DOCSLIB.ORG

Psychotherapy and Counselling

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Psychotherapy and Counselling 72 International Journal for Psychotherapy in Africa (3:1) Psychotherapy And Counselling Francis Akwash Department of Psychology Nasarawa State University, Keffi Abstract Counseling and psychotherapy must be adapted to meet the developmental needs of children. It is generally held to be one part of an effective strategy for some purposes and not for others. In addition to therapy for the child, or even instead of it, children may benefit if their parents speak to a therapist, take parenting classes, attend grief counseling, or take other actions to resolve stressful situations that affect the child. Parent management training is a highly effective form of psychotherapy that teaches parents skills to reduce their child's behavior problems.. Psychotherapy can be said to have been practiced through the ages. Historically, psychotherapy has sometimes meant "interpretative" (i.e. Freudian) methods, namely psychoanalysis, in contrast with other methods to treat psychiatric disorders such as behavior modification. Psychotherapy may be delivered in person, one on one or in groups, over the phone via telephone counseling, or via the internet. Psychotherapists may be mental health professionals, professionals from other backgrounds trained in a specific therapy, or in some cases non-professionals. Psychiatrists are first trained as physicians. One major aim of couselling is that it helps people identify problems and crises and encourages them to take positive steps to resolve these issues, as psychotherapy helps people with psychological problems that have built up over the course of a long period of time. Counselling and psychotherapy employ various techniques and strategies to resolve issues or behavioural problems. Therapy may address specific forms of diagnosable mental illness, or everyday problems in managing or maintaining interpersonal relationships or meeting personal goals. A course of therapy may happen before, during or after pharmacotherapy (e.g. taking psychiatric medication). Key words: Psychotherapy and Counselling What is Counselling? Counselling is a term that can be Counselling is a term that can be used to used to describe any sort of talking describe any sort of talking therapy. What therapy. What is talk therapy? Sharing what is talk therapy? Sharing what is troubling is troubling you in a safe, supportive you in a safe, supportive environment to a environment to a person who is trained to person who is trained to listen and respond listen and respond in a way that helps you to in a way that helps you to understand understand yourself and others better. yourself and others better. Talking therapies Talking therapies help you find more help you find more effective ways to live a effective ways to live a satisfying life. All satisfying life. forms of talk therapy are a sort of counselling. But the term is most often Akwash, F. (2018). Psychotherapy and Counselling, 73 International Journal for Psychotherapy in Africa 3(1):72-88 used to describe the talk therapies which of the reasons why people choose to study focus on your behaviour patterns. These counselling and psychotherapy courses at are the choices and actions you are presently ICHAS. taking that are causing your life to be as it is. Counselling might reference your past. Transferable Skills But in general counselling’s focus is on Courses in Counselling and Psychotherapy helping you with what you are teach participants many useful skills such as experiencing right now. Counselling active listening, empathy and self-awareness is often what is called ‘time-limited’ or that can be of benefit to people in any ‘short-term’. In other words, you decide career, not just those who want to be with your therapist during the first meeting professional Counsellors. These skills will how many sessions you will work together, benefit anyone who is employed in a sector which can be anywhere from 12 to 24 weeks where they have to deal with members of or more. Because it’s shorter term, the public, or demonstrate good counselling can be quite structured, with communication skills. an agenda laid out in advance. The issues that counselling most Personal Development often deals with are the things a client is Many people simply have an interest in currently feeling stressed by, whether that counselling and want to learn more about it. is the challenges they are facing on a daily Perhaps they want to develop skills that will basis at home or work or its a traumatic benefit them in everyday life, or simply circumstance such as a breakup, divorce, or because they’ve always been interested in bereavement. Counselling can also help with the area. things like confidence issues and addictions. Counselling can be done not just as an A Specialised Career individual but also as a couple, family, or Many people undertake counselling courses group. to develop the specialised skills needed to The forms of talk therapy that are become professional counsellors. Others usually referred to as ‘counselling’ in the undertake higher-level counselling courses UK include: to enhance or develop skills for the Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) workplace. Person-centred