Transformational Chairwork Working with Fear and Developing Courage - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transformational Chairwork

Working with Fear and Developing Courage

Northern Tide ​ By Tim Wallace

Scott Kellogg, PhD

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Four Orienting Principles

• 1. Multiplicity of self – it is clinically useful to understand people as

containing different parts, modes, voices, or selves.

Four Orienting Principles

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• 1. Multiplicity of self – it is clinically useful to understand people as

containing different parts, modes, voices, or selves.

• 2. It is healing and transformative for people to give voice to these

different parts.

Four Orienting Principles

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• 1. Multiplicity of self – it is clinically useful to understand people as

containing different parts, modes, voices, or selves.

• 2. It is healing and transformative for people to give voice to these

different parts.

• 3. It is also healing and transformative for people to enact or re-enact

scenes from the past, the present, or the future

Four Orienting Principles

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• 1. Multiplicity of self – it is clinically useful to understand people as

containing different parts, modes, voices, or selves.

• 2. It is healing and transformative for people to give voice to these

different parts.

• 3. It is also healing and transformative for people to enact or re-enact

scenes from the past, the present, or the future

• 4. The ultimate goal of Chairwork is the strengthening of the Ego, the

Healthy Adult Mode, or the Inner Leader.

Four Orienting Principles

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History and Background

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Jacob Moreno, MD

Created the Chairwork Technique​

www.blatner.com/adam/pdirec/hist/stages.htm

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Frederick “Fritz” Perls, MD

Developed Chairwork into a ​ Psychotherapeutic Art Form

ttp://www.atpweb.org/grof/slideshow2/image-pages/pix.asp?cp=148&pp=1 Taken by Stanislav Grof, MD, PhD

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The Four Dialogues

Giving Voice Story Telling Internal Dialogues Relationships & Encounters

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Giving Voice

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“I would like to invite you to move to this chair and I would like you to speak from your heart and speak from your pain.”

Giving Voice

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• This approach might be considered

when patients say such things as:​

• “There is a deep grief within me.”​
• “I am feeling very agitated right

now.”​

• Gestalt Awareness and Voice

Dialogue

“I would like to invite you to move to this chair and I would like you to speak from your heart and speak from your pain.”

Giving Voice

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• Conceptualized by Arnold Beisser in 1970​
• “The way to change is to more deeply be yourself.​
• Giving voice is the heart of the work; nothing else is

needed.” (Kellogg, 2014, p. 172)​

• “The curious paradox is when I accept myself just as I

am, then I can change.” – Carl Rogers

The Paradoxical Theory of Change

Giving Voice

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“That was the day, the first time ever in my life, that I made a commitment to being alive. Not the first time I said I wanted to live, or dreamed about living; it was the first time I made a commitment, that I gave myself my word.”

• Meri Dana-Ama Danqhah

Willow Weep For Me

Existential Intentionality

Giving Voice

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Storytelling

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“At the heart of any therapeutic encounter there is always a story.”

Roberts & Holmes, 1999

Telling the story

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“I sense that holding this secret inside for so long has been a terrible burden. If you’re willing, I’d like you to move to this chair and tell me the story of what happened.”

Telling the story

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• This approach might be considered when the patient

says things like:​

• “There are stories within me that have never been

shared.”​

• “I told a few people about the accident when it
• ccurred, but I do not feel I ever really talked it

through.”

Telling the story

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Internal Dialogues

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“You seem to be of two minds about the project. I wonder if you would be willing to go to this chair and speak from the part that wants to go forward with it and then to this chair and speak from the part that is having second thoughts.”

Internal Dialogues

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This approach can be considered when patients say things like:​

• “I am of two minds about this situation.”​

Internal Dialogues

• “I have a deep fear of elevators. I am afraid that

I will be trapped in one and die there. ​

• “I have this voice in my head that

keeps telling me how bad I am.”

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The work with the Parts, Modes, or Selves will usually take one of three forms:​

• The Parts co-exist
• The Parts engage with each other​
• One Part witnesses the others

Internal Dialogues

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Relationships & Encounters

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“I sense that you are still very stuck – even though the relationship ended two years ago. I would like to work with this, if I may. I’d like you to imagine her sitting in this chair and I would like you to talk to her and tell her what you are feeling.”

