen threats. According to the trialogue interpretation of psychotherapeutic process (Orlov, 2001; Orlov, Orlova, 2012), the interaction of the therapist and the client begins from the form of emlogic contact, one consequence of which is the primary "enlightenment" of the inner world of the client. The next level of therapeutic interaction involves the establishment of empathic contact, which displays, exhibits the unity of the rational and emotional components of the inner world of the client. Evolution of the therapeutic interaction leads to emphilic contact, where a valued client’s attitude towards the excluded or distorted regions of his own inner world (experience) are facilitated. Increased self-acceptance is leading to further integration of the subjectivity of the client. So, phenomenologically client-centered therapy leads to the gradual illumination of the subjectivity of the client.

Keywords: anxiety, subjectivity, phenomenology, trialogue approach, emlogic contact, empathic contact, emphilic contact, Client-Centered Psychotherapy(CCT)

In book

10th Conference of the World Association for Person-Centered and Expiriental Psychotherapy and Counseling. July 8-12, 2012 – Antwerp, Belgium

Antwerpen: Universiteit Antwerpen, 2012.