Phillips (Phillips 1988), as
psychotherapist and jazz fan, provides
an overview of improvisation in
psychotherapy and the way in which it
relates to adolescent patients. He
identifies four important qualities as
bases which enable the therapist to
improvise in clinical practice: (i) to
have access to his or her past; (ii) to be
able to focus attention solely on the
present; (iii) to be comfortable enough
to give up control over the outcome
of the task to experiment during the
session, and (iv) recognize the
significance of accidental expression
(p184).