What is the therapeutic cycle?
The therapeutic cycle is a multi-faceted experience which transits a number of inter-related stages, all of which involve the client’s unconscious mind wherein lies the key to emotive freedom.
The stages of the cycle
The therapeutic cycle as a process undergoes the following stages:
1 RELAX in order to quieten the mind
2 FOCUS on thoughts, memories, images, ideas and sensations in order to allow the mind to begin the work of unravelling distress
3 ACCESS memories which will generate distressing emotions
4 DISCHARGE unpleasant emotive distress
5 DEVISE an imaginative means of resolving any distress in order to calm the mind and to relieve any residual feelings of guilt, distress or unfinished business
If one of the factors in the therapeutic cycle is neglected, evaded or bypassed, the process of therapeutic resolution will probably be impeded or protracted for the client.
Relax
The client’s mind will need to be in a relaxed stated in order to be able to carry out its healing work. Too much logical thought in the equation will be counter-productive for the client. Counselling or psychotherapy without the use of hypnosis, therefore, will be like washing your feet with your socks on.
If as the client you are unable to relax, then ask yourself:
Are there any lurking fears which I need to overcome before I can relax?
Do I feel restless, frustrated or angry deep inside and so I cannot rest?
Could I find a means of encouraging myself to relax?
Do I appreciate that relaxation may not be an instant manifestation?
Focus
The client’s mind will need to locate the items to be worked on during the therapeutic session and this focus must be achieved using his/her non-logical faculties. Imagination will be the prime mover in discovering that item in the client’s past which will most need his/her attention. It may be an episode from the past which is loaded with distress and which will be the cornerstone of his/her psychic malaise. Flagging an item up on the agenda for the start of therapeutic work will be a vital step in the equation. If there is nothing to chew on, then the client will go hungry.
If as the client you are unable to focus your mind, then ask yourself:
Why do I tend to think logically rather than imaginatively?
What could I be afraid to learn about myself?
Why am I so reluctant to co-operate with myself?
Why do I feel inclined not to comply with the therapeutic process?
Access
The client will need to flag up those factors which have defined his/her life in a negative and distressing manner. The client must approach those most distressing aspects of his/her life which have caused underlying suffering for many years. The client will need to devote time and patience to accessing his/her innermost malaise which, in a conducive therapeutic setting, should emerge easily without pressure.
If as the client you are unable to access your innermost mind, then ask yourself:
What am I afraid to acknowledge about my life?
Do I feel horrendously guilty about something to which I cannot admit?
Do I feel that the practitioner will judge me for my wrongdoings?
Is there something with which I feel I could not live if I acknowledged its existence?
Discharge
The client’s mind will now feel a desire to tip out previously unexpressed emotion connected with the disturbing event or experience which he/she has revisited. This outpouring of emotion will be the client’s means of expressing upset which has long been pent-up from the past and, perhaps for many decades, has been causing untold distress in the present. Restrained emotion is that which causes the most damage to the client until it can be released in the therapeutic context.
If the client is unable to express his/her true emotions when recollecting an unpleasant incident from the past which has defined his/her whole psychic state, then there will not be an opportunity to release this unwanted pain. Time and patience in the therapeutic context should facilitate this emotive release in order to free the client.
If as the client you are unable to express your emotions, then ask yourself:
Why am I afraid to show emotion in general?
Why do I feel the need to hold back the flood?
Why am I locked in a state which not will allow me to react naturally?
What can I do to allow myself to feel and release the pain?
Devise
The client will now be in a position to resolve his/her psychological malaise. Sometimes simply revisiting a distressing event from the past and then releasing its emotive content will suffice for the client. But, on other occasions, the client may need to apply a soupçon of logic in order to realise what he/she no longer needs from the suffering of the past. Some imaginative process could also be applied to assist the client at this stage. Or perhaps the client could simply be invited to appreciate the profound effect which pent-up distress has caused for him/her?
If the client is unable to devise a final reintegration strategy, then some gentle suggestion by the practitioner should be able to assist at this stage. Often the client will be easily able to accomplish this task because access into his/her own mind will have become a natural phenomenon as a result of stress-trauma clearing during the therapeutic process as a whole.
If as the client you are unable to devise a means of rescuing yourself, then ask yourself:
Why do my imaginative faculties falter at this stage?
Can I take time out to appreciate the effect which the past has had on me?
Am I able to see my life in perspective by some concerted effort?
Why can I not see the toll which my distressful past has taken?
The nature of the cycle
The cycle of the therapeutic process may need to be repeated several times in order to clear out all vestiges of the client’s unhappiness, distress, upset or suffering. This therapeutic cycle will need to be undertaken for every occasion in the client’s life when distress manifested in his/her inner mind. Once the cycle has been completed for each thread of psychological malaise, the client will be largely free of disturbance related to the issues on which he/she has worked.
If you feel the need to undergo a course of therapeutic enquiry and you feel that you have the necessary qualities in order to transit the various stages of the process, then please visit the “Find a Practitioner” page on the JMHT website at www.jmhypnotraining.co.uk.
Jacquelyne Morison
Jacquelyne Morison Hypnotherapy Training