Coherence Therapy Introduction - Part 4
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- Опубліковано 29 кві 2014
- Entire training: tinyurl.com/y3h75sq2
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Niall Geoghegan collaborated closely with Bruce Ecker on developing the Coherence Therapy Training Program of the Coherence Psychology Institute (CPI) from 2005-2007, and was a Certified Trainer for the Institute through 2015. Since then he has been building a new platform of web-based tutorials in experiential psychotherapy methodologies and techniques: www.experiential-psychotherap...
For a wide range of Coherence Therapy resources, visit the official website of its founders: www.coherencetherapy.org
Texts by Coherence Therapy's creators:
• Coherence Therapy Practice Manual and Training Guide
• Unlocking the Emotional Brain: Eliminating Symptoms at Their Roots Using Memory Reconsolidation
• Depth Oriented Brief Therapy: How to Be Brief When You Were Trained to Be Deep and Vice Versa
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Introduction in four parts by Niall Geoghegan PsyD - Experiential Psychotherapy Therapy trainer & licensed psychologist.
The basis of Coherence Therapy is the principle of symptom coherence, which assumes that the presenting symptoms clients experience as undesirable and out of their control are found to be cogent expressions of important knowings about self or the world. Presenting symptoms become recognized as compelling, unconscious solutions to unconscious dilemmas.
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For more information visit: www.experiential-psychotherapies.com
Excellent summary of Coherence Therapy. Thank you. A flexible, client centered approach that is free of jargon and theory, and guided simply by what is useful. How refreshing.
This was excellent!!! After a while therapies all start looking the same. This really clarified how this one is different. Very clear and great examples. Thank you.
From Mexico a seeker looking for answers, I am surprised by the simplicity and the power of this technique. Thanks for bring it home in an accesible way. Is very important to do this last, because there are not much books and they are, I have to say so unnecessary complicated.
Hey, thanks a lot for making and uploading these videos to youtube. They were of great value to me :)
Wow! Amazing!
Final parts 3&4 - now online!
Thank you so much for these videos
One thing I am curious about...In my experience the disconfirming juxtapositions aren't always as optimistic as we'd like to think. For example for this woman, it is quite possible she could find her husband doesn't really care about her or has great difficulty expressing that care in a meaningful and productive way. Certainly if we traced the family of origin roots with a lot of implicit knowledge we would find this as well. In theory I think different therapies or philosophy might be needed with how to deal in these sort of situations where your implicit memory matches issues in relationships which continue to persist. Though this might flow naturally once the implicit knowledge is retrieved.
+Kingcob16 Sorry I never noticed this comment till now. It was stuck in "pending permission" mode! Yes, it's true that it's not always easy to come up with an effective disconfirmatory experience. There's an art to it, and sometimes we try one and the client lets us know why it doesn't work. If so, we stop and think about why, specifically, it didn't work, and adjust accordingly. Sometimes that means readjusting or getting more specific about what implicit knowing we're targeting. In the situation you mentioned, if the husband and family of origin all DID act in ways that failed to communicate her lovableness or her worth, then I would make a subtle shift in what I'm targeting from "nobody reflects to me that I'm lovable or have value" (which may largely be true for her), to "and their view of me is the objectively accurate, legitimate view of me". What I mean by this is that, as we all know, it is often the case that parents don't reflect these things because they are preoccupied, D&A addicted, distracted, overwhelmed, suffer from their own health or mental illness challenges, etc. etc., and the kid growing up in that situation doesn't think, "the problem is that you have insufficient capacity to love me". The child thinks, "there must be something wrong with ME". And that perspective generally carries through into adulthood. So I would shift my focus to understanding why this particular client "knows" that the problem is her, not them, and then ultimately work at creating an experience disconfirming their unquestioned and unchallenged legitimacy, from her perspective, as evaluators of her worth and lovability.
thanks so much for doing this. it's really good explanation and really helps understand how cohere thereapy works
Glad you find it helpful!
Thank you for taking the time to make those videos. I have been recently introduced to CT and now it's all I want to do! It would be amazing to have some kind of "sequel" to this series with troubleshooting tips, such as what to do with conscious and unconscious resistance, how to help a client who has a really hard time to connect experientially, and so on. I do have the Institute's manual and latest book, but little videos like this are also helpful to stay in touch with the technique. Cheers!
