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Experienced psychotherapist D2 felt that he spent much of his role as a supervisor of interns helping them come to terms with ‘not-knowing’ (Andersen, 1980, 2001) and not trying to provide clients with set answers or solutions. Paré and Sutherland (2012, p. 185) argue that the effectiveness of psychotherapists is

Not necessarily about demonstrating skills or techniques or producing correct answers on a test assessing professional knowledge. Rather, it is about being able to participate in relationships with clients therapeutically… being responsive to the client’s pace, concerns, goals, and theories of change… showing willingness to explore unplanned directions, being open to their ideas being contested by clients or improvising with language to find shared ways of moving forward in a conversation.

Hoffman (2009) points out that “the patient is not putty in the analyst’s hands. He or she has a mind and will of his or her own right from the start along with a capacity, even if partially compromised, for conscious collaboration” (p. 619). Gergen (1999) adds “it is not the therapist’s task to ‘lead the way to knowledge’ but to collaborate with the individual (or family) in

generative conversations” (p. 170). Not-knowing is an ethical and philosophical stance which Andersen (Anderson & Goolishian, 1988, 1992; Anderson, 1997) deems essential to “inviting, creating, and sustaining collaborative relationships and generative dialogues” (p. 350). Anderson (2001, p. 350) clarifies:

Not-knowing refers to a therapist’s intent: how they position themselves with what they know or think they know and to a willingness to keep their therapist knowing open to question and change. Not-knowing has been misunderstood as a therapist lacking knowledge, feigning ignorance, withholding knowledge, avoiding suggestions, or forgetting what they know. It has been misunderstood as an expertise or a technique… I do not know better than a client how she or he should live their lives; I do not want to use my knowing to lead a client in any direction. I want to promote dialogue in which possibilities can emerge.

160 From the perspective of the trainee (A3) when reaching an ‘okayness’ with not-knowing, she found her psychotherapy improved with clients. After all, there is no set ‘cookbook’ to emulate in order to be an effective psychotherapist (Rogers, quoted in Kirschenbaum & Henderson, 1989).

The ingredients is basically if you want to go with them into the maze you just listen and follow… you don’t lead somebody’s life… that’s the worst assumption you can make, is you think, ‘Uhh, I will lead you!’ But, remember you can’t lead someone in their own maze. You follow them… and then you get to the middle and, ‘Here I am in the middle,’ and then you chat to them… ‘if you get lost in the maze… then I walk with you and we will get there”… You regularly get lost, you will. I mean, I have walked in how many mazes? And, I mean do you ever get it first time?... Never. But it’s a process.

… they come to me, “Now, I have got this problem and I want to solve it now”, and I tell them, “Ja (yes), I can, we will get there, but not now”…my now is like later… it’s not like immediate gratification, ‘Okay, we will get there’. And, then they realise, “You know, it was meant to be like that’. And, “If you want results now, uhh, I don’t have results now. Okay, cool then, maybe you need to see somebody else? Because, I can give you the solution now… I can give you an answer, but it is not an answer!”... it means nothing to that client… And, then they come back again after three weeks and say, “I can’t cope, nothing is happening” and you go, “Well, what answer would you like now?”

… therapy is not about control… let them be in control, let them lead, let them be the decision makers. You are just there to say, “Okay! Okay, cool! We at a fork in the road, where would you like to go?”… ‘You know, in the maze, you come to a dead end, it’s no problem. It’s not the end of the world, we just turn around’. And, then you look for the next path (Participant D2).

I am drained and exhausted… when there is no space for me… often, when people come in, they are anxious and they become louder and seemingly obnoxious. And, there is no space – they want you to fix – but, they don’t create any space for you to do anything. And, then I find myself very frustrated and exhausted because I

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can’t even say, “I’m not going to be able to fix you in this session…” because they have taken up all the space. That generally goes away after three sessions, when they settle down and there is space for both of us… (Participant C4).

I’d want them to know that their participation in therapy – they mustn’t come to me thinking that I’m the expert with all of the answers. They need to realise that they have value and their story and their worth are so important for the process as well. So, if they don’t bring anything, I can’t give anything. So, it works both ways. And, for it to be really valuable and beneficial; it has to be a two-way thing, it can’t just be me… (Participant A4).

It’s like we always have an answer and I reached a new level of therapy the second I became comfortable by not knowing the answer, and that’s fine. Mind- blowing… (Participant A3).

I think self-awareness develops, what is very important for me is to stay

respectful. If I take a client as a client or a patient, I’m co-responsible. I should never ever be arrogant and think, ‘I’ve arrived and I have all the answers’. I also go through own personal challenges… I think the importance is to stay humble

(Participant E4).

People becoming dependant on me within therapy does not sit well with me. I can understand, you know, that certain processes needs to be worked through … I make sure that the patient benefits to the utmost. But, when someone starts coming to see me just because it is habit or… I’m kind of like a fizzy tablet that makes them feel okay for the next seven days and then again. Then, I will address it and say, “Hold on!” (Participant D3).

