In developing this book with my colleagues, I have come to realize that Pre-Therapy is not only a theory and technique of psychotherapy, but also as a method of understanding psychological phenomena. Western humanistic psychology has traditionally focused on higher levels of human functioning  such as peak experiences or self actualization. In contrast, Pre-Therapy focuses on the lower levels of functioning — learning disability, regression, chronic schizophrenia and dementia. Pre-Therapy is a commitment to understand and treat the regressed levels of ‘Being in the World’. It is possibly a paradigm shift within western humanistic psychology

In a different sense, Pre-Therapy is a cultural conserve. It maintains a consistent ‘non-directive’ position derived from mid-20^th century Rogerian  psychology. It also embraces a ‘concrete phenomenology’. In Martin Buber’s language this is described as ‘pointing at the concrete’. Pre-Therapy enables the therapist to contact the patient’s regressed levels through the concreteness of the contact reflections.

What is important about this text, is not Pre-Therapy itself. This can be read in other books and papers. This text concerns itself with the growth resulting from Pre-Therapy. Pre-Therapy has undergone three changes: (1) 1966–1986 ‘birth’ in the United States  (2) 1986–2006  Expansion and growth in Europe. (3) The expansion beyond itself to other distinct and separate psychological phenomena — a second generation of theorizing and applications.