Building a meaning bridge: Therapeutic progress from problem formulation to understanding.

Qualitative analyses of 2 clients’ psychotherapies (client centered and process-experiential) investigatedthe developmental progression from formulating a problem to achieving an understanding of it. Theresults elaborated one segment in the 8-stage Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Sequence (APES),through which problematic parts of a person (described as voices to emphasize their active, agenticqualities) are thought to pass during successful psychotherapy, as they become assimilated into the self(described as a community of voices ). The transition between APES Stage 3 (problem statement/clarification) and APES Stage 4 (understanding/insight) was described as a series of substages. Theresults highlighted the construction of meaning bridges—semiotic links by which the problematic voicecould understand and be understood by voices of the community.