Accordingly, another important therapeutic agenda is to facilitate
patients’ awareness of their basic needs and to explore opportunities
for achieving greater satisfaction of these needs. As such,
SDT-informed therapists are mindful of the basic psychological
needs and notice when a need is being ignored or avoided by
patients, or when what is being talked about implies need thwarting.
When there is no mention of intimate interactions with others
or when a patient talks about feeling fine after being rejected by a
partner, the therapists will take note and may raise the issue when
the time seems right. When patients never speak about feeling
ineffective even though it is clear that things are not going well at
work, or when patients seem to have no awareness of being
controlled and thus not acting in accord with their own interests
and values but instead are speaking about what they should or have
to do, the therapists would also take note and would likely find a
way to address the issues. These are merely instances of how the
content either expressed or avoided by patients associated with the
needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are important in
the practise of SDT-based therapy.