Meaning and change in psychotherapy

Starting from two accounts of psychological change in therapeutic settings, based respectively on the analysis of metaphors (Faccio et al. 2011, this issue) and on transformative moments in self narratives (Ribeiro and Gonçalves 2011, this issue), this paper examines core processes of psychological change. Drawing on sociocultural psychology, the paper first argues that core processes of change in such therapeutic settings take place at the level of the organization of a person’s semiotic sets. Second, the paper suggests that such therapeutic frames are likely to provoke changes in other aspects of a person’s life as these aim at transforming the persons thinking capacities, and as these have as objects situations external to them.