Appreciate your enthusiasm Sophie. We intend to make some more clips, and offer support and trainings in the future. What might be some other areas or aspects of the practice that you would like tips or help with?
And if any one else had preferences or identified areas that you would like us to cover, please post here or message backchannel.
Thankyou!!
Simon
I would like to know a bit more about how you present the technique to clients when they ask questions. I would like to hear you on the place of self-compassion in CT (used it today as a juxtaposition experience with a client who is still waiting to get dad's unconditional love while he mostly gives violence, and it was powerful!). I would really like tips on how to help clients switch from "symptom's powerless victim" to agency (some just don't see it!). How do you help a client connect experientially when you feel they are "chatting with you with their eyes closed"? In order to evaluate integration at the beginning of the session, is it a good idea to tell clients not to take their psp card out (some of my clients keep looking at it, even in the waiting room!! seems to defeat the purpose) What discovery and integration techniques work best with clients with very low insight? (I could go on and on, you shouldn't encourage this! ;-)
That is helpful for us to think about what will be most useful as we continue to create training materials. Feel free to post again if something else pops into mind Sophie. Many thanks - am not afraid of encouraging :)
Aaand here we go: What are your thoughts on defusion and acceptance techniques (ACT)? How do you help a client priorize a symptom when they are themselves confused by all the places that hurt and they would like to alleviate everything at once? How do you help clients who just don't want to stay in an experiential state too long? (I know it's resistance, but exploring that the CT way also requires experiential and it sometimes just bugs there the very same way and then we're stuck). What tips do you personally use when the CT work has deeply shaken a client, they're still completely activated in it and distraught and you need to close the session? (I tend to use self-compassion exercises then). That's it for today! :-) Thanks!
I see on your website that you offer a free exchange over the phone to determine whether CT is the right approach for a client. I would like to know what are the red flags, for you, that suggest a client might not be a good candidate for CT.
Hi Niall,
I enjoyed your very coherent presentation!
I just wish the clinical example would have been one where the situation is a little more
complicated so that the contradiction between erroneous non-conscious old mental schema and current life would be less simplistic. While your example does reflect many true scenarios, there are many others where it is less easy to point out to clients that their current "reality" is so blatantly different. Often the past has been re-enacted and re-created in so many ways that the current situation does reflect many of the old dangers...
+Irit Felsen Hi Irit. Thanks for your comment. Yes, it is certainly true that there are many scenarios where the archaic schema gets re-enacted and reconfirmed in many ways in present day life. For example, a client with a schema of low or no self worth stemming from her early life experiences may in fact be surrounded by people who consistently reject her. It helps to keep in mind that we don't need to find one example to disconfirm that all those people are being rejecting, since their rejection may in fact be objectively true. What we are looking to disconfirm is the GLOBAL meaning she has made, and maintains, about herself having no value. Finding an example of someone who has loved and valued her, and prompting her to visualize and tell that person, "no one in the world could possibly love or appreciate me, because I simply have no value" can set up an experience of dissonance within her, and a realization that, "I have value, even if the majority of people around me don't see it". It is theoretically possible that the client and therapist will be unable to find a single person who she has ever experienced as having valued her,, but most people get loved or valued by someone at some point along the way. If unable to find such an example, then the therapist has to get more imaginative about how to create an experience of having internal, intrinsic value even if not one human being has ever seen, or at least reflected that to the client in a way she could take in. It's possible to create such an experience but it gets more complicated than can be easily explained in a youtube response, or in an introductory video! ;-) - Niall
Thank you for this very informative explanation of an exciting new type of therapy. Is it possible to use this orientation as one's main way of practicing psychotherapy? That is, is it comprehensive enough to deal with most of the problems clients come in with? -Dr. Diak
Glad you found it helpful! Yes, Coherence Therapy is my primary orientation with a wide variety of presenting symptoms. As is the case with any form of psychotherapy, it's easier to apply with some clients than others. Even with clients who have a harder time engaging in experiential work, keeping the coherence framework in mind helps guide all my sessions.
