The Apprenticeship Model

Abstract

Psychotherapy traditionally has been a meeting of two individuals; whether the therapist has seen him or herself as counselor or analyst, the assumption has been that the one-to-one relationship is an essential factor in the solution of the patient’s problems. In the relatively brief history of psychotherapy, there have been those who have noted the value of a therapeutic ratio greater than one-to-one, both as a treatment and training method. In the 1920s Adler remarked on the usefulness of bringing in another counselor when sessions with children became difficult and emotional blocking occurred. Reeve (1939) used a combination of social worker and psychiatrist to teach the former interviewing skills and found the “joint interview” surprisingly effective as both a therapeutic and a training device. It was only in the 1950s that “multiple therapy” was explored in any systematic manner. Whitaker, Warkentin, and Johnson (1950) found it more effective than individual therapy with virtually all patients. They felt that this approach required therapists of “equal capacity” and therapeutic experience. Dreikurs (1950) in contrast claimed that multiple therapy could be used with therapists in training. His description of the techniques and dynamics involved in this type of theory contains the clearest and most practical advice of all the papers in this field. Haigh and Kell (1950) also saw the potential of this method.