Glossary for Psych Innovations Site

This glossary uses links within the document to help you read connected ideas. It also offers links out to articles that go into more depth. Please contact us if you wish to offer any related additions or corrections.

Anchor, Anchoring

In NLP conditionsthe client's response to a stimulus, calling this anchoring. Applying the anchor is intended to trigger the state or response that is desired. This could assist a client in eliciting more confidence in a social situation, better performance in sports, or states for any number of purposes. See triggers.

Behaviorism, Behavior Therapy

Behaviorism is the science of behavior, and emphasizes the way behavior can be trained (or in behavioral terms, shaped or conditioned through repeated circumstances or stimuli. The procedures for increasing or decreasing a behavior, or for making it occur under specific circumstances is part of the science. Operant and classical conditioning theory describes this.

Behavioristic principles are used in compassionate ways in many areas of daily life, and provide understanding that can be applied to personal efforts to improve performance or break habits. An obvious example is that behavior can be increased or "reinforced" through desirable stimuli (reinforcers or rewards), or reduced (extinguished) through negative or punishing (aversive) stimuli.

Since our instinctive responses to stimuli may be inappropriate to today's world, behavior principles and practices are used to help people respond in healthier ways. For example, the activation of the fight or flight state (sympathetic nervous system arousal) in response to a deadline may produce a reduction in aspects of performance, and is useless unless the deadline requires intense physical performance. Sustained stress responding may negatively impact health, yet some of the stimuli that trigger stress are everyday circumstances that our bodies interpret as a threat that requires a fight or flight state.

Cognitive Restructuring

The development of functional cognitions in place of dysfunctional ones. Cognitive restructuring may involve assisting the client in verbalizing feelings, defenses and motives which influence the client's behavior subconsciously. Once these are translated into words, the client is helped to create preferred cognitions and learn to act on them. This process may occur at a deep level involving changes in physical patterns when it is enhanced by body mind processes, particularly EMDR.

In EMDR, the term cognitive interweave refers to a system for helping the client achieve cognitive restructuring. It is influenced by the way the client may move back and forth between reprocessing difficult material and doing cognitive work, particularly on self-concept related to trauma or abuse. It specifies ways the therapist can assist with normalizing such cognitions.

Conditioning, Conditioned, Conditioned Response

In behaviorism, conditioning refers to developing a predictable response to a stimulus, such as the famous "Pavlov's dog" experiment in which a dog salivated at the ring of a bell because this sound occurred when food was served to the dog. The result is a conditioned response. See triggers for ways this is useful in psychotherapy.

EMDR

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. A procedure developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. known for surprisingly rapid resolution of symptoms of psychological trauma. While EMDR in treating trauma symptoms is highly researched compared to other modalities, clinicians have been impressed with its utility in treating chemical dependence, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, blocks to high performance, and other problems.

Energy

For the purpose of this site, energy is defined as a subjective experience that clients readily identify as energy. This can include sensations of tingling, flow, or vibration. Energy work which draws upon Asian concepts such as meridians and balance often allows clients to gain more mastery over states that expedite the achievement of psychotherapy goals. Energy work can be a valuable modality in "re-owning" one's body when body awareness has been limited through adaptation to psychological abuse or trauma.

Those who are skeptical of claims regarding energy should still be intrigued by the widespread reports of energy psychotherapy methods' effectiveness. Increasing interest in the methods is leading to more interest from researchers. This may help tease out the active ingredients of such methods and spur progress in psychotherapy integration and innovation.

Whether they are compelling because they call upon the subjective effects of the nervous system, because they are metaphors that help direct our experience and physical regulation, or because they influence "subtle energy", these methods have been receiving strong praise for many years.

On a personal note, I find that clients readily use energy methods in conjunction with deep relaxation and visualization. This regularly leads to improvements. A dramatic example is at the end of the State Alignment: A Useful Perspective in Psychotherapy article.

I use methods derived from Chinese medicine, chi-kung, Taoist yogic practices brought to the west by Mantak Chia, as well as neo-Reichian concepts. I encourage therapists to adapt these methods into psychotherapy for their pragmatic value. Persons practicing methods such as chi kung report that their health is enhanced in various ways, and that such methods can be a vehicle for spiritual development.

There are many methods that employ energy psychology. To the best of my knowledge, the first was TFT (thought field therapy), if you don't count earlier Western and Eastern methods that did not have all the ingredients of typical energy psychology methods of today.

