This presentation will begin with an overview of the research on intuition and procedural knowledge, in contrast to deliberate reasoning and theoretical description of the process of therapy. Kahneman (2003) in his research in judgment and decision-making locates intuition, and intuitive process as operating at its best in the most challenging and complex circumstance. In such contexts of practice intuition is evoked by the events or specific features of a situation, and offers the practitioner a way forward in circumstances where there appeared to be none. Klein (1999 2002) and others propose that intuition is a core aspect of procedural knowledge and an adaptive mechanism that is developed and refined through deliberate extended practice and feedback.
However, because intuitive process operate below awareness and attunes the therapist to rapidly recognize and respond to subtle cues, highly experienced practitioners often cannot readily describe what they noticed nor how they came to choose that particular course of action. This research addressed this and other methodological issues by adapting a number of well-established knowledge elicitation methods, then triangulated on to and comparing the intuitive process of novice and elite therapists, in challenging and straight-forward cases. The presentation will mainly focus on ‘how and what elite therapist do when they appear to ‘just know’ what to say and do’ in order to progress therapy. The implication of this research for education and training of the next generation of psychotherapists will also be discussed.