ABSTRACT
A theory must stand up to scrutiny, testifiability, and falsifiability to be scientific (Popper, 1963). It must also pass the litmus test of at least a few colleagues who are leaders in that specific field who are willing to endorse the theory proposed. However, the most important test is the theory as applied to clinical trials. Publications in the field are one component of gathering evidence that one’s theory and treatment are accepted. Endorsements by some leaders in the field are another means of gathering evidence by contemporaries indicating that one’s theory is accepted as novel (Cohen, 1985; Kitaeff, 2010; Kuhn, 1962). This process of establishing a theory as being distinctly scientific requires the hypothetical construct undergirding the bridge to what is novel with what can hold up to efficacy. Effectiveness is the lattice that drapes the exterior method, reflecting the interior quality of impact on patients as treatment. Who is presenting the theory cannot be discarded. Biography cannot be unwed from the theory supporting any treatment. It is clear the origin of any approach is sown from the experiences and motivation of the scientist as much as the method presented. All medicine, including the branch of science born from that hub and broadly called psychology is no different. The craft and science of therapy at its best facilitates healing in a patient. Healing is coalesced on the three dimensions of applied psychology as follows: clinical intervention; the dimension of what motivates the understanding and application of the clinical method; and the multi-dimensionality of the participant observer as therapist. The intuitive dimension of each session that melds into the next in the surround of resistance and growth toward a specific outcome(s) carries all three dimensions. These three dimensions create an individual motif along the palette of the ecological impact of trauma and loss as color, the style and approach of the therapist as a unique active artist, their work of art together as the therapy goals. Progress presents as the collaborative impact on the meaning of the art that progressively emerges scientifically as measured and observed. Artists work within the shadow of their expression regardless of medium, and science is a medium that can be expanded to include an artistic expression. I am suggesting by analogy and metaphor, and not a literal construction this is true of the clinician in psychology as medicine. It is within this framework that my theory and method may be used as a fulcrum toward treating complex trauma syndromes (PTSD) and complicated grief and dissociative disorders in public safety/police and military populations.
