"A new method of psychotherapy," the approach multisetting " A few years after the publication of his "Manual of Psychology" (Urban University Press), Sylvester Paluzzi, psychotherapist and professor at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, published an interesting new book titled: "The approach multisetting: psychotherapy outdoor setting by the group and the metaphor" , Armando Editore, 2010.
Interesting, because the author presents in this text, the result of a pioneering method of psychotherapy. Until now, the known approaches were more or less always the same: Jungian, Freudian, transactional analysis, to name just the most famous.
Professor Paluzzi instead coined a new form of psychotherapeutic treatment. We went to see him, to understand better.
Professor Paluzzi, is "the approach multisetting?
This methodology has been a stage of professional maturity, the result of many years of clinical work done with so many people and many forms of discomfort.
If I were to give a technical definition, I would say that is a specific psychotherapeutic treatment consisting of more setting, meaning focus working differentiated in space and time is integrated into the path / process accompanying psychotherapy. The approach consists multisetting an initial focus, which is the conduct of individual psychotherapy as a patient, a second focus in which the same patient participates in group therapy every other week compared to individual treatment and in co-therapy with Tropea Antoinette (wife of Paluzzi and too ' she psychotherapist, ed), Focus and third, that is the real psychotherapy outdoor setting, where the patient and the whole group are invited to a residential placement at high altitudes, often in the Dolomites, Queens of the Alps! This third Focus was created as a Theatre Workshop with the final representation. In this approach therefore remains the same and the therapist accompanies the patient in a report "two", "small group" and "large group", using the tools of psychotherapy is always activated metacognitive dimension, and the patient's own, throughout the course of treatment.
What differentiates this method from other forms of therapy already known, such as "transactional analysis"?
As I said before, the co-therapist in the second and third approach multisetting Focus is my wife, psychologist Training Transactional Analyst CTA. The experience of co-therapy has allowed us to experiment with the TA, its 'Readings / interpretations "and its techniques in a" shared knowledge "with my clinical cognitive theory constructs and analysis of the demand, personal, educational background, producing a clinical work the use of metacognitive techniques, depending on the therapeutic outcome for of our patients. I expressed this thought in the book saying that, sometimes, in the psychotherapeutic work, I found myself having to choose between a technical "orthodox" or "intuition" innovative therapeutic out chorus: the decision to proceed has been taken for the good the patient, at least in my intention, and on the other hand, they are contrary to combine many different techniques randomly, without a unifying conceptual framework metacognitive.
The book also talks about psychotherapy "outdoor setting." Could you briefly explain what it is?
The term was coined to define personal experience with therapeutic groups, when they are conducted under the residency for a certain number of days (from 5 to 9) and the specific characteristics. The experience is part of the third Focus I mentioned earlier, and the work of those days is regularly scheduled in advance with patients. Includes experience trekking, hiking in the valleys, the waterfalls along the canjon, summit, ridges, etc.. We evaluate the difficulty level and sequence to be given time to treatment group and the growth in participation physical body for hiking trails: the gap to be addressed, the travel time, considering the pace of the slowest of participants in the trek. Have concrete findings, because the path has already been technically tested by me and my wife before, and we are personally to rest on our shoulders the responsibility of the project and this type of psychotherapy. Are offered to groups and individuals, providing for the physical tasks of overcoming some difficulties, such as exposure to a phobic stimulus, to overcome fear. We are also confronted with unexpected situations, which have been operated at the time, helping the patient to regain self-control through technical support. And then there's the artistic experience of the evening: the proposal is an educational game, aesthetic and sharing, where the "Free Child", as my wife (it is a typical role in Transactional Analysis, ed), is creative and can have its full space.
The meaning of all this experience outdoor setting should be seen as a function of training the whole person and not just a small clinical action the remission of a symptom .
In psychotherapy outdoor setting we constantly test the patient (in defiance of its conceptual categories, the perception of self, feelings of self, the idea of \u200b\u200bhimself as incapable or inadequate), promoting experiences for change of its self-perception, distorted ones.
We can say that it was developed a new testing method, which she studied and put into practice?
We can say yes. multisetting approach is innovative. Obvious that such an experience does not arise ex nihilo, but is grafted on other psychological experiences or training, as well as proposals in other disciplines. This is particularly inspired by a complex and multidimensional vision of the person, not at all reductive, and wants to put into words the complexity of the psychotherapeutic languages \u200b\u200bpsychic who shall take any person in its creative value, values, affective and cognitive.
What goals have been achieved by his patients, thanks to this method?
This method will require different epistemological levels: philosophical anthropology, psychology, creative and even existential, in terms of relapse the daily life of the person. It is not even included the spiritual dimension, as I believe that although there is a saving action that is beyond the psychotherapy treatment, and which lies in the intimate relationship between the person and God, some participants in the 'outdoor setting have often led to a critical review their overall way of being baptized believers. The human growth has led to a shift from a commitment in faith to a surface deep change of mentality, which led to reconciliation with God, with others and with themselves, to open up to the next and discover that self-realization through the self-giving.
were also activated new energy for your individual personal change projects, the development of soft skills, a greater sense of responsibility and autonomy, the ability to deal with the unexpected, the development of self-awareness, the ability to listen to others, tolerance of diversity of others and the discovery of their values.
What is the patient-type that can most benefit from this type of therapy?
If we talk about patients with medical conditions, according to the classification of the psychiatric manual DSM-IV-TR, I can list: Anxiety, Obsessions, Specific phobias, Mood Disorders, Somatoform Disorders, if we refer to the Personality Disorders, I could list Disorder Avoidant, Dependent Disorder, Disorder Schizoid, Schizotypal Disorder.
experience on the field, however, allowed us to note that the benefit of this approach are all the people who do not necessarily have a mental illness.
A final image that can be expressed as told in the interview, can not be metaphor of the man who walks "on the ridge, being careful not to slip on one of the two sides, in a kind of precarious balance but functional the path that leads to the summit. L ' outdoor setting involving all participants in an experience of "group", and climb to the top, stopping at the cross, to return to the valley and to their homes, with all that metaphorically this world can be in order to reconsider and reorder the values \u200b\u200bof everyday life ... and start again.
Sabrina Pietrangeli Paluzzi