therapy (also called humanistic therapy) Psychotherapy Couples counselling Psychotherapy is the use of psychological Integrative counselling (a blend of methods, particularly when based on regular various approaches) personal interaction, to help a person change and overcome problems in desired ways. Why Study Counselling? Psychotherapy aims to improve an There are several reasons why someone individual's well-being and mental health, to might choose to complete a counselling resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, programme. As well as offering a range of beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, full and part-time courses aimed at those and to improve relationships and social seeking to pursue a career in counselling, we skills. Certain psychotherapies are also provide courses that allow people to considered evidence-based for treating some explore counselling as an interest or for their diagnosed mental disorders. There are over a own personal development. Below are some thousand different psychotherapy 74 International Journal for Psychotherapy in Africa (3:1) techniques, some being minor variations, counseling may refer to guidance for while others are based on very different everyday problems in specific areas, conceptions of psychology, ethics (how to typically for shorter durations with a less live) or techniques. Most involve one-to-one medical focus. Somatotherapy refers to the sessions, between client and therapist, but use of physical changes as injuries and some are conducted with groups,[1] including illnesses'Bold text''''Bold text''''Bold families. Psychotherapists may be mental text''''''', and sociotherapy to the use of a health professionals such as psychiatrists, person's social environment to effect psychologists, clinical social workers, or therapeutic change. Psychotherapy may marriage and family therapists. address spirituality as part of mental life, Psychotherapists may also come from a and some forms are derived from spiritual variety of other backgrounds, and depending philosophies, but practices based on treating on the jurisdiction may be legally regulated, the spiritual as a separate dimension would voluntarily regulated or unregulated. not necessarily be considered psychotherapy. Definitions Historically, psychotherapy has The term psychotherapy is derived from sometimes meant "interpretative" (i.e. Ancient Greek psyche (ψυχή meaning Freudian) methods, namely psychoanalysis, "breath; spirit; soul") and therapeia in contrast with other methods to treat (θεραπεία "healing; medical treatment"). psychiatric disorders such as behavior The Oxford English Dictionary defines it modification. now as "The treatment of disorders of the Psychotherapy is often dubbed mind or personality by psychological "talking therapy", particularly for a general methods..." audience, though not all forms of The American Psychological psychotherapy rely on verbal Association adopted a resolution on the communication. Children or adults who do effectiveness of psychotherapy in 2012 not engage in verbal communication (or not based on a definition developed by John C. in the usual way) are not excluded from Norcross: "Psychotherapy is the informed psychotherapy; indeed some types are and intentional application of clinical designed for such cases. methods and interpersonal stances derived Psychotherapy can also be done in a from established psychological principles couple, as a family, or as a group. for the purpose of assisting people to modify The forms of talk therapy that are their behaviors, cognitions, emotions, and/or usually referred to as ‘psychotherapy’ in the other personal characteristics in directions UK include: that the participants deem desirable". Psychodynamic psychotherapy Influential editions of a work by psychiatrist Existential psychotherapy Jerome Frank defined psychotherapy as a Psychoanalytic psychotherapy healing relationship using socially Jungian psychoanalysis authorized methods in a series of contacts Dialectical behaviour therapy primarily involving words, acts and Acceptance and commitment therapy rituals—regarded as forms of persuasion and Integrative psychotherapy (a blend of rhetoric. approaches) Some definitions of counseling overlap with psychotherapy (particularly Shorter forms of psychotherapy include: non-directive client-centered approaches), or Akwash, F. (2018). Psychotherapy
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Depotentiation of Symptom-Producing Implicit Memory in Coherence Therapy
    Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 2008, in press DEPOTENTIATION OF SYMPTOM-PRODUCING IMPLICIT MEMORY IN COHERENCE THERAPY BRUCE ECKER1 AND BRIAN TOOMEY2 1Private practice in psychotherapy, Oakland, California 2Clinical Psychology Department, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee In this second of three articles we suggest criteria defining the optimal use of neuro- plasticity (synaptic change) in psychotherapy and provide a detailed examination of the use of neuroplasticity in coherence therapy. We delineate a model of how coherence therapy engages native mental processes that (a) efficiently reveal specific, symptom- generating, unconscious personal constructs in implicit emotional memory, and then (b) selectively depotentiate these constructs, ending symptom production. Both the psy- chological and the neural operation of this methodology are described, particularly how it defines and follows the built-in rules of change of the brain-mind-body system. On neuroscientific grounds we suggest a fundamental distinction between transforma- tive change, which permanently eliminates symptom-generating constructs and neural circuits, and counteractive change, which creates new constructs and circuits that compete against the symptom-generating ones and is inherently susceptible to relapse. We propose that coherence therapy achieves transformative change through the reconsolidation of memory, a recently discovered form of neuroplasticity, and present evidence consistent with this hypothesis. Subjective attention emerges as a critical agent of change in both the phenomenological and neural viewpoints, profoundly connecting these two domains. The constructivist clinical methodology now tory.2 The goal of this study was to identify the known as coherence therapy and its conceptual brain-mind-body system’s native processes and framework, coherence psychology,1 emerged from rules of change.
    [Show full text]
  • Coherence Therapy for Depression
    Case example of Coherence Therapy for Depression Website edition of an article by Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley first published in Psychotherapy Networker as “Deep from the Start: Profound Change in Brief Therapy is a Real Possibility” Psychotherapy Networker, 26 (1), pp. 46-51, 64 (Jan-Feb 2002) © 2007 Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley There is a moment that we therapists savor above all. We've just done or said something decisively effective and put our client in touch with a deep emotional reality. Before our eyes, a shift takes place--a shift in both mind and body--and the client slips from the grip of a lifelong pattern. Such breakthroughs are the heart and soul of good therapy and they give most of us our greatest sense of professional satisfaction and purpose. Yet, few therapists like to admit how infrequently they occur in the average practice, no matter what the clinical approach. In much long-term therapy, breakthrough experiences seem to come almost randomly, and then only after months or years. In briefer therapies, on the other hand, deeply rooted emotional realities are often ignored altogether in favor of "reframes" and other forms of cognitive or behavioral change. Two decades ago, seeking both depth and brevity in our clinical work, we began going over the process notes and audiotapes of thousands of our interactions with clients, especially those that yielded the most powerful turning points. What, we wondered, had happened differently in those sessions? Could we find a way to focus and organize depth-oriented therapy so that transforming moments could occur from the very first session? And could we fashion a brief therapy that could dive deep into unconscious emotional realities without sacrificing much-valued speed and focus? We discovered that what distinguished the pivotal interactions was that--whether due to serendipity, curiosity, desperation or fatigue--we had completely stopped trying to counteract, override, or prevent the client’s debilitating difficulties.
    [Show full text]
  • Clients' Experience of Exploring Pro-Symptom Positions In
    Clients’ experience of exploring pro-symptom positions in integrative counselling Jodie Hawkey Diploma for Professional Studies Counselling, University West of England, UK. Abstract Coherence therapy identifies three specific steps that need to occur in sequence for transformational change to occur in therapy. These steps coincide with the neurological processes involved in memory reconsolidation. The present study explores one of the techniques utilised in step one; through the eyes and experience of the client. Four counselling students took part in a skills practice setting where the technique of ‘symptom deprivation’ was employed. Experience was recorded through semi-structured questionnaires and the qualitative data was thematically analysed. Four themes emerged from the data. The most poignant was the effect of honing in to a specific element of the client’s symptom. Results suggest that this tight focus allows clients to drop into their unconscious and access more global constructs that are influencing multiple areas of their life. This is explored with reference to the literature and implications regarding accessibility of the technique are considered. Introduction Coherence therapy is an approach in counselling that claims to have identified neurological processes that link with memory reconsolidation which are believed to accompany deep and lasting change in therapy as experienced by clients (Ecker et al., 2012). Coherence therapy sits within a framework of constructivism, believing that individuals each construct their own personal ‘knowings’ about the world through their own experiences and perceptions of those experiences. Although the majority of these knowings about the world are implicit and so not readily accessible to conscious thought, they actively guide an individual’s expectation of the world and so guide thoughts, emotional responses, somatic responses and behaviour (Held, et al.