Fractionated Abreaction

Cathy Fine coined this term to describe ways to help client work through difficult material. It involves controlling the degree of exposure to the material (usually traumatic memories) using hypnosis. This reduces the intensity of the client's reaction to a tolerable level so that therapy can proceed without retraumatizing the client.

Framing

The way a situation, behavior or problem is defined may be referred to as framing. The term is used to indicate a conscious and strategic effort to define the problem in a way that makes it easier to find a solution or gain perspective. In time-effective therapy as defined by Simon Budman, the framing of the problem may be to allow acceptance by the client of goals which can be achieved in a short time, and which will allow the client to get to a new level of functioning.

Motivational Counseling

An approach inspired by effective work with substance abuse. Motivation to act for change is seen as a process involving phases of motivation. Treatment is keyed to the client's motivational phase. The purpose of motivational counseling is to assist the client in moving to the next, more functional, phase of motivation, and to use it in making improvements. Special care is taken to elicit the client's latent motivations and to avoid triggering resistance. Numerous techniques are specified for accomplishing this.

Neo-Reichian Psychotherapy

Therapy approaches inspired by the work of Wilhelm Reich. For example, the system developed by Jack Rosenberg, Ph.D., is called body integrative psychotherapy. Reich emphasized the physical aspect of therapy. Most notable is the importance placed on the physical manifestation of psychological defenses in the form of patterned, chronic muscle tension (body armor), which can be released as an aspect of psychotherapy. Somatic psychotherapies owe at least some of their existence to Reich. The early ideas about the value of emotional catharsis and flowing energy have given way to more sophisticated methods and understanding. The psychiatrist who developed the DSMIII felt he benefited from Reichian therapy, though he became critical of Reich's belief in subtle energy (Reich called it orgone).

Positive State

See also " State." A collection of feelings or a state of mind that is conducive to relaxation, resourceful thinking, or breaking a negative pattern. A negative state such as unconstructive anger or depressed thinking cannot coexist in a person who develops a positive state. This state has value in psychotherapy guided by the thinking in the State Alignment: A Useful Perspective in Psychotherapy article.

In psychotherapy, the positive physical state may be important in providing an alternative state from which the client is better able to act or feel in accordance with therapeutic goals. A failing of psychotherapy is often the lack of awareness and skill in ensuring that the states elicited during therapy are the most advantageous and are well-timed. There is more on this in the Levels of Consciousness in Psychotherapy article.

An inappropriate state makes it difficult for the client to feel, think, or act appropriately. For example, self talk recommended in therapy often fails because of the rapid escalation in the sympathetic nervous system response (fight or flight, adrenaline, etc.) elicited by exposure to a situation such as behavior in the spouse that is part of conflictual interactional patterns.

State is a term in common usage. For example, "He wasn't in a good state of mind," or "She was in such a state!" show an intuitive understanding of the way attitude, emotion, physical arousal and other factors combine to create an overall state. I use the term "state management" in reference to the conscious use of states and their triggers to improve performance or psychotherapy outcomes.

Release

Relaxation of muscles which have been chronically tense as part of a pattern of psychological defense. Release of such tension is often associated with heightened affect or actual catharsis. Neo-Reichian therapy specifies methods for achieving such releases as part of psychotherapy. Neo-Reichian methods can be integrated in subtle ways into therapy that is not billed as body-integrative therapy, and without inducing unnecessary catharsis that may retraumatize the client. Release of tension is an important aspect of state management (see state) either through methods that directly help release tension, direct suggestions to guide the client, or as a side effect of relaxation, reframing or other methods.

Reprocessing

For the purposes of this site and related training, reprocessing is seen as a natural process which allows the body mind to solve biological problems including absorbing psychological trauma. EMDR emphasizes reprocessing from a somatic and cognitive perspective. Cognitive therapy has used the term to describe the development of more effective ways of thinking. I believe advances in therapy and in understanding of psychobiology provide good reason to expand the definition to include a more naturalistic view that incorporates the innate capacity of our bodies to resolve psychological problems and chronic dysfunctional reactions.

I think the biological aspect of reprocessing is a key element in progress in the field of psychotherapy, and this is involving integration of somatic and cognitive therapy knowledge and practice.

