Irvin Yalom

humans appear to be meaning-seeking creatures who have had the misfortune of being thrown into a world devoid of intrinsic meaning. One of our major tasks is to invent a meaning sturdy enough to support a life and to perform the tricky maneuver of denying our personal authorship of this meaning. Thus we conclude instead that it was “out there” waiting for us. Our ongoing search for substantial meaning systems often throws us into crises of meaning.

all too often it is based on inaccurate data suppled by the patient

The here-and-now offers a far better way to work. The general strategy is to find a here-and-now equivalent of the dysfunctional interaction.