Power in Psychotherapy: Comments on a website by Ofer Zur

[Mary S]

As long as I can remember, I have considered any kind of power as something that can be misused. I’m not alone in this, as the old phrase “power corrupts” suggests. Uncle Ben’s advice (“With great power comes great responsibility”) to Spiderman reflects the caution ethically required in using power. So when I told a therapist I was somewhat shy, and she responded, “You gave up your power,” I expressed some reservations about power. She then said, “We’ll have to redefine it for you.” As a result of that conversation and the rest of my experience with her, I developed a strong association of the word “power” with that therapist (and the negativity I associated with her) that became a roadblock to my thinking of power in any way except the association with her.

But, to my surprise, when I recently came across the website Zur, O. (2015). Power in Psychotherapy and Counseling (Online Publication by the Zur Institute. Retrieved 1/23/2017 from http://www.zurinstitute.com/power_in_therapy.html ) , I managed to read most of it as I would read anything else. The “breaking down” and careful discussion of the topic of power helped me at least begin to think of it as I would any other concept, rather than as something that was so laden with negative associations.  It helped me begin to get some sense of what the word “power” means (at least to some people) in psychotherapy and begin to talk (or at least write) about it. I recommend the website to anyone interested in the topic of power in psychotherapy. However, it is a slog. One way to proceed if you don’t care to read the whole thing in order is to start with the table of contents (toward the top) and start with topics that interest you. Or you might start with the Summary Points ( http://www.zurinstitute.com/power_in_therapy.html#summary )

and then go back to read more about points of interest to you.

Some points that were most important for me:

1. In the section  What is Power , Zur says,

“In the context of this paper, power refers to any ability to effect, direct, influence, change, or exert control over self, people, situations, or courses of events. It can be viewed as people's capacity or ability to affect, control, or manipulate their environment, including the attitudes, emotions, and behavior of other people or themselves. Power, obviously, can be just or unjust, fair or unfair, direct or indirect, or it can be referred to as holy or evil. It may or may not involve force or threat of force and can be employed consciously or unconsciously, overtly or covertly, and the recipients may be aware or unaware of the impact of power on them.”

OK, Zur presents “power” as a complex subject, which makes more sense to me than the mystical, unitary thing that my therapist seemed to be talking about. (But it does seem strange to me that his definition doesn’t come until about two-thirds of the way down the page.)

2.    Types of Power in Psychotherapy was also helpful for me.

For each of these types, Zur lists aspects of that type that therapists have, and then aspects of that type that clients have. One thing that I wish he had emphasized more is that these are potential types of power – a given therapist or client might or might not have developed the skill to implement a particular type of power. In fact, a client may come to therapy in part because they lack such skill (as was my situation). If therapy does not address that lack and focus on improving it, then therapy is likely to do more harm than good.

Also, I can think of a couple of types of power that Zur has omitted: The power of setting an example, and the power of laughter. I (naively) expected therapists to help partly by setting a good example; they did not (at least not according to my values, although at least some of them may have thought they were setting a good example according to their values.) I did experience the power of laughter used once in a very negative way (when the therapist laughed when I tried to explain what shame was), but I can see it being used helpfully – e.g., if a therapist laughs at themself when they make a silly mistake.

3. How Psychotherapists Create Power Advantage This is a particularly meaty section, with lots of subsections. If if you only read one section, I recommend this one.

4. Power in Psychotherapy and Counseling This ends with a list of Seldom Discussed Issues, that I think clients need to be especially aware of.

5. The Ethical Way provides a list of ethical precepts for therapy, but I wish Zur had given more specific examples of how therapists’ (mis)use of power can be unethical.

One thing that I (at least initially) found strange was that so much of the article seemed to be arguing against the proposition that there is an inherent power differential between therapist and client (with the therapist having greater power). Yet Zur gives lots of quotes showing that many therapists believe this. (Personally, I can’t help but wonder if many of the therapists who adamantly believe that the therapist necessarily has more power than the client are people who crave power over others – which I think makes their fitness to be a therapist questionable.)