Malcolm Ocean's roamblog

January 26th, 2022

edited 2022-01-26 · open in Roam
  • Coherence Coaching
    • functionless symptom
      • functionless byproduct symptom
        • the symptom inevitably follows from how the client solves some other problem
        • "I have no social life"
          • functional if eg fear of rejection, social fears etc
          • functionless if eg person is workaholic and that's the functional symptom
        • person who really hates being overweight
          • functional if it's necessary to be overweight, eg to avoid harassment
          • functionless if they use food to self-regulate anxiety and it's eating that's the functional symptom
      • functionless helpless symptom
        • client feels helplessly vulnerable as a result of trauma and has the expectation of ongoing helplessness
        • El > when someone has a flashback, this isn't really a byproduct of a solution
          • (I'm not actually sure of this! it's not a good solution but afaiu the flashback is some attempt to make sense of the traumatic situation or apply its insights to the current situation dream-mashup-wise)
    • Two-step
      • a discovery technique for functionless byproduct symptoms
        • (or if you're not getting anywhere)
      • step 1: what shift would you have to make so that [the symptom] would stop? what would have to change in your perspective, attitude, behavior?
      • step 2: (symptom deprivation)
        • imagine making that shift... what do you notice?
        • (how is it important not to make that shift?)
      • very relevant for Goal-Crafting Intensive I think
      • "what would have to change for you to be able to do that?"
      • M > is there a reason not to start with this approach, in some situations?
        • El > if someone comes with a functional symptom... it can sound like "Why aren't you making that change?" - slightly counteractive
        • normally in coherence work we avoid the conditional
          • because it keeps people separate from the experiential discovery work
        • Eric > prime example might be someone's sleep schedule
          • S > tho maybe they have nightmares
          • (I feel like this could be assessed with a pretty quick question like "do you like sleeping when you do sleep?" or "if you had the ability to step out of time to sleep?")
            • El > imaginal exercises are great, yeah
            • difference between sort of cognitive conditional vs experiential imaginal
          • (I'm so excited to run a CFAR-like workshop but with coherence-based tools!)
    • Who else?
      • For Deepening Discovery
      • After overt statement of an emotional truth to a relevant party
      • Is there anyone else you‘d like to say that to?
      • Who else comes to mind when you say that?
      • Visualize those people and use the overt statement again
      • (very similar to "what was the earliest time when you felt this way?")
    • Cycling
      • An Integration Technique
      • Client repeatedly experiences a scene, alternating between having the symptom and not having the symptom
      • Powerful opportunity for client to notice her/his agency in creating the symptom for a purpose (“pivot into agency“)
      • Can have multiple versions of each
        • suppose you didn't have this concern so you did X
        • but you do have this concern, so suppose you don't do X
        • but also what if you pushed yourself to do X anyway?
    • meta-level constructs
      • hearing what's underneath what people are telling you
      • eg someone says
        • "I have to punish my mother for this or that because otherwise she'll think she got away with how she treated me"
          • there are meta-level constructs underneath that that the person isn't at all aware of, like "it is possible to show my mother that she did something wrong"
          • punishing is an effective way to effect some kind of change
      • Er > how to bring this up?
        • El > not quickly, not early on
          • delicately, with empathetic overt statements
            • [I think I'm hearing a construct here...]
            • "if your mother gets away with that..."
              • "yeah, it would really feel as if there's no justice in the world"
              • "hm. and... there is justice in the world... interesting"
            • "hm, yeah, and punishment is a way of convincing a person"
              • "yeah, and if you punish someone, they'll change"
              • "yeah, and if you don't punish someone, they won't change"
            • trying to uncover what the person really believes
          • El > you have to do it in a way where there's not an inkling coming through of "that's ridiculous"
    • Stance of Coherence Coaching:
      • Process directive/active intentionality
        • never directed about content
        • but always very directive about process
        • we always know where in the process we are
        • we have the intention with every session to move forward with discovery, integration, and/or transformation
          • by contrast with talk therapies where people can talk for years
      • Freedom to clarify
        • at any time, it's out right and our job to ask eg "you're using the phrase get with him... can you tell me more about what that means to you, to get with somebody?"
      • Phenomenological/anthropologist's view
        • curious... wanting to know what happens
        • knowing as anthropologists that we don't know anything
        • we're discovering with the client
      • Powerlessness
        • we don't change anything
        • we don't make any decisions for the client
        • nothing is up to us
          • (except how we're navigating through the process)