DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

a problem that exists before it can be consciously and controllably recognised and
dealt with. In Phase 1 the presence of a life problem is not fully appreciated and
understood – this must be fully addressed before any therapeutic or lifestyle change
can be made (Stiles, 1996).
Many in Stage 1 feel out of control and correspondingly feel that control is
external to the self. It is by the building of a sense of agency, wilfulness and
assertiveness that a person begins to resituate the locus of control back within the self.
Therefore a therapist could help a client who was in Phase 1 by the application of
popular cognitive-behavioural assertiveness techniques, such as fogging, broken
record, negative assertion and negative inquiry (Paterson, 2000).
If the client seems to have developed a protective persona, which is very
common in Phase 1, then aspects of self will be hidden and may be even out of
conscious awareness. In order to deal with this the therapist could focus on providing
a supportive and unconditionally non-judgemental atmosphere for the client to
disclose information about their inner self that they have hidden behind that persona.
In this way the therapist-client relationship will act as a corrective interpersonal
experience for individuals to develop open and honest interaction. This will
correspondingly lessen the experience of depersonalisation and derealisation that
occur in Stage 1, which occur as a result of a self split into public and private (Laing,
1965).
Phase 1 also tends to involve the loss of a dream or sense of intrinsic
motivation. The therapist may facilitate reflection on life before the oppressive roles
were taken on in order to search for the nature of the Dream or ideal self that has been
rejected in adulthood thus far. This may help in surfacing discussion of the inner self,
and to disclose key aspects about its nature, while helping develop self-understanding.
Suffering that is encountered in Phase 1 can only be made sense of within the
context of the social systems that surround that person; for it is within problematic
relationships, oppressive jobs and family problems that the crisis process and
emotional distress emerges. Therapy should therefore incorporate a social emphasis
and not work under the assumption that the emotional problem is an internal illness in
need of an internal cure (Dallos and Boswell, 1993). The therapist could allow a
client to focus on their roles and motives in relationships at home and at work, and on
where the conflicts and problems may lie. There may be the need to consider how
early relationships affected the development of later relationships. In some cases it
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