Full Mental Jacket: Chapter 6: You are the Director.

When I was doing injury management work with people suffering from PTSD I could really see how an event they experience can affect someone in such a negative way, which is understandable. However, when it gets tricky is when you see how the memory of that event continues to have that effect on the person and as I previously mentioned, that thought pattern can be disastrous.

When I was doing counselling sessions with these individuals it was important to get them to acknowledge that what they initially experienced was something real, and that can’t change, but the way they “manage” that event now is not so real. I would get them thinking about the event as they remember it, but I would get them to think of the memory as a movie scene and they are the director, so they can make changes to it as they see fit.

The intent was to get those different neurons wiring and firing together and making small changes to the pattern of thoughts they have been stuck on. We then discuss what they could have done differently or better or maybe change the scenery a little or even include a different character. Basically, anything to change those neurons helps, and this is done by changing the focus, even getting them to put a funny spin on it, make changes to it as the director would. Why I hear you ask…..because they can. We can think our way out of these thought patterns.

Once we understand how this process works to get us into negative patterns of thought we can focus on the same process to get us into better patterns of thought. This is why habits or addictions like smoking are best beaten by replacing it with something else while someone tries to give up. It alters the persons focus from not having the cigarette and what thoughts that brings up, to focusing on something new, which does alter the wiring and firing of the initial reaction.

In the counselling sessions I would get them to “practice” being the Director and alter the memory of that event as many times as they could as homework between sessions. On top of that I would ask them to think about what they wanted at the end of the therapy. I get them to focus on a future state, which you would know from past instalments is a Blue Brain experience for them.

Getting them to practice the changing of the memory does a couple of things, it shows them they have more control over the memory and their own thoughts. It also shows them that it is actually themselves that is causing the issues they are experiencing. By starting with the end in mind, they also have a goal and as I said before it changes their focus. What you focus on is what you get more of. If they continued to focus on the memory of the event it would have continued to be an issue until they did something to break that wiring and firing of the same neurons every time they had that thought.

Previous instalments.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/full-mental-jacket-series-chapter-1-clint-adams/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/full-mental-jacket-chapter-2-brain-counselling-clint-adams/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/full-mental-jacket-chapter-3-creating-resilience-clint-adams/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/full-mental-jacket-chapter-4-inner-story-clint-adams/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/full-mental-jacket-chapter-5-creating-safety-clint-adams/