    [Show full text]
  • COHERENCE THERAPY Bruce Ecker É Psicoterapeuta Em Oakland, Califórnia, Co-Autor Da Terapia De Coerência, E Co-Fundador Com S
    Maio 2009 Entrevista Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicoterapias 50MINUTES Construtivistas Bruce Ecker Coherence Psychology Institute COHERENCE THERAPY Bruce Ecker é Psicoterapeuta em Oakland, Califórnia, co-autor da Terapia de Coerência, e co-fundador com S. Bridges do Coherence Psychology Institute. Em Maio 2009 a Sociedade organizou em Lisboa em parceria com o CPI, o Seminário Internacional e Workshop em Terapia de Coerência. Esta conversa teve lugar na tarde de 20 de Maio. COHERENCE THERAPY Gregory Bateson, in a very different Bruce Ecker is co-originator of MAIN INFLUENCES way yet again an understanding of the Coherence Therapy and co-author of coherent production of what is visible Depth-Oriented Brief Therapy: How To —that there are unconscious personal Be Brief When You Were Trained To Be A.: You come from a family constructs, orderly knowledge Deep, and Vice Versa, systems training, right? structures giving rise to what looks as well as B.: Partially, but I wouldn’t say irrational on the surface. Paul Dell that was the main orientation. numerous wrote about replacing the concept of articles and A.: Ok, so what would you say are resistance with the constructivist training the main influences you can identify in concept of coherence, and the videos. He Coherence Therapy either theoretically constructivist brief therapies that were has taught or as methodological? so shaped by Bateson’s ideas, the widely in B.: We feel we were standing on strategic and systemic therapies, had a graduate many different shoulders and so I’ll try big impact on our thinking. The fact courses at to name several.
    [Show full text]
  • Clinical Note Provides a Map for Guiding Practitioners of Coherence Therapy in Carrying out Its Final Phase—The Transformation Phase
    Coherence Therapy Note #7 (v1.1) Topic: Guidelines for Creating Clinical Juxtaposition Experiences Note Author: Bruce Ecker, LMFT This Clinical Note provides a map for guiding practitioners of Coherence Therapy in carrying out its final phase—the transformation phase. In this phase, the client’s symptom-generating emotional learning or schema is profoundly unlearned and dissolved by juxtaposition experiences that carry out the memory reconsolidation process. Some degree of familiarity with the overall methodology and concepts of Coherence Therapy is assumed in what follows, including how Coherence Therapy fulfills the core process of transformational change, the Therapeutic Reconsolidation Process. (For an introductory overview of Coherence Therapy and its utilization of memory reconsolidation, see Clinical Note 6.) The transformation phase of Coherence Therapy begins with a search for a fully real-feeling personal knowledge that the client experiences as being a sharp contradiction of his or her symptom-requiring schema, which is the target of change. When that contrary knowing is found, the next step is guiding the client to experience both the target schema and the contrary knowing concurrently, side by side, in the same field of awareness. This is the juxtaposition experience that Coherence Therapy defines as the critical requirement for transformational change to take place. The client’s first experience of the juxtaposition is the mismatch or prediction error experience that exten- sive research has shown to immediately unlock the neural encoding of the target learning. The target learning is now available for fundamental unlearning and nullification. Just a few repetitions of the juxta- position experience can then bring about that unlearning and nullification.
