Imagine life without the problem and notice what goes wrong

Picture yourself vividly without the reaction you want gone, and watch for the unwelcome feeling that shows up.

Pourquoi ça marche

Ecker and Hulley call this technique symptom deprivation. If a reaction is necessary according to some hidden emotional learning, then imagining yourself without it should bring up the very experience the reaction has been preventing: a tension, a fear, a sense of loss. That response is the hidden learning becoming noticeable for the first time. The aim is not to get rid of the reaction in the moment; it is to let the reasons for it reveal themselves.

Comment faire

1. Settle, and picture a realistic scene in which the reaction is simply absent: you rest, you speak up, you stop overworking, you let yourself be seen.
2. Make it concrete and gradual: the next week, the next conversation, how the people who matter react to the new you.
3. Keep checking in with your body and feelings. Notice the first sign of discomfort, tension or dread.
4. Ask: what is the bad thing that would happen if I lived without this? Write down whatever arrives, in your own words.

Données probantes

Symptom deprivation is one of the core discovery techniques the authors teach, illustrated in two published cases: a woman who, picturing herself thin, found that being heavy kept her family worried about her and so kept their attention; and a woman whose leg began to bounce with tension as she imagined pursuing an interest, which opened the way to a central discovery. These are the authors' own case reports; the technique has not been tested on its own. (anecdotal)

Imagining life without a long-standing protection can stir strong fear or grief. If what comes up feels flooding, you lose track of where you are, or images will not settle, stop and continue with a trained therapist rather than alone.

Sources

• Ecker, B., & Hulley, L. (2008). Coherence therapy: Swift change at the roots of symptom production. In J. D. Raskin & S. K. Bridges (Eds.), Studies in Meaning 3: Constructivist Psychotherapy in the Real World (pp. 57-83). Pace University Press.
• Ecker, B., & Hulley, L. (2002). Deep from the start: Profound change in brief therapy is a real possibility. Psychotherapy Networker, 26(1), 46-51, 64 (authors' website edition).
• Ecker, B., & Hulley, L. (1996). Depth Oriented Brief Therapy: How to Be Brief When You Were Trained to Be Deep and Vice Versa. Jossey-Bass.

Erreur fréquente

Using the image as motivation ("look how good life would be") instead of as a probe. The technique is for noticing what goes wrong without the reaction, not for talking yourself out of it.