Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy

Interpersonal reconstructive therapy incorporates aspects of biological and psychoanalytic attachment theories into a case formulation model that explains symptoms in relation to client views of safety and threat.

Therapy follows a set series of steps, and the therapist chooses treatment and specific interventions on the basis of the case formulation and at what point in the therapeutic process the client may be. The client's sense of safety is a central concern, as this core mental schema will change as a result of the therapy process.

In this program, Dr. Lorna Smith Benjamin works with a 19-year-old single woman with severe anxiety who was hospitalized after attempting suicide. Dr. Smith-Benjamin works to understand the worldview of the client and help her begin to move from feeling hopeless and unseen toward a sense of agency.

The client in this video is portrayed by an actor on the basis of a composite of case descriptions.