Exceeding the therapeutic zone of proximal development as a clinical error

The Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES) summarizes a developmental continuum along which psychological problems progress in successful psychotherapy. The therapeutic zone of proximal development (TZPD) is the segment of the APES continuum within which the clients can proceed from their current APES level to the next with the therapist's assistance. It is the therapeutic working zone for a particular problem. As the client makes progress on a problem, its TZPD shifts up the APES. Theoretically, so long as the therapist's interventions remain within the TZPD, the client feels safe enough to work. However, when an intervention aims beyond the upper limit, the client will find it too risky and will reject or avoid the proposal. In this sense, exceeding the TZPD can be considered as a clinical error. This article presents examples of exceeding the TZPD and ways the error can be repaired.
A part of this research was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), University of Minho, and was supported in part by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education, and FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653). This study was also partially supported by the BIAL Foundation.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion