Teaching individual psychotherapy: learning objectives in communication

Communication is the essence of the process of psychotherapy. Understanding the parameters of communication can form the foundations for the development of psychotherapeutic skills in the student therapist. Using learning objectives within the context of teaching psychotherapy, the process of communication in individual psychotherapy is explored in this paper. With the aim of offering a practical framework to assist in the analysis of the communication process involved in individual psychotherapy, the following concepts are first examined. 1) channels of communication; 2) modes of functioning; 3) interaction between channels of communication and modes of functioning. Following this exploration, the learning objectives in communication are discussed. Using clinical examples, the relationship between the communication process and other concepts of individual psychotherapy are illustrated. Finally, some pedagogic reasons for teaching students the analysis of the communication process early in their psychotherapy training are presented.