Milton H. Erickson, the famous hypnosis pioneer, might be considered the ‘Father of Client-directed Therapy’. In the 1980s, psychotherapy clinicians and students simple could not get enough information about Erickson’s unorthodox methods which defied conventional practice as he successfully treated even the most difficult and intractable cases. When he was ask to explain his organizing theory for his work, he responded by saying, “I think that any theoretically-based psychotherapy is mistaken because each person is different” (Zeig, 1980).
Ignoring Erickson’s statement about not having an organizing theory for his work, a group of therapists led by Steve de Shazer tried to figure it out anyway (Shazer, 1994). They set about gathering Erickson’s case reports and sorted them into six different piles. The five smaller piles contained cases which each shared similar treatment interventions. The largest pile by far contained cases of unusual, one time interventions which Erickson never repeated again. This larger pile of cases did not appear to share any similar intervention patterns. Fearing that they were simply unable to discern Erickson’s the hidden organizing theory, the group abandoned the project.
Later, Shazer came to realize that the group had totally missed the organizing principle of Erickson’s work. He simply listened to his clients and then did what they told him to do. Thus, the ideas for his unusual, one time interventions, which made up the largest pile of Erickson’s case reports, came from the clients themselves! Shazer’s group had failed to heed Erickson’s own words, “What is needed is the development of a therapeutic situation permitting the patient to use his own thinking, his own understandings, his own emotions in the way that fits him…”, (Erickson, 1980). Here Erickson was laying the foundation for a client-directed therapy rather than adhering to the medical model of psychotherapy which prevailed at the time.