    [Show full text]
  • Published Clinical Case Studies, Indexed by Symptom, Demonstrating the Therapeutic Reconsolidation Process As Facilitated in Coherence Therapy
    COHERENCE PSYCHOLOGY INSTITUTE PUBLISHED CLINICAL CASE STUDIES, INDEXED BY SYMPTOM, DEMONSTRATING THE THERAPEUTIC RECONSOLIDATION PROCESS AS FACILITATED IN COHERENCE THERAPY REVISED 11 SEPTEMBER 2020 ONLINE ADDRESS OF THIS DOCUMENT: https://bit.ly/2tKXdyX ! Some publications are listed for more than one symptom. ! Coherence Therapy prior to 2005 was known as Depth Oriented Brief Therapy or DOBT. ! In the symptom column, terms in brackets indicate the discovered, underlying emotional themes where this is likely to be of special interest. ! "UEB" stands for Unlocking the Emotional Brain: Eliminating Symptoms at Their Roots Using Memory Reconsolidation by Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic & Laurel Hulley (Routledge, 2012). All other publications are indicated in the list of references below the symptom index. Symptom Publication Chapter / Page Numbers Agoraphobia with delusion Ecker & Hulley, 1996 28—39 Alcoholism Martignetti, 2012 (UEB) Ch. 8, 168—180 Anger/rage Ecker, 2018 See citation (Section 7.1) Ecker, Ticic & Hulley, 2013a See citation UEB Ch. 5, 98—100, Raoul Vaz & Ecker, 2020 See citation Neimeyer, 2009 91—95 Ecker & Hulley, 1996 186—194 Anxiety Ecker & Hulley, 2000b 63—89 Ecker, 2003 See citation UEB Ch. 3, 43-61, Richard Anxiety, social UEB Ch. 5, 110—119, Regina Ecker, Ticic & Hulley, 2013a See citation Ecker, Ticic & Hulley, 2013b See citation 1 Symptom Publication Chapter / Page Numbers Attachment insecurity merging, obsession……………..…. UEB Ch. 4, 71–77, Charlotte Ecker & Hulley, 1996 167—170, 211—214 avoidance of intimacy……….……. UEB Ch. 5, 106—109, Travis unable to leave parent’s home.. Sibson & Ticic, 2014 See citation negative attention…………………… Ecker & Hulley, 2008a See citation [terror of mother's rage]…….….
    [Show full text]
  • The Neuropsychotherapist
    the neuropsychotherapist issue #10 january 2015 neuropsychotherapist.com From the Editor ow often can we say therapy has been a categorical success? Matthew Dahlitz Welcome to our special issue on memory reconsolidation (MR)—a Editor in Chief foundational process with the potential, if properly understood, to consistently bring about the kind of transformational change that we look for in the lives of clients. Graciously coediting this Hissue is Bruce Ecker, one of the foremost experts in applying techniques that fulfil the neurobiological requirements to achieve MR in clinical practice. In fact all of the authors in this issue are experts in their respective fields, demonstrating the unifying nature of MR in such diverse therapies as the Alexander technique, energy psychology, neuro-linguistic programming, and progressive counting. Understanding the biological basis of our memory and how it can be modified is the key to effective therapeutic change, especially when emotional memories are driv- ing unwanted symptoms. In publishing this issue I would like to acknowledge Bruce Ecker for his decades of study, observation, and subsequent articulation of what is behind our clients’ pathology—or rather, their adaptive schemata that are no longer so adaptive—and what we, as therapists, can do about it in a definitive way. Bruce’s coherence therapy, co-developed with Laurel Hulley, is a game changer for therapists and clients every- where, and I hope this issue will inspire you to discover more about the power of memory reconsolidation for your
    [Show full text]
  • IFS New Horizons
    New Horizons for IFS www.selfleadership.org Friday–Saturday, November 9–10, 2018 Preconference Institute Thursday, November 8, 2018 Omni Providence Hotel, Providence, RI 2 Welcome! If you’ve been coming to the annual IFS Conference for the past three years, you have participated in our efforts to showcase initiatives that take IFS out of the office and apply it to issues of cultural diversity, diversity within our own community, and social activism. This year we want to celebrate and explore many of the new areas into which IFS is spreading. I am amazed and overwhelmed with gratitude for the enormous growth of IFS and the demand for IFS trainings and other content. This explosion in demand is true of IFS both within and outside of psychotherapy. At CSL, we’re working diligently to stay apace with the demand that accompanies this “good problem,” and we’re expanding our administrative and training staff in order to meet that demand going forward. I feel humbled as I reflect on IFS’s history up till now and excited beyond words as I imagine the future of the IFS Model and this community. With this increased popularity of the Model have come initiatives from people who are taking IFS into new territory. In the first plenary, for example, you will learn about different groups that are bringing IFS to the field of education in innovative ways, both in teaching it to teachers and introducing it to students. In the second plenary, I will report on my experiences using IFS with schizophrenia and, with David Medeiros, will present a video of my work with a client that illustrates the power of IFS with this population.
