Redecision Therapy

The Neuentscheidungstherapie (ger .: Redecision Therapy ) is a form of psychotherapy that of Mary McClure Goulding and Bob Goulding (1918-1992) in the early 1960s -Jahren based on transactional analysis , including Gestalt therapy techniques was developed. It is now considered one of the main branches of transactional analysis.

Basics

Decision-making therapy is an effective short-term procedure in which the focus is on behavior, cognitive thinking, and emotions. Coming from Eric Berne's transactional analysis school , Mary McClure Goulding and her husband Robert L. Goulding recognized the great potential in a combination of this therapeutic approach with gestalt therapeutic techniques that they had learned as a student of Fritz Perls . The clearly structured theoretical framework, which can also be understood by clients without special prior knowledge, comes from transaction analysis : One of the best-known theoretical assumptions of transaction analysis, and thus also of redecision therapy, is the so-called structural analysis of consciousness . This theory assumes that the human psychological apparatus can be better understood if it is presented as being divided into three areas: parent self (rules, values), adult self (problem solving) and childhood self (needs, emotions) . The effective connection to the emotions is made possible by gestalt therapy techniques (e.g. role plays such as the empty chair ).

The treatment process

contracts

The contract is at the beginning of the treatment process . This form of therapy thus moves closer to behavioral approaches. The contract is aimed at the rational thinking of the client and is used to clearly and simply formulated (oral) determination of where the client would like to change through the therapy: z. B. "I will not allow myself to kill myself, no matter what other people or myself do or no matter what happens." This makes it explicitly clear that the client is given the power to determine his own thoughts and feelings. During the whole process, the therapist pays attention to subtle indications to give up responsibility and thus energy, for example in the client's choice of words e.g. B. “This situation made me very sad.” Or “Today I had such strong suicidal thoughts again.” (A situation doesn't make you sad, you make yourself sad. Thoughts of suicide don't come, you cause them yourself.)

Engravings or negative messages

At the center of the treatment concept is the thought that every person made basic assumptions ( insults or negative messages ) about themselves or about the relationship between themselves and the environment in early childhood , which enabled successful strategies for action in the child's life situation. In the sense of the transaction-analytical script concept (unconscious life plan), this corresponds to a decision on a restrictive script to submit to actual or supposed parental destructive basic messages. These basic assumptions also serve as essential templates for thinking, perceiving and acting in later life, when they are generalized and unconsciously applied in many situations. This restricts people's real scope for action.

Some examples:

“Don't be important:” In this child's family, smooth coexistence was only possible if the child did not take its own needs seriously or did not notice them at all. Later on, such a person will possibly take up a helping job in order to feel their own worth.

“Don't feel:” In this child's family, feelings were perhaps an unnecessary luxury or expressions of feeling (joy, fear, ...) were reacted very negatively. Such a person will later find it difficult to show or even perceive their own feelings.

"Don't be an adult:" Children who have not learned to take responsibility for themselves. Perhaps because their parents were overprotective because of a serious chronic illness in the child or for other reasons. Later, such people often look for overprotective partners or sometimes become dependent on institutions (psychiatry, prison, ...)

“Don't think:” Often a client's family with this inculcation created a chaotic atmosphere, or the articulation of their own thoughts was rejected or punished, or the child was constantly told that it was a fool and that his or her thoughts were useless . Such people later have little confidence in their own mental abilities.

"Don't be close."

"I can not make it."

Permission, practice, new decision

It is crucial for therapy to track down these negative messages in detail and to make them tangible again for the client in the context of an emotional experience. Finally, the client gives himself permission to no longer follow this flawed basic assumption in the future. This permission is formulated as a short, memorable sentence by the client himself and will serve as a guiding principle for the following long phase of the exercise , in which situations are sought out in everyday life with the help of the therapist where the prepared indications come into play. At the same time, the new patterns of action and evaluation are practiced. The process ends with a new decision : The client has made the experience that he can do without his old, restrictive thought and action patterns.

Driver

In addition, the concept of drivers should be mentioned: Drivers are typical (and usually very noticeable) patterns of action of the client, which the client has created in order to survive despite his existing inculcations . However, these are solutions that are to be understood more in the sense of "defect healing" and must fail. In terms of Berne's script concept, it is a so-called counter - script .

Some examples:

“Be perfect!” A person who has the feeling that they always have to do everything perfectly right or have to be the best. The resolution of perfection is often unattainable, and the resolution to be the best can lead to extreme stress and frequent conflicts.

"Do it all right!" A person who has the feeling that he always has to please everyone else or have to please. The consideration of one's own needs is often lost, which can lead to extreme stress or self-denial and rejection.

“Make an effort !” A person who has the feeling of always being exerted and trying or having to work. The lightness of being and the joy of living and working are often lost, which can lead to permanent stress or exhaustion and self-exploitation.

"Be strong!" A person who has the feeling that he always has to be strong, self-confident and self-sufficient. Often the ability to accept help or to admit weaknesses to oneself and to others is lost, which can lead to loneliness, social conflicts, exhaustion and self-exploitation.

"Make it quick!" A person who has the feeling that they always have to do everything quickly or have to act quickly. This can lead to superficial action, rash actions and decisions, or poor work results.

Roleplay with the empty chair

Adults who choose to no longer live their lives under the constraints of destructive behaviors are often unsuccessful. On the basis of this experience, M. and R. Goulding have developed a technique from elements of gestalt therapy in order to make the early childhood script decision understandable and tangible:

Clients are led back into a scene of their early childhood in the form of a role play, in which they switch from their own seat to the empty chair and lead a dialogue between themselves and an imagined parental figure (mostly mother or father). However, since the patient is no longer in the situation of the small child, with his limited opportunities to recognize reality, or lack of life experience and real (total) dependence on the attention of his parents, he can now, as an adult, in the featured scene permission give to act differently ( A corrective emotional experience ).

swell

• Mary McClure Goulding, Robert Goulding: Redecision. A model of psychotherapy . Publisher: Klett-Cotta / JG Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachhaben; 7th edition (1999) ISBN 3608954368 (Original English title: Changing lives through redecision therapy ( ISBN 0394179803 ))
• Lennox, Carolyn E: Redecision Therapy: A Brief, Action-Oriented Approach: A Brief, Action-oriented Approach ( ISBN 0765700433 )
• Leonhard Schlegel: Concise dictionary of transaction analysis. All terms of TA explained in a practical way. 2nd edition 2002; Page 205f