Coherence Therapy
Introduction
Coherence Therapy, originally called Depth
Oriented Brief Therapy (DOBT), is a form of psychotherapy used to treat
patients with emotional symptoms. Unlike Cognitive Therapy, Coherence Therapy
delves into the core of the patient to locate the deeper meaning or feeling
which is causing which is causing them emotional distress. This basically
allows therapists to come up with breakthroughs with their patients on a
regular basis. This form of therapy was developed in the 1990s by
psychotherapists Bruce Ecker and Laurel Hulley, and while it has only been
around for about twenty years, it is considered a well-respected therapy. The
idea behind Coherence Therapy is that thoughts, behaviors, and moods are formed
by the patient on the basis of his or her reality of the world, and that
getting to the root of the problem is the best and fastest way to alleviate it.
The process of this therapy is experiential rather than analytical.
Goals of Coherence Therapy
Coherence Therapy reaches deep into the
client’s hidden center meaning behind the emotional feelings to find the one
unconscious idea that was put into the client’s head at an early age. It is
similar to digging deep into the earth until you find what it is you buried
down there so long ago. In fact, for many years depth has been seen as the most
efficient way to attain results in psychotherapy. By discovering the base
belief for the patient’s symptoms, the therapist can now change that belief for
the client using certain strategies and techniques. The ultimate goal is for
the patient to recognize that their symptoms are simply the ways in which he or
she tries to either self-affirm or self-protect in his or her daily life. In a
way, it is almost like a form of enlightenment, which is similar to Cognitive
Therapy as well.
Coherence Therapy benefits the patient by being
able to erase a myriad of types of learning and memory such as those of trauma
or fear.
When is Coherence Therapy Used?
Coherence Therapy has successfully stopped
agoraphobia, attachment issues, alcoholism, attention deficit, anxiety,
bereavement issues, compulsive behavior, codependency, depression, eating
problems, low self-esteem, intimacy avoidance, procrastination, rage reactions,
underachievement, interpersonal problems, and more. The word disorder is not
used because the idea behind this therapy is that people’s symptoms are simply
expressions instead of personality disorders of some kind. Not only does
Coherence Therapy alleviate the symptoms listed above, it also alleviates the
emotional scars and patterns which accompany them. Coherence Therapy may also
be beneficial for those with osteoporosis. The results from Coherence Therapy
have been proven to be both powerful and permanent.
How Coherence Therapy Works
Like Cognitive Therapy, Coherence Therapy only
takes a number of sessions before results are seen. From the very first day,
the patient is encouraged by the therapist to attempt to disprove their
emotional beliefs by using their own resources at hand. It is similar to the
Cognitive Therapy treatment in that the therapist is teaching the patient as a
teacher would a student, hence the quick session time. The therapist will be
able to differentiate between the patient’s necessary and negative symptoms,
deciding which are crucial functions and which are an affect of a separate
coherent response. These are known as the functional and functionless symptoms.
For example, when depression protects us from
expressing anger or other feelings, that is a crucial function and is therefore
a functional symptom. However, when depression stems from isolation (a strategy
in and of itself that makes us feel safe), that function is an affect of a
separate coherent response and is therefore not necessary, but functionless.
The therapist and patient work together though the patient’s symptoms to
identify which of these are functional and which are functionless until the
patient is able to complete this on his or her own.
As a means of replacing the patient’s
underlying idea with something more positive, the therapist must create an
experience that differs from the one the patient remembers. By repeating this
contradicting experience a few times, it eventually unlearns what was actually
experienced. This is known as a “juxtaposition experience”. The patient, of course,
can eventually learn how to do this independently.
Criticisms of Coherence Therapy
Unfortunately there is a chance of something
called resistance to schema dissolution happening. This is where the patient
cannot get schema (the core idea underlying his or her symptoms) to be replaced
with something positive due to a resistance. This can occur for more tricky
instances, or after feeling desensitized to treatment, thus proving that
coherence therapy is not always 100% effective.
References
Depth-oriented brief therapy: How to be brief
when you were trained to be deep—and vice versa. Jossey-Bass social and
behavioral science series.
Ecker, Bruce; Hulley, Laurel San Francisco, CA, US: Jossey-Bass. (1996). xii
288 pp.
Constructions of disorder: Meaning-making
frameworks for psychotherapy.Neimeyer, Robert A. (Ed); Raskin, Jonathan D.
(Ed)
Washington, DC, US: American Psychological
Association. (2000). xiii 373 pp. doi:10.1037/10368-000
Toward a Cure for Osteoporosis: Reversal of
Excessive Bone Fragility.Turner, C. H.
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