    [Show full text]
  • Handout of Slides
    The Key to Therapeutic Breakthroughs: Unlocking the Emotional Brain Bruce Ecker, MA, LMFT & Sara K. Bridges, PhD Two Kinds of Change Counteractive, Transformational, incremental liberating, profound change change Partial symptom Total elimination reduction of symptom Effort to maintain Effortless to maintain Relapses occur Permanent, no relapses COHERENCE PSYCHOLOGY INSTITUTE Memory Reconsolidation The Brain’s Built-In Process of Transformational Change • Identified independently by clinicians and neuroscientists • Brain’s process for erasing an existing piece of emotional learning • Sheds light on diverse theories of therapy COHERENCE PSYCHOLOGY INSTITUTE Overview of Workshop MORNING • Main concepts • Steps of core process • Session video • Specific techniques AFTERNOON • Live session • Practice sessions (small groups) COHERENCE PSYCHOLOGY INSTITUTE Psychotherapy Networker Symposium www.CoherenceInstitute.org March 23, 2013 © 2013 Coherence Psychology Institute, LLC The Key to Therapeutic Breakthroughs: Unlocking the Emotional Brain Bruce Ecker, MA, LMFT & Sara K. Bridges, PhD Learning Objectives • Discuss three techniques for ushering clients into direct, lucid experience of the implicit emotional learnings generating a majority of clinical symptoms. • List the steps of therapeutic process that can dissolve an existing, symptom-generating emotional schema. • Define the special type of experience that fulfills the brain’s requirements for memory reconsolidation. See handout slides marked: Learning COHERENCE PSYCHOLOGY ObjectiveINSTITUTE Convergence of clinical observations and memory research 1995 2004 2012 Memory reconsolidation COHERENCE PSYCHOLOGY INSTITUTE Emotional Learnings ♦ Anything learned in the presence of strong emotion ♦ Nonverbal, implicit knowing verbal, explicit knowing • If I show any vulnerability I'll be attacked. • The only way to get any attention is to do something really bad. • If I try for what I really want, the world will crush it, so I better not try for or even feel what I really want.
    [Show full text]
  • A Primer on Memory Reconsolidation and Its Psychotherapeutic Use As a Core Process of Profound Change
    A Primer on Memory Reconsolidation and its psychotherapeutic use as a core process of profound change by Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic and Laurel Hulley Adapted for The Neuropsychotherapist from Unlocking the Emotional Brain: E Eliminating Symptoms at Their Roots Using Memory Reconsolidation by Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic and Laurel Hulley Routledge, 2012 82 The Neuropsychotherapist issue 1 April-June 2013 ktsdesign/Bigstock.com motional learnings underlie and and their clients, yet this extraordinary du- drive the vast majority of un- rability appears to be a survival-positive re- wanted behaviors, emotions, sult of natural selection, which crafted the thoughts and somatization ad- brain such that any learning that occurs in dressed in psychotherapy. For the presence of strong emotion—such as example, consider a man in his core beliefs, constructs and coping tactics Eearly 40s suffering from pervasive social formed in the midst of childhood suffer- anxiety, who seeks relief in therapy. He is ing—becomes locked into subcortical im- guided by the therapist to bring attention plicit memory circuits by special synapses into what he is actually experiencing emo- (see for example LeDoux, Romanski & Xag- tionally and somatically when among peo- oraris, 1989; McGaugh, 1989; McGaugh & ple, and for the first time in his life he be- Roozendaal, 2002; Roozendaal, McEwen, & comes explicitly aware of expecting harsh Chattarji, 2009). rejection from others if he were to “say or And it appeared that natural selection do anything wrong.” This previously non- had not created a key for that synaptic lock. conscious but fear-generating expectation After more than 60 years of research on the had wordlessly defined the world of people extinction of acquired responses in animals for as long as he could remember.
