A Human Experience

Course Description

A Human Experience is an experiential and reflective workshop exploring what it means to meet one another as humans in a time of distance, performance, and disconnection. Inspired by a returning client who described reaching the limits of insight and still longing for something more deeply human, this presentation asks what becomes possible in the presence of another person. Through story, reflection, and shared inquiry, participants will be invited into something more felt than explained.

This is a self-of-the-therapist workshop. Rather than teaching a model or technique, it turns attention to the therapist: the assumptions we carry about what makes an experience human, the turning points that have shaped us, and the presence we bring into the room. Drawing on narrative therapy, research on the therapeutic relationship, and Martin Buber's writing on meeting another person, participants reflect individually and in pairs, and consider what this means for how they show up with individuals, couples, and families.

Instructor Information

Educational Goals

1. Increase therapists' awareness of the self they bring into the therapeutic relationship.
2. Strengthen therapists' capacity to meet clients as whole persons rather than as problems to be assessed.
3. Develop reflective practices that support presence and connection in work with individuals, couples, and families.

Measurable Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to describe two of their own assumptions about what makes an experience human and how those assumptions shape the way they show up with clients.
2. Participants will be able to identify two ways the therapist as a person contributes to the therapeutic relationship, drawing on research on the alliance and the common factors.
3. Participants will be able to explain the difference between relating to a client as an object and meeting a client as a whole person, using Martin Buber's I-It and I-Thou.
4. Participants will be able to describe one turning point, from their work as a therapist or from their own life, that shapes the self they bring to their work with clients, identified through individual writing and paired sharing.
5. Participants will be able to identify one practice for bringing a therapist's own reflections back to the client.

Outline with Main Points for Each Topic (including times)

1. 12:45–1:00 PM · What Is a Human Experience? — Obj 1 — 15 minutes

   • The question behind the session: a returning client who wanted "a human experience"
   • What we stop noticing because we live inside it (Wallace, 2009)
   • Reflection: what it means to be human, to experience something, and to have a human experience, and what each participant assumes about these as a therapist
   • Experience and the roots of narrative therapy: being seen and witnessed by others (Turner, 1986; E. Bruner, 1986; Myerhoff, 1982; White & Epston, 1990)

2. 1:00–1:20 PM · The Therapist as a Person — Obj 2 — 20 minutes

   • A question many therapists now ask themselves: what do I offer that a machine cannot? (Jones & Bergen, 2026; Yin et al., 2024)
   • What research on psychotherapy outcomes suggests about the therapist's own contribution: the alliance, empathy, and the common factors (Wampold, 2015; Wampold & Imel, 2015; Flückiger et al., 2018; Elliott et al., 2018)
   • Reflection: what participants believe they bring to clients, and where that belief comes from

3. 1:20–1:35 PM · Meeting the Other: I and Thou — Obj 3 — 15 minutes

   • Buber's I-It and I-Thou: relating to another as an object, or meeting another as a whole person (Buber, 1923/1937)
   • Short readings from the 1957 Buber–Rogers dialogue on mutuality between therapist and client (Anderson & Cissna, 1997)
   • Reflection: moments when participants have related to a client as a case, and moments of meeting

4. 1:35–2:00 PM · Co-Research Exercise: Turning Points — Obj 4 — 25 minutes

   • Individual writing: the turning points each participant has experienced as a therapist or as a human
   • Paired sharing: participants pair with someone they do not know and share these experiences with each other
   • What this suggests about the self each therapist brings to clients

5. 2:00–2:15 PM · Bringing It Back to the Client — Obj 5 — 15 minutes

   • Returning the therapist's reflections to the client, illustrated with a de-identified example from the presenter's own practice, shared with the client's consent
   • A letter to a client after therapy ends
   • Closing reflection: what participants will carry back into their own work

Total instructional time: 15 + 20 + 15 + 25 + 15 = 90 minutes / 60 = 1.5 CE hours

Signing in and out

• Sign in at the door before 12:45 PM.
• Sign out and complete this session’s evaluation at the door when it ends at 2:15 PM.
• Sign-in, sign-out and the evaluation are not part of the 1.5 CE hours.

References

• Anderson, R., & Cissna, K. N. (1997). The Martin Buber–Carl Rogers dialogue: A new transcript with commentary. State University of New York Press.
• Bruner, E. M. (1986). Ethnography as narrative. In V. W. Turner & E. M. Bruner (Eds.), The anthropology of experience (pp. 139–155). University of Illinois Press.
• Buber, M. (1937). I and thou (R. G. Smith, Trans.). T. & T. Clark. (Original work published 1923)
• Elliott, R., Bohart, A. C., Watson, J. C., & Murphy, D. (2018). Therapist empathy and client outcome: An updated meta-analysis. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 399–410. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000175
• Flückiger, C., Del Re, A. C., Wampold, B. E., & Horvath, A. O. (2018). The alliance in adult psychotherapy: A meta-analytic synthesis. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 316–340. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000172
• Jones, C. R., & Bergen, B. K. (2026). Large language models pass a standard three-party Turing test. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(21), Article e2524472123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2524472123
• Myerhoff, B. (1982). Life history among the elderly: Performance, visibility, and re-membering. In J. Ruby (Ed.), A crack in the mirror: Reflexive perspectives in anthropology (pp. 99–117). University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Turner, V. W. (1986). Dewey, Dilthey, and drama: An essay in the anthropology of experience. In V. W. Turner & E. M. Bruner (Eds.), The anthropology of experience (pp. 33–44). University of Illinois Press.
• Wallace, D. F. (2009). This is water: Some thoughts, delivered on a significant occasion, about living a compassionate life. Little, Brown and Company.
• Wampold, B. E. (2015). How important are the common factors in psychotherapy? An update. World Psychiatry, 14(3), 270–277. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20238
• Wampold, B. E., & Imel, Z. E. (2015). The great psychotherapy debate: The evidence for what makes psychotherapy work (2nd ed.). Routledge.
• White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Yin, Y., Jia, N., & Wakslak, C. J. (2024). AI can help people feel heard, but an AI label diminishes this impact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(14), Article e2319112121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2319112121