The CBT Process has Structure

"The Language of Recovery", (Drug Court Treatment: The Verdict, p.95) points out the importance of using syntax and our five senses in the counseling or therapy field.  (Beck and Adler) What would C. Rogers say?

People use drugs because of the expectation of feeling different? I want to be up, down, just different. I just don't like how I feel now! I want to feel better!

 Remember the Gold Medal Winner athlete (last post) as he developed his map or strategy for winning? First, he saw 'the image' and then his senses took over.  Moving the distance and location of the image had huge impact on the experience.

 Try this. Pick a sad, hurtful, scenario. A 5-6 level on a 1-10 scale: 1 is junk and 10 is great. Make a picture of it and see it - over there - in a disassociated state, 15 feet away. It's not as sensitive when we look at it over there, at a distance. Now - slowly - move it closer. Two feet closer. Four feet closer. It's right in front of you. What does that do to the negative feeling?

 If you're like most folks it probably made it worse. Desensitize by sliding it smoothly away - two feet, four, 10 feet more away. It’s smaller, dimmer and less sensitive as you zoom it away, out of sight. Ah! Better.

 Now, make a picture of a very happy event in your life. It’s about 15 feet away. Slowly move that image closer. Fourteen feet. Closer. Twelve feet. Closer, closer.

 Make it a little bigger, a little brighter, give it some HD. Add a bouncy, cheerful circus song. Does it feel better, the same or worse? If you're like most people you now feel even better about that picture. Associate into the great experience.

 J.S. Beck and A. Adler advocate(d) for the use of imagery in treatment. It's important to be able to help clients and patients learn to control how they feel, not the world or people around them. Helping clients learn they already have the strengths and resources within them (C. Rogers) to explore and resolve their issues is huge.

 Clients learn beliefs, thoughts, feelings and emotions have structure (VAK) and are a choice or optional. They can choose their beliefs, thoughts and feelings to get their outcomes without drugs? Hmm? "The beliefs of the therapist are as important as the beliefs of the client as they become self-fulfilling prophecies." (Miller and Rollnick, Motivational Interviewing, p.6, 2002).

 Could the five senses, especially visual, auditory and kinesthetic (see, hear and feel) be the strengths and resources that Rogers talked about? We all have them. They are easily explored, shared and manipulated. Change the feeling, change the behavior.

 Giving the clients new, more helpful choices in life can help them to make the changes that are possible now. Choice is better than no choice. Feelings and emotions are options; choices. 

 The CBT process has structure. It's VAK imagery variables that are the difference that make the difference.