Therapy treatments for depression come in various
brands. There's CBT, psychoanalysis,
family therapy, behavioral therapy, solution-focused and many more. Here's yet
another: a conflict resolution visualization.
Are you up for trying a new approach? If so, try this exercise on your own, or ask
a friend or a therapist to do it with you.
This treatment for alleviating depression is based on the
following conflict-resolution theoretical assumption: Depression is a disorder of power that emerges as a by-product of
dominant-submissive conflict resolution. That explanation may sound pretty
confusing initially. Hopefully as you
read on, it will increasingly make sense.
Conflict resolution offers a relatively new way of understanding
how psychotherapy works. It rests on the
core idea that ineffectively-resolved conflicts lie at the core of emotional
distress.
I explain conflict resolution theory and some of the
treatment methods that grow out of it in detail in the book From Conflict to Resolution and the
audio CD Depression, A Disorder of Power. For now, here's how this new mode of
treatment can help to alleviate a depressive collapse.
Can I do it on my
own?
Yes, you can do the visualization on your own. Just open your eyes each time you're ready to
read the next question.
Most people find it easier though if a friend or relative
reads the questions, you verbalize what you see, and together you discuss each
of your answers, keeping your eyes closed the full time.
A third and probably the best option is, if you have a
therapist, to ask your therapist to guide you.
What's ahead?
Here's an overview of the visualization.
It begins by helping you to identify the situation that
has triggered the depressive collapse.
It then gives you an inner sense of empowerment.
From a more empowered place you will re-address the
situation that triggered your depression.
As you begin to think of new solution options, click,
your inner energy lights will come back on.
The dark gloom of depressive hopelessness and helplessness will
dissipate, replaced by the light of positive feelings like enthusiasm,
appreciation and hope.
Procedure
Sit in a comfortable chair and close your eyes. Read
aloud the following questions, pausing after each to let visual images clarify
themselves on your visual screen.
Identify the conflict. "If you were going to be mad
at someone or at something other than yourself, notice what image comes up of
whom you could be mad at."
Fill in the details. "In that scene, what do you see
him (her) doing? How do you respond? What do you want? What do you feel, and
think?"
Check relative sizes. "Who appears bigger, you or
the other? By a little, or by a lot?" Note: if there are no size
discrepancies, you are not dealing with depression, or have not yet identified
the depressogenic situation. Check by asking toward whom or what else, again
not yourself, you may be feeling irritation, frustration or anger.
Alter the sizes, increasing the patient's sense of power.
"Picture yourself suddenly growing very tall, like Alice in Wonderland,
shooting way up tall. Take a deep breath and with each breath feel yourself
growing larger."
Broaden the database. "From this new height, from
this perspective, what can you see now that you may not have noticed before
when you were small?"
Find new solutions. "Knowing what you now know, from
this bigger size, what are some new ways you might handle the problem to be
more effective in getting what you want?"
Now open your eyes and think/talk about what you have
discovered. Notice how much stronger you feel, and lighter, with your newly
returned sense of internal empowerment. Notice that the impulse to negative
self-talk about how bad you are ceases. Notice how instead of that negative
hopeless feeling you now have a plan of action.
Go for it!
For well-being to be sustained, you will need to address
any on-going patterns of dominant-submissive interactions with people of import
to you. These communication patterns
will need to be replaced with cooperative power-sharing because any time you
take a submissive stance on issues important to you, the serotonin levels in
your body drop and the likelihood of feeling depressed rises.
Note: This protocol can reestablish normal power,
eliminate the negative thinking of depression, and reestablish a sense of
positive humor and well-being. For well-being to be sustained, however, the
pattern of depressogenic interactions needs to be changed. For this reason,
when depressogenic conflicts occur with a spouse, both partners need to be
included in the therapy process so that both make the changes necessary for
cooperative, rather than dominant-submissive, interacting.
Sources and
Additional Information:
