One recipe I believe is helpful comes from a modality called Transactional Analysis (TA).
One of the precepts of TA is that each of our interactions (with ourselves or others) are made up of two parts:
- The stimulus
- The response
Our responses can be both productive and healthy and, they can also be devious, wasteful and unhealthy.
Effective therapy offers us the ability to safely reflect on our responses and with the increased awareness of them, we can mindfully re-frame them in ways which are currently relevant, productive and healthy.
One of the precepts of TA is that each of our interactions (with ourselves or others) are made up of two parts:
- The stimulus
- The response
Our responses can be both productive and healthy and, they can also be devious, wasteful and unhealthy.
Effective therapy offers us the ability to safely reflect on our responses and with the increased awareness of them, we can mindfully re-frame them in ways which are currently relevant, productive and healthy.
To do this, both the Therapist and the Client can benefit hugely by building a contract upon three pillars:
- Permission
- Protection
- Potency
Permission: The Therapist offers the Client permission to do things differently. You don’t have to keep offering the same devious, wasteful and unhealthy responses to the stimuli you experience.
This is done by safely inviting the Client to reflect upon their responses, the beliefs that gave rise to and sustain them. These responses were developed because at some point, they were deemed productive. They are not disparaged or devalued; it is simply their current relevancy that is being evaluated. Do they remain productive or could there be a range of alternate responses that would be more productive and healthier for the Client today?
It also gives the client permission to challenge the Therapist! These conversations can and often are most productive!
The Therapist also consistently reflects the Client’s innate ability to respond differently; their self-efficacy!
Protection: Protection means the Therapist and Client will work towards establishing and maintaining a safe space in which the Permission can be productively exercised. Responses are not judged as to how right or wrong they could be considered; their relevance to the client’s current situation and future aspirations are the criteria for reflection.
Potency: The purpose of the Client’s engagement with the Therapist is clearly understood and enshrined; the Client is considering and seeking opportunities to change their historic pattern of responses.
With both Permission and Protection comes Potency – the best opportunity to effect the change(s) that are the reasons for the therapy!
This includes acknowledging that this process can be challenging for both the Client and the Therapist! It realises that both may experience some distress and resistance as we journey through this therapeutic process; and any such distress or resistance can and will be reflected upon using the same criteria; their relevance to the Client’s current situation and future aspirations.
The process is thus both safe and effective for both (Client & Therapist), with both learning and growing throughout.
“Supporting you toward a better life”