Why We Don't “Get” Each Other: A Response to Susan Johnson

Abstract

In her response to my article on the integrative nature of emotionally focused therapy (EFT), Johnson (2006) implies that I do not “get” EFT. Similarly, I do not believe that she “got” the substance of my article's argumentation. In this response to her response, I frame our mutual inability to “get” each other as reflecting the fact that our thinking is founded on differing epistemological assumptions. Johnson makes the modernist assumption that theoretical models are maps of objectively existing territories; I make the post-modernist assumption that models are prescriptive stories about what it means to be human. Johnson's assumptions lead her to seek enhanced therapeutic effectiveness via the integration of theoretical models; my assumptions lead me to seek enhanced effectiveness via a scheme that allows therapists to choose a theoretical model whose underlying worldview closely matches their own, and then to assimilate elements from other models into this chosen theoretical base.

Keywords

psychotherapy integration therapeutic effectiveness modernism/postmodernism emotionally focused therapy structural family therapy

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