Relationships & Encounters

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• This approach can be considered when patients say

things like:​

• “I know that it has been three years, but I am still

grieving the death of my mother.”​

• “My father was very cruel to all of us when I was

growing up. I am still very angry about that.”​

• “My sister is just impossible. I feel responsible for

her but she is driving me crazy.”

Relationships & Encounters

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EXPRESSING EMOTION

Relationships & Encounters

LOVE SORROW / GRIEF FEAR ANGER

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Levels of Intensity

Facilitating vs Modifying

Relationships & Encounters

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Modifying and Facilitating

Relationships & Encounters

• Modifying
• The therapist actively seeks to make changes in the patient’s

inner world ​

• Facilitating
• The goal is to help the patient grow in awareness​
• To help them experience parts and emotions ​
• – there is no other ultimate agenda​
• For this work, Facilitating is probably the better approach

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Interventions

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Voice Dialogue

Created by Drs. Hal and Sidra

Stone

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• Voice Dialogue process involves:​
• 1. Creating a Self-Witnessing Mode in

Center​

• 2. Giving voice to the different parts that

exist within the self

Overview

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• The person starts in Center​
• They move to another chair​
• Here they give voice to the emotions, thoughts, and

experiences of that part​

• The therapist/facilitator can interview the part to

better understand it​

• The person then moves back to Center and reflects
• n the experience​
• The return to Center reflects that this is a part of the

person – not the totality of who they are

The Process

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• The person can be invited to give voice to

their pain freely and deeply.​

• Fear, Frustration, Anger, Resentment, Envy,

Grief ​

• It can serve as: ​
• 1. A method for releasing and healing the

fear​

• 2. A vehicle for understanding the nature of

their suffering

The Suffering Chair

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Giving Voice

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Cognitions & Chairwork

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Cognitions & Chairwork

○ Cognitive Restructuring can be understood as

encompassing a series of methods centered on challenging or disrupting problematic schemas and beliefs​

○ The old belief can go in one chair​ ○ The new or challenging belief can go in the other​ ○ Repeated dialogues and encounters among the

different perspectives can weaken the problematic belief

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Cognitive Restructuring

Distressing Thought Distortion Rational Response I’m boring I’ll be alone forever People think I’m strange Mind Reading Jumping to conclusions Fortunetelling Disqualifying the Positive, all or nothing Catastrophizing, Mind Reading

I’m actually only boring when I’m in a bad mood. When I’m in a good mood I’m pretty funny. I’m getting better at relationships all the time and I am making a strong effort to improve my social skills and decrease my social anxiety. It’s OK to sometimes be strange. In fact, people often enjoy someone who’s different.

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Cognitive Restructuring

Distressing Thought Rational Response

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Probabilistic Reasoning

○ How likely is this to happen?​ ○ 1.386 Billion people live in China​ ○

80,928 were sick​

○ 3,245 people died from Covid-19​ ○ (CNN, March 20, 2019)​ ○ “It is very likely that I will get sick and die.”​ ○ “It is not very likely that I will get sick and die.”​ ○ Two Chairs – back and forth​ ○ Internal Dialogue

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Internal Dialogue

Very Likely to happen Not very likely to happen

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Three Outcomes

○ Worst Case Scenario​ ○ “I get sick and am killed by the virus.” ○ Best Case Scenario​ ○ “I use the time wisely and I have a creative breakthrough

that changes my life.”

○ Most Likely Scenario​ ○ “It is a stressful experience filled with loneliness, boredom

and anxiety as well as with some experiences that were interesting or moving.”

○ Give Voice to all three outcomes in separate chairs

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Internal Dialogue

Worst Case Scenario Most Likely Scenario Best Case Scenario

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Internal Dialogues

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Imagery Rescripting

Light Beam​ Mojave Desert National Park​ Mark Andrews

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Imagery Rescripting

Light Beam​ Mojave Desert National Park​ Mark Andrews

• The pandemic may also be

triggering emotions related to earlier traumas​

• Imagery rescripting provides

an “emotional bridge” which allows the patient to connect their current distress with underlying maladaptive schemas or modes

