The balance between clinical and research

Thinking about doing psychotherapy, the Author finds himself in the premises of a resource-based psychotherapy for its thinking of change as an opportunity to develop one’s skills. Together with a working group, he studied the clinical applications of FACES IV, in particular the Clinical Rating Scale, and the Prepare Enrich model that structures an approach to couples through an online assessment and treatment guide. Complementing this approach, the Author founds Lorna Smith Benjamin’s Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy model stimulating, which uses assessment tools to recognize the presence of significant interactive sequences in patients’ history between them and their reference figures and, consequently, direct treatment. Summarizing his current orientations, the evaluations and indications on treatment modalities help him to conduct clinical interviews, to translate relational assumptions in a simple way, to formulate clear and shared objectives. Then, as Whitaker reminds us, “all theories are destructive; and I know that intuition is also destructive” and, aware of this, the Author navigates between one and the other, inserting his intuitions among the “evaluations” and surprises of the stories that people, families bring to therapy.

Keywords: psychotherapy, research, Prepare-Enrich, Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy, Faces IV.

Enrico Visani, Oscillazionitra clinica e ricerca in psicoterapia in "RIVISTA DI PSICOTERAPIA RELAZIONALE " 62/2025, pp 28-35, DOI: 10.3280/PR2025-062004