This thread invites the curious to read about the therapeutic frame in a series of articles by Michael Karson, Ph.D., J.D. Dr. Karson's views on "implicit rules" and their application had me thinking about my own therapy. The incidence of coincidence between Dr. Karson's implicit rules and those of my therapists differ from a rather close correlation to quite divergent.

Here are the articles:

The Therapeutic Frame Part 1 | Psychology Today
A Simple Test of Therapy | Psychology Today
The Therapeutic Frame Part 2 | Psychology Today
The Frame, Part 3 | Psychology Today
The Frame, Part 4 (Privacy) | Psychology Today

Dr. Karson reenforces my belief that therapy achieves a better result if the client is open and forthright.

The same consideration applies to more normal troubles, like anxiety and depression. These problems are easy to divulge to a therapist, and your therapist prompts you for good examples. You report truthfully that you often experience intense anxiety when the phone rings. Now the therapist wants to know what goes through your mind when the phone starts ringing. You know perfectly well that the therapist’s question makes you think of your pregnant sister miscarrying, but you either think that this cannot be the problem—you love your sister—or you think that the therapist will be disgusted with you if you report this image. Instead, you make up something sensible but false about bad news you once got over the phone, wasting months of therapy on the wrong focus, but saving face. Again, the question is, what would the therapist and the therapy space have to be like to induce you to report what actually occurs to you?

The anomaly for me is having to rectify my belief with what I consider my poor results in therapy.