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Trauma Rescripting

• Go back to the traumatic or difficult

memory and change the ending​

• Bring in whatever resources are

necessary to feel strong and protected​

• Police, weapons, other people,

spiritual forces​

• Whatever is necessary to feel safe

and secure​

• Use their Voice​
• Confront the transgressors

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Trauma Rescripting

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Trauma Rescripting

• A clinician felt uncomfortable

confronting and setting limits with narcissistic patients​

• Her therapist invites her to sit

in the “Frightened Catherine Chair” and bring up an image/memory from childhood

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Trauma Rescripting

• Catherine brings up a

memory from age 14​

• She reported a bully for his

bad behavior​

• He threatened to beat her up​
• For months, she lived in deep

fear that she would be attacked

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Trauma Rescripting

• “Catherine gets an image in which her

persecutor appears in the school and approaches her in a threatening manner.​

• In the rescripting, the movie character
• f “Terminator” shows up to help

Catherine.​

• He stops and arrests her persecutor and

sends him to an adventure-based educational project far away in Canada.​

• This image brings strong emotional

relief for Catherine.” She is more empowered with her patients​

• (Jacobs, 2012, p. 468)

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Relationships & Encounters Storytelling

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Fear Reduction Practices​

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Relaxation Response/​ Mantra Meditation

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Transcendental Meditation

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EFT/Tapping

The Healthy Maven: https://www.thehealthymaven.com/eft- tapping/

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Giving Voice

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Developing a Relationship​ With the Fear

Observing/Witnessing ​ Self Fear

(Awareness) Internal Dialogue

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Mindfulness Meditation

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Self-Witnessing

(a) Emotional Vipassana​ (b) Validating Feelings

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Self-Witnessing

“By being unconditionally present with an inner wound, ​ you are finally making it OK to feel exactly how you feel.” “We sit with it completely. We embrace it. ​ We are unconditionally present with it, and we let it know that we are willing to experience it without needing it to change.”​ – Teal Swan

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Self-Witnessing

• This is a method for working with painful or difficult

emotions in the present – not in the past​

• Create two spaces within your mind​
• One for the Witnessing Mode and one for the Suffering

Mode​

• The core emphasis is on presence

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Self-Witnessing

• Witnessing Mode says things like:​
• “I am here.” “I am present.” “I am with you”​
• “All your feelings are welcome. All your sensations are

welcome.”

• “You are not alone; I am here.​
• I am with with you.” ​
• “I am listening, and I am on your side.”

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Self-Witnessing

• Then switch to the Suffering Mode and give voice to your

feelings – whether emotional or physical ​

• Not your thoughts or stories
• Witnessing Mode says things like:​
• “I am hurting.” “I am suffering.” “I am in pain.”​
• “I feel…​
• sad, frightened, fearful, upset, distressed, ashamed, alone,

shattered, guilty, bad, anxious

• Spend a minute or two in this mode before switching back

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Self-Witnessing

• Return to the Witnessing Mode and reaffirm that the

Suffering Mode is not alone and that it has been heard.​

• “I am here. I am present. I am with you.​
• I heard what you said. All your feelings are welcome, all

your sensations are welcome. ​

• I will not leave you. I am on your side. I am your ally.”​
• Then switch back to the Suffering Mode.​
• Repeat the cycle four times; end with the Witnessing Mode

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Levels of Diffusion

• “I am feeling…”​
• “I am aware that I am feeling…”​
• “I am aware that a part of me is feeling…”

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Internal Dialogues

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On Courage

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.” ​ – Prime Minister Winston Churchill​ “It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.” – Herodotus

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Heroic Existentialism

“We draw new life from the heroic example.” ​ – Dr. William James

• Dr. Albert Schweitzer
• Dr. William James

President Theodore Roosevelt

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The Way of Courage

• 1. Developing a Courage Mode​
• 2. Living for Something Greater Than Ourselves

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The Courage Mode

• 1. When we decide that we want to go forward, ​

○ that we want to take an action:​ ○ “Invite your fear to speak.​ ○ Do not hide from it; call it out.​ ○ Look directly at the fear, listen to what it is saying, ​ ○ What it is threatening you with, ​ ○ and then take a deep breath and say,​ ○ ‘I Am Willing To Risk It.’”

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The Courage Mode

• Fear: “If you do this, you will be sorry,”​
• Courage: “I’m willing to risk it.”
• Fear: “You are sure to make a fool of yourself.”​
• Courage: “Maybe. I’m willing to risk it.”
• Fear: You can’t do it. You have failed before, and you will

certainly fail again.”​

• Courage: “I have failed in the past and…. I am willing to risk

it.”

