[[2]] Lewis R. Wolberg, The Technique of Psychotherapy, 2 vols. (New York: Grune & Stratton, 1977), vol. I, p. 271.
Some people are more amenable to certain approaches to therapy than others; for example, some people like and benefit from group therapy, while others hate it. Sometimes what a person likes or would prefer needs to be overlooked in favor of treatment that is believed to be effective. But the vast majority of people who enter therapy do this of their own volition. If the therapy they enter is unsatisfying or downright distasteful to them, they will soon give it up. We simply tend not to learn and profit from experiences we dislike or that don't fit the kinds of people we are.
For some time now therapists have recognized that a client's personality often tends to incline him or her toward certain approaches and away from others. In the second step in identifying a potentially promising approach to therapy, you are encouraged to take traits of your own personality into consideration. It is not merely the goal or problem that suggests a particular approach to therapy, but—what is often more important—the nature of the person. Too little attention is given to the appropriateness of an individual for a given kind of therapy.
TABLE 2:
AN OVERVIEW OF MAIN PERSONALITY TRAITS
RELEVANT TO THE CHOICE OF A THERAPY
Choose no more than three of the following that you believe influence most strongly the way you approach day-to-day living:
[ ] §1 Self-discipline
[ ] §2 Commitment to tasks you set for yourself
[ ] §3 Patience
[ ] §4 Initiative