Levels of Psychotherapy: A Study of Intimacy

Abstract

Individual psychotherapy is discussed. Some characteristics of psychotherapy, sharing, proximity and interaction, between patient and therapist lay the basis for the concept of levels of psychotherapy. Three levels of psychotherapy—“Caretaker” “Educational” and “Integrative”—are outlined on theoretical and clinical grounds and brief excerpts from therapy used to highlight each level. Central to the distinction of one level from another is the phenomenon of intimacy. Thereby, the therapeutic relationship in “Caretaker” psychotherapy is seen as a limited, uni-lateral intimacy; in “Educational” psychotherapy as a non-intrusive, limited intimacy and in “Integrative” psychotherapy as a bilateral, shared intimacy.