• (Rutledge, 2002, pp. 82-83)

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Internal Dialogue

Courage Mode: “I Am Willing​ To Risk It” Fear: “Something Bad​ Will Happen”

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The Courage mode

• Developing a Courageous Self or Mode as a part of the self​
• Consciously developing this part through repeated acts of

courage in the face of small anxieties or fears​

• The Courage Mode involves a shift in consciousness​
• A state in which different values are activated​
• Being courageous is the goal that matters most​
• Not the outcome of the situation

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Living for a Greater Purpose

“Nothing makes one feel so strong as a call for help.” ​ – George MacDonald

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The Four Projects

• An Injustice to be Remedied and Corrected​
• A Suffering to be Healed and Relieved​
• Something of Beauty to be Protected and Preserved​
• Someone or Something that is Loved to be Nurtured and

Developed

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Engaging With and Choosing the Heroic Project

Fighting​ Injustice Healing Suffering Protecting/ Preserving Loving/ Developing Giving Voice

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Sources of Strength and Renewal

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Prayer

Cathedral of ​

• St. John the Divine

Praying “can be regarded as a strategy to cope and [a way] to connect with a higher source providing meaning and hope.”– Jors et al., 2015

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Affirmations

“When I talk about doing affirmations, I mean to consciously choose ​ sentences or words that will either help to eliminate something from your life or help to create something new in your life, and you do this in a positive way.” (Hay, 1991, p.33)81

Archetype, Intention, & Synchronicity

Carl Jung, MD, The Red Book

http://media.npr.org/assets/artslife/books/2009/11/jung07-b584348ce6d51aa36b436cc91dbcb094a5493305-s6-c30.jpg

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Heroic Intentionality

“Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), ​ there is one elementary truth…​ That the moment one definitely commits

• neself, ​

then Providence moves too.​ All sorts of things occur to help one that would ​ never otherwise have occurred.” ​ – W. H. Murray ​ Scottish Himalayan Expedition

Photo: Eberhardt Grossgasteiger

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Bear Grylls & Everest

• Bear Grylls was a member of the

SAS – an elite UK Military Force that he had worked very hard to be accepted in​

• He was parachuting with friends

and had a very serious accident that almost paralyzed him​

• While in the hospital, he realized

that his military days were over and that his life would now be radically different

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Bear Grylls & Everest

○ Barely able to move, he plunged into a

deep state of depression

○ In the midst of this despair, he came

up with the idea that he would climb

• Mt. Everest

○ This vision became the center of his

recovery

○ “My decision to climb Everest was a bit

• f a “do or die” mission.”

○ He embraced the idea that he would

be, at age 23, the youngest British soldier to ever climb Mt. Everest

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Bear Grylls & Everest

• He spent months looking for

sponsors but no one was interested.

• “…I was bicycling down a

pavement in the City of London when I passed a company called DLE, which stands for Davis Langdon & Everest.

• Hmm, I thought, as I skidded to a

halt.”

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Bear Grylls & Everest

○ He begged the secretaries

repeatedly to give him a two- minute meeting with the CEO

○ They finally set it up. ○ “The two head guys, Paul Morrell

and Alastair Collins…both had the grace to listen.

○ By some miracle, they caught the

dream and my enthusiasm”

○ They gave him £10,000 and he was

• n his way.

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Core Dialogue Strategies

• 1. Giving Expression to the Fears​
• 2. Transforming Fear and Anxiety into a Part or a Mode that

Dialogues with Other Modes ​

• 3. Challenging the Accuracy of the Fears ​
• 4. Engaging with and Healing the Traumatic Origins​
• 5. Using Self-Witnessing as a Way of Creating a New Relationship

with Fear​

• 6. Developing the Courage Mode as a Method for

Counterbalancing Fear and Increasing Freedom

• 7. Making a Purposeful and Emotional Commitment to Others as

a Way of Developing and Manifesting Courage

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ttp://fernando-hideaway.blogspot.com/2008/02/jacob-levy-moreno.html

Jacob Moreno, MD Zerka Moreno

Frederick “Fritz” Perls, MD

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Gratitude

• Robert Leahy, PhD​
• Amanda Garcia Torres, LMHC
• Paolo Mascatelli​
• Nadine Kellogg

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Diana Calvario Scott Kellogg, PhDt

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