I find it more difficult with clients who are unable to "let go" and submerge them self in the experience, usually because they feel compelled to stay up in their heads as a result of excessive anxiety. I do not mean to make an across-the-board statement that coherence therapy does not work with anxious clients. That is absolutely not the case. But certain clients' solution to anxiety is to stay heady and intellectualize at all times. Sometimes we need to temporarily shift the symptom to that: working with the part of them that feels like they need to intellectualize and be in control at all times. If we can convince that part to ease back or let go then we can continue with coherence therapy work on their original presenting symptoms. You'll find more advanced tutorials on CT here: www.experiential-psychotherapies.com/residences/#ctanchor3
Great video! I'm wondering how CT works with depression which manifests in many symptoms. Does it mean addressing each symptom individually or is depression itself a symptom?
A symptom can be ‘functional’ or ‘functionless’. If you start from a discovery position of ‘not knowing’ you will often find that a symptom will lead you to deeper and deeper layers of compelling purpose (in CT that is called ‘functional’). Less frequently, a symptom may be a functionless by-product of the requiring-schema (eg ‘tiredness’ resulting from insomnia and over-activity, which is required to block-out memories of earlier trauma). More on this in the CT books and online materials - see www.coherencetherapy.org/discover/examples.htm for some case examples - the Anxiety study is useful to explain ‘functionless symptoms' at work.
I hope that helps!
Simon
(Niall's answer) When a client presents with "depression" I usually find out what specific symptoms the client is experiencing and then choose one of those to begin discovery work on. The term "depression" in and of itself isn't specific enough for me to create an effective symptom deprivation, for example, while "I lack motivation to engage in any of my usual activities", or "I can't stop crying", or "I can barely get myself to eat" are all things I can create vivid symptom deprivations with.
Does this therapy approach work better for behavioural symptoms? In social anxiety for eg, would the target symptom be avoidance, or would it be the specific feeling, eg feeling worried about judgment of others?
Coherence Therapy could equally be applied to either the behavioral symptom or the experience. The most important first step is "symptom definition" -- getting crystal clear with the client about what the target of change is for this session, whether that be a change in their behavior or a change in how they experience the circumstances of their life. Which of these it needs to be will be different depending on the situation and the person, and this must be co-determined by both the client and therapist. Then we start discovery work (seeking the unconscious compelling reason for maintaining the symptom) from there.
Hmm i think i have much more complex "issue", it related to fear of becoming evil like part of me taking over if i do what i want and truely desire that makes me happy.
Hi Anuojat, its difficult to know from a brief comment if your 'fear of becoming evil' is somehow keeping you right where you are, somehow stuck. I wonder what might its positive intent be? Also, if the fear is about hurting yourself or others, or something less visible-concrete, or other? We can't really make a detailed response here, but recommend that you get advice and support from your local social network or therapist if you are worried. All best - Simon
Experiential Psychotherapy Training
Thanks. Funny you should say... because just now before is aw you comment i think i know what is! And ive been to thephahy before: Its the the pasr to me that was my anger that was NEVER allowed and becmae snerk in my teens and was bvuried then also. Its anger part of me whcih was always called evil so it became to believe it HAD to be an evil villain!. "It" umm seems to have integrated and wants to thank you... aka we both aka ME. Wants to thank you for these videos theyre very helpful in letting my anger NOT view itself as evil cruel villain.
I'm glad this was helpful. It is often helpful to take a stance that assumes that all parts have a positive intent, somehow to seek safety or autonomy or justice-fairness or something else that was bruised or pinched somehow in your earlier life. All best again!
My pleasure keep doing waht you do. Your are an anti-cancer to humanitys minds :)
You and other thetaphist and also dem psycologists are literally, not even metaphorically saving the world by bringing clarity and rational consistency to peoples minds. So they no longer have to fight these "ghosts of self knowledge" as i call them. Or attack themselves. ;)Experiential Psychotherapy Training
What if people don't have mismatching experiences or the problem repeats because people feel as if others don't care about her in the present?
The deeply held implicit beliefs that organize our experience of reality tend to be extremely black or white, all or nothing. While it may be true that there are people who don't care about her in the present, it is unlikely to be true that no people EVER care about her, as this part of her expects. For a mismatch to work it does not have to prove that the belief or expectation is never true (most beliefs do have some truth to them), rather that the belief or expectation is not ALWAYS true, which is how it tends to feel in the emotional brain.