    [Show full text]
  • Clinical Note
    Coherence Therapy Note #6 (v1.1) Topic: Overview of Coherence Therapy Clinical and Its Use of Memory Reconsolidation Note Author: Bruce Ecker & Laurel Hulley This Clinical Note describes Coherence Therapy’s main concepts and methodology, including how the methodology fulfills the brain’s conditions for inducing memory reconsolida- tion—conditions that have been identified in extensive neuroscience research. For more complete accounts and illustrative case examples, see the list of further readings at the end of this Note. Footnotes refer to writings in that list. Coherence Therapy is a focused, experiential, non-pathologizing methodology for dispelling clients’ symptoms at their emotional roots, often in a relatively small number of sessions. Producing transformational change with unprecedented accuracy and consistency is what Coherence Therapy contributes to clinical practice. The steps of Coherence Therapy carry out the process of memory reconsolidation identified by brain researchers. The memory reconsolidation process shows us exactly what gives new therapeutic experiences the potency to actually replace and erase entrenched, unwanted behaviors, beliefs, bodily tensions and states of mind that exist on the basis of earlier emotional learning or conditioning. According to current neuroscience, memory reconsolidation is the brain’s only natural mechanism capable of thoroughly unlearning and deleting a specific module of unwanted emotional learning. Coherence Therapy’s foundational principle, culled from extensive clinical observations, is symptom coherence, which maintains that most symptoms and problems exist because they are compellingly necessary to have according to implicit emotional learnings—core beliefs, attributed meanings, schemas, constructs, and mental models of the world, unique to each individual, that are outside of awareness.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond Common and Specific Factors
    Beyond Common and Specific Factors Memory Reconsolidation as a Transtheoretical Mechanism of Change and Unifying Framework in Psychotherapy Bruce Ecker, LMFT Alexandre Vaz, MA, PhD Candidate © 2019 COHERENCE PSYCHOLOGY INSTITUTE www.CoherenceInstitute.org Presented in Lisbon, Portugal, 8 June 2019 at the 35th Annual Conference of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) Outline of Workshop Alex: The Problem • Why therapy works: The (unsuccessful) search for mechanisms of change • Criteria for mechanism of change Bruce: The Proposed Solution • Two types of therapeutic change: Counteractive vs Transformational • Memory reconsolidation as mechanism of change • Memory reconsolidation as unification of psychotherapy • Memory reconsolidation as confirmation of the corrective experience paradigm Alex: The Next Steps • Memory reconsolidation and the common vs. specific factors debate • Research priorities COHERENCE PSYCHOLOGY INSTITUTE The most effective therapists produce up to 10x more clinically significant change… …and we don’t know why! Common vs. Specific Factors Wampold, B. E., & Imel, Z. E. (2015). The great psychotherapy debate: The evidence for what makes psychotherapy work. Routledge. Common vs. Specific Factors “There is no compelling evidence that the specific ingredients of any particular psychotherapy are critical to producing the benefits of psychotherapy.” (p. 253) Wampold, B. E., & Imel, Z. E. (2015). The great psychotherapy debate: The evidence for what makes psychotherapy work. Routledge. Beyond Common & Specific Factors “This controversy reflects an ‘either/or’ assumption that is conceptually flawed and empirically untenable” (p. 353) Why does therapy work? The most important (and elusive) psychotherapy research question The Search for Mechanisms of Change “Mechanism refers to ... the steps or processes through which therapy ..
    [Show full text]