Alterity in Person-Centered Approach Practice From the sense’s version of Beginning Therapists

Abstract

This work aims to understand the ways of dealing with the description of the experience of therapists about therapeutic relationships that are present in the clinical management of beginning therapists that use the Person-Centered Approach as a reference. We used as a theoretical background the Ethics of Radical Alterity proposed by Emmanuel Lévinas as it highlights the obligatory and vertical aspect of the relationship with the Other, from which subjectivity is constructed, as well as discussions about psychotherapy regarding the psychological theory in question. For the construction of data, we used versions of sense produced by the therapists. We adopted the empirical phenomenological method for analysis. Alterity assumed seven forms in the management of beginning therapists – Other of the encounter, Other of experience, Other of symbolization, Other of the Twilight, Other of Audacity, Other of Satisfaction and Other of Affection. For later studies, among others, we suggest approaching how alterity is manifested in contexts other than the clinical one, as well as a comparison about the manifestations of alterity in the practice of beginning and expert therapists.