As a senior psychotherapist, Participant E4 voiced her positioning herself as an active co- participant involved in the process directly as opposed to positioning herself as a more sideline observer or viewer detached from the therapeutic movement of the client.

I think therapy can be described as a river. You can either be on the side or you can be in it. I would prefer to be in the river with my client and do therapy. Sometimes, the water is quiet and sometimes the water is not so quiet. But, I want

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to be in the river with my client. I like my comfort. So, I would prefer the nice boat to be in with my client, but I think my client should also see that, ‘We can either be in therapy and just sit in the boat and sit here for weeks and weeks or we can start moving and see the rest of the river as well. ‘Where are we going?’ and we need to address the challenges in the river, and how long are we going to be there…

I think that’s part of my personality… I become bored. So, there needs to be movement for me as well. I’m not uncomfortable going back. Sometimes in therapy, you need to go back to certain aspects that haven’t been, uh, covered in- depth enough but- I’m comfortable with that. But, there needs to be movement… Of course there is that, “Where are we going?” So, we cannot be in the river forever. We use the space to move. ‘Where are we going to dock?, ‘Where are you going?’ (Participant E4).

Participant E4 also viewed psychotherapy as needing a clear and spoken about direction with the client in order to achieve shifts together with the client. She, together with participants (A5, and D3), cautioned that psychotherapy needs to have an endpoint in mind and as such clearly defined goals enable that endpoint to be reached successfully. Yet, she stated that clear mutually decided upon goals did not necessarily amount to a smooth process as obstacles and diversions are part of a therapeutic course. However, for her, active progressive movement overall was a key marker as to whether psychotherapy was proving to be ultimately beneficial to the client. Along similar lines, Participant C4, in her metaphor of the psychotherapist and patient traversing mountains also drew upon a journey through nature as it is.

It’s about a journey; and it’s a different journey for everyone. Some through very tumultuous ways that you don’t know where you are going; with others, you recognise the journey even before the therapy is into the second or third session… a never-ending journey (Participant E5).

Participants (A5, A7, C5, and D2) indicated walking together; or hiking or running a race which requires a notable degree of self-effort and personal grit as the agent of movement in psychotherapy whereas participants (D3, E2: a bus or taxibus, and C7, E4: a boat on a river) drew on the idea of utilising a vehicle for change to emphasise the need for psychotherapy to

163 have sufficient energy to propel or facilitate the movement of the client forward as such a vehicle for change is necessary for processes to occur.

And, I suppose at some point it would be fast-flowing and other points would be a lot calmer and restful. At some sections it will be a lot deeper, others a bit

shallower and I think that speaks to doing your therapy…we have conversations around that there will be times that it will be uncomfortable or could be more painful uhm, and other times you might walk out here thinking, ‘Well, did we even do work?’… I suppose there’s times when you will be closer in the river or in the river itself and you rushing through and feeling all the emotions. And, other times you are on the boat or on a ledge somewhere watching the river flow… I suppose not all clients can be in that reflective stance… others try and avoid being in the middle of the river, or in the middle of the emotions because it’s too painful for them… but, I think that is the process of being in therapy… It’s that in out – or being in it and being out of it (Participant C7).

Participants (C5, C7, D2, and E4) chose images which imply some level of ‘to be expected’ unpredictability and difficulty/struggle. After all, inherently, a maze is difficult to navigate and a river is forever-changing by virtue of the weather conditions and shifting landscape. With this in mind, it appears experienced psychotherapists do not expect

predictability or set processes, nor do they explicitly impose a specific, pre-determined structure on the new territory. Rather, experienced psychotherapists appear to prioritise the collaborative power of the therapeutic couple (psychotherapist-client) to absorb and make sense of the unique landscape encountered and their therapeutic ability with the client to engage in recalibration in order to arrive at the client-desired destination.

Participants, in the current study, valued psychotherapy being a mutual, equalised

endeavour between psychotherapist and client (B6, C3, C4, D3, E4, and E5). Participants voiced that they purposefully refrained from the imposition of solutions for their client (C6, and D2). Participants voiced that clients in distress are vulnerable to being imposed upon and therefore it is critical that the agency of the client is respected and fostered. Participants C1 and E3 spoke of aiding the client in developing an assertive voice in their relationships. Participant D2 spoke about holding himself back despite being provoked by the client to spout forth answers in order to ensure that rather the client arrived at their own answers. Participant D2 illustrated the

164 importance of psychotherapists facilitating the client achieving their own goals and experiencing their own competency at arriving at a self-derived successful outcome.

The ability to as a psychotherapist to gain a handle on one’s feelings of fear of the unknown, ‘tie oneself to the chair’ and remain still and ‘not-knowing’ is a skill learned and appreciated over time (Anderson, 1980). Initially, psychotherapists are too invested in their own need to perform (B1, B5, C3, D3, and E4) and to demonstrate that they are indeed capable of helping people in distress that they are too quick to rescue (D2, and D3) and slow at allowing their clients to get good at swimming. After all, psychotherapy involves psychotherapists facilitating a healing “process over which they have no fundamental control” (Rogers, 1980/1995, p. 325).