Sensory Recruitment

Sensory recruitment means engaging the senses more fully. This may mean more fully experiencing a physical sensation, image or other sense modality. It may also involve representing something in more than one sense modality. For example, in working with pain, the sensation of pain may dissipate when the client experiences the pain as an image with all the properties of a visible object or force field. In this example, pain was experienced as a sensation and as an image.

I believe that sensory recruitment is of value in targeting and various psychotherapy processes, because it is a way to elicit more mental resources, including subconscious ones. In interactive guided imagery, clients who focus on an image that represents a problem may actually see the image change in a manner they do not consciously cause. This indicates that subconscious mental resources are at work on the problem and reprocessing it in a way that can be interpreted through the metaphoric significance of the change in the image.

In order to recruit more mental resources through any means, including sensory recruitment, it is often necessary to relax psychological defenses through reprocessing methods or relaxation.

State

All aspects of a person's being at a given time, including emotional, cognitive, and biochemical. Various terms in this glossary will assist the reader in understanding the importance of attention to state in psychotherapy.

States tend to be like gears for an automobile. People tend not to be in between states. Rather, their various aspects coalesce into a given state. State dependent learning and memory theory tells us that one's state tends to call forth a particular state of mind or attitude, as well as to direct many aspects of physical functioning. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, it is theorized that it has been necessary for survival to rapidly align all aspects of mental and physical functioning in order to respond to changing conditions and to perform well and important tasks.

The capacity of primitive areas of the brain to create changes in state create an opportunity in psychotherapy. By using visualization, mental rehearsal and various other mental processes that do not rely on higher mental functions, it is possible to create changes in state that are useful in various ways. This is somewhat like trying to communicate with an animal, because words by themselves appeal to higher cortical functions and only indirectly lead to state change.

The State Alignment: A Useful Perspective in Psychotherapy article has more on this subject.

I'm told that a student is likely to score better if he or she spends time in the room where they studied the course material. This is probably because states are associated with triggers in order to function and be relevant to appropriate situations. Since the ease of retrieval of a set of memories (their proximity to consciousness associated with action) is part of the "student" state, the student scores better when the appropriate "student" state is triggered by the environment associated with the course material.

This thinking helps the therapist understand why a traumatized person may go into a panic (or other dysfunctional) state when stimuli the client is unconscious of triggers the state. Memories become more proximal to consciousness associated with action (and traumatic memories are probably stored poorly, anyway--this is a key part of theory on why EMDR works) but without becoming conscious. The person may react physically or behaviorally without the reason being clear. Just the proximity of the memories led the person close enough to a given state, that they coalesced into that state. It was the one that had the most "pull" at the time.

It is as if the body is always ready to choose a state based on available stimuli or internal processes. This may be an important reason why cognitive restructuring is helpful along with body psychology methods.The body is eager to choose appropriately, but must somehow have the stimulus and the desired response symbolically linked.Hence methods such as mental rehearsal are used.

I think the effectiveness of methods such as EMDR and energy psychotherapy methods rely in part upon well-time state shifting that yields a kind of body learning, that it, the client's body gains a more functional option when exposed to triggers that previously resulted in dysfunctional behavior such as unnecessary panic or anger.

Target, Targeting

To target is to focus attention on a feeling, memory, issue, thought or other object of attention. The target is that upon which attention is fixed.

Targeting is an important aspect of reprocessing in various somatic and imaginal methods. EMDR and energy psychotherapies use targeting as a key element in their protocols. In EMDR, targeting is typically a memory and the feeling that the memory elicits. Changes in the target, such as the intensity of a feeling, often indicate that reprocessing is taking place.

Transpersonal

Phenomena that appear to be spiritual or psychic. Transpersonal psychotherapy is intended to be sensitive to these dynamics and their implications for our values and behavior and well as their role as resources for growth. It may also attempt to use spiritual dynamics or abilities to enhance therapy.

A therapist who is sensitive to spiritual or transpersonal matters will be understanding when a client discloses spiritual experiences, and will help the client put them into perspective. This is usually done in a manner that is in harmony with the client's belief system. There are ethical issues when the therapists imposes a belief system.

Triggers, Triggering

A situation which elicits a state in a person is a trigger. While this could mean anything, in psychotherapy, it generally applies to one of two things. Most commonly, a situation (such as encountering a place, a person, a behavior, etc.) to which the person reacts in a disturbed or dysfunctional way. Helping persons with domestic violence learn to identify triggers and establish alternate constructive behavioral responses is an example of work with triggers. reprocessing is a valuable element of relieving a client of triggered behavior.