1.

Everyone maintains a unique and subjective internal map of external reality; the better one understands the map, the better one understands the person.

2.

Everyone is living her life the best way she knows how given reality as she perceives and experiences it (via her internal map).

3.

Human behavior is emotionally based, purposeful and adaptive. When a behavior ceases to provide meaning and function it stops of its own accord. Thus, individuals have a visceral experience of their own behavior as subjectively congruent in time.

4.

Relationship is the foundation of human experience. (Relationship is the therapy in psychotherapy).

5.

Relationship develops through engendering trust.

6.

Trust is engendered through experiencing respect (primarily through deeds, not merely through words).

7.

Respect is demonstrated through attempting to understand a person's life perceptions, experiences, and behaviors fully (one's unique internal map of reality) without attempting to change the person, his perceptions, experiences, or behavior.

8.

Understanding and respecting a person's unique internal map of reality invites trust by the person who feels better understood.

9.

Trust engenders hope. ("I belong" or "I feel less alone.")

10.

Hope makes conscious and decisive change possible (although change may occur unconsciously with the withering of defense mechanisms).