following kind of way: A psychological and usually irrational
force that makes somebody do something, often unwillingly.
These "irrational forces" are, in the case of compulsive
disorders, caused by repetitive thoughts, or mental activity.
This is an important factor in understanding and beginning to
alter the way that the person with the compulsion represents the
problem to themselves. By understanding that the irrational
force is caused by the persons own thoughts and activities, we
begin to move the problem away from some outside force that is
making them do something, and towards understanding that the
problem is something that is caused by themselves. They may not
yet feel as if they are in control of their own thoughts because
they have got into such an automatic pattern with their thinking
that it is occurring as if they have no control of it. And it
absolutely will feel that way. After all, whose thoughts are
they? In whose head? Whose mind is that? Who is the only one
listening to those thought? If there is no one else in your
head, they must be your own thoughts! And this is a great thing
to acknowledge because it means that accepting responsibility
for those thought puts the "thinker" back in control so that
they have a much greater potential to create changes.
The first thing I would explore with a compulsive client is
what Complex Equivalence exists in their mind about this
problem. What does this problem mean? What is it trying to
achieve? What does it allow them to do? What do they believe
would happen if they stopped this behaviour? Quite often fear is
a big driver of the compulsive behaviour, and frequently the
fear exists to keep the person safe. When you know what this
problem means, its truth and validity can be explored. Quite
often there is no logical link between the behaviour / thoughts
and the "reasons" why it is occurring. For example, one lady I
met felt compelled to check the locks on her car (to the degree
that she had to have new ones fitted every 6 months) and her
greatest fear was linked to the safety of her father after he
had nearly died. The was no obvious link between her father's
incident and the repeated behaviour of locking her car. Knowing
this didn't make the problem stop, but it did encourage her to
question the validity of the problem which had felt like a very
solid problem before she had thought about it in this way.
The next step can be taken if you believe that the client's
problem may be related to a significant emotional event. A
values elicitation can be very worthwhile for discovering what
"away from" values exist in their values hierarchy and can help
uncover SEE's that the client might not have consciously
realised were still having a negative impact.
As well as, or instead of this, I would use the fast phobia
technique. The fast phobia technique doesn't have to be
restricted to phobias only. It is a process which is very useful
at desensitising the negative emotions that occur when trigger
by stimuli so that the person can be around the stimuli without
feeling negative emotions. This means there is the opportunity
to be around things that used to make them feel a compulsion and
no longer feel it.
The compulsion blowout method can be used to demolish the
submodalities associated to the stimuli. Submodalities are the
codes that we use to make meaning of our experiences and
memories. When these are adjusted, the memory / experience will
no longer work in the same way as it did in the past.
There is of course a lot of room for manouver, as a therapist I
am flexible in my approach and will adjust techniques that I
already know if I think there is a way of having them work in a
more appropriate way for that specific client. Other techniques
I have used have included advising the client that they can do
as much as they like of one compulsion, but have to trade off
another. This works really well for multiple compulsions as the
list slowly whittles down until there is just one compulsion to
deal with. By this time they have also built up confidence in
their own abilities.
A friend once told me that he felt compulsed to run indoors
whenever a helicopter flew overhead. He was not too sure where
this fear had come from or why. One day he was picnic in a large
open field with his girlfriend. A helicopter flew overhead and
there was nowhere to run to. His fear occurred and he had to sit
through it, and as a result of doing so realised that actually
he was o.k. His fear was pushed beyond its threshold and as a
result ceased to exist in that context any longer.
Obviously the best course of therapy may not be to use the
"going beyond the threshold" technique but it is certainly a
good idea to test the reaction to the stimuli once some work has
been done so that the client is able to confirm their level of
improvement.
About The Author: Gemma Bailey is a hypnotherapist, NLP Master
practitioner and Life Coach based in Markyate, St Albans. Visit
http://www.gemmabai
