[Areas of use of patient-centered actions]

Various forms of patient-centered actions (acceptive listening, paraphrasing, verbalisation of emotional experience), their effects and their possible modes of action are described. The importance of the verbal encoding of prereflexive experience for counselling is dealt with at some length because it generally receives too little attention. The interview and counselling, which are special forms of patient-centered activity, are used as examples to show that patient-centered techniques should be varied to suit the purpose of concrete interactions and therapy sessions.