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Integrating moment-by-moment and phase-by-phase guiding maps facilitates the understanding of therapeutic processes. Therapists' attunement and responsiveness to patients' assimilation capacities supports therapeutic progress. Being aware of both phase-by-phase and moment-by-moment movements in psychotherapy helps lead to better clinical decisions.

This study provides a description of the organization of dialectical thinking and its presence in mature thought. A dialectical schemata framework comprising 24 types of moves in thought that the dialectical thinker typically makes was derived from the dialectical philosophical perspective. This framework was used to interpret, code, and compare 27 interviews on the nature of education conducted with freshmen, seniors, and faculty members at a small, highly selective liberal arts college. Faculty members use a significantly (p < 0.01) broader range of dialectical schemata than do seniors, who in turn use a significantly (p < 0.01) broader range than do freshmen. The findings support the idea of a postformal-operational stage of cognitive organization based on the elaboration of dialectical thinking.

This study adds a phase-by-phase perspective to the well-known, and thoroughly analysed on a moment-by-moment basis, case of Lisa. The aim is to see whether this phase-by-phase analysis adds anything valuable to the understanding of the processes of change in this case and the therapeutic processes in general. In this good-outcome case study, a team of raters integrated the temporal sequencing phase component of the Paradigmatic Complementarity Metamodel (PCM) with a moment-by-moment tracking method-the Developmental Analysis of Psychotherapy Process Method (DAPP)-to analyse what occurred along the process that could explain the phase transitions and consolidations observed and how the therapist facilitated them. We illustrate and explain the therapeutic progression with therapeutic interactions from the dyad. The results suggest that Lisa evolved in accordance with the sequence of phases proposed by the PCM until phase 4 (out of 7). However, only phase 2 gains show evidence of structural consolidation. The sequence of phases proposed by the PCM seems to represent a natural progression for patients throughout the therapeutic process, and the consideration of a phase-by-phase map in analysing and thinking of therapeutic cases may be a valuable tool regarding clinical decision making.

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