Jeffery Smith: How therapy works (video #2: Clinical practice)

This is a continuation of Jeffery Smith’s description of how psychotherapy works (see part 1). In this video, we talk about how this perspective applies in clinical practice.


See also video of live Q & A on this topic.


Jeffery Smith MD knew, as a Stanford freshman, that he wanted to be a therapist. Coming from an academic family, that was his entree into what, in the early sixties was called “the real world.” Twelve years later, no less enthusiastic, and married to a French wife, he finished residency in New York and began to practice. An abiding interest in how words exchanged and relational events are able to foster change soon became the theme of his professional life. Mid-career, his interest in therapeutic action dovetailed with a mission to move the field of psychotherapy out of the era of competing schools to one where therapists follow fundamental processes and choose techniques according to client needs. Towards that mission he started www.howtherapyworks.com, wrote a textbook, Psychotherapy: A Practical Guide, books for lay people, and established Howtherapyworks Training, a “nondenominational” online program for intermediate to advanced therapists.


Published January 2021.