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The Three Doors – Practical Guided Imagery for the Emotional Treatment of Anxiety Disorders
© 2016 Watermark Counseling LLC
Fredric Mau, D.Min., M.A., M.Div., LPC, DCC
Watermark Counseling LLC
WatermarkColumbia.com
We are what we believe
What DID We Do?
 Shirley Jackon’s
novel The Bird’s Nest
(1954)
 Three Faces of Eve (1957)
 Sybil (1973, 1976)
 Diagnoses leap from fewer than 100 to thousands
 Fraud (Neary, 2011; Nathan, 2012)
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“People tell themselves stories that infuse certain parts of their lives and actions with great meaning and de‐emphasize other aspects. But had any of them chosen to tell himself or herself a somewhat different story, the resulting pattern of more‐meaningful and less‐meaningful aspects of his or her life would have been quite different” (Howard, 1989)
“We are in the process of creating value in our lives ‐ of finding the meaning of our lives. A life becomes meaningful when one sees himself or herself as an actor within the context of a story ‐ be it a cultural tale, a religious narrative, a family saga, the march of science, a political movement, and so forth”
(Howard, 1991)
“Social Construction theory posits an evolving set of meanings that emerge unendingly from the interactions between people. These meanings are not skull‐bound and may not even exist inside what we think of as an individual ‘mind.’ They are part of a general flow of constantly changing narratives. Thus the theory bypasses the fixity of the model of biologically based cognition, claiming instead that the development of concepts is a fluid process, socially derived. I think it is particularly helpful for the therapist to think of problems as stories people have agreed to tell themselves. Even the ‘self’ may be a story”
(Hoffman, 1990)
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“Whatever it is, it seems to involve a sudden shift in meaning…In another sense, it is as if the person steps outside the self for a moment, to see himself or herself from another perspective”
(Miller, 1998)
How Does Change Happen?
Most current theories of choice use a cognitive perspective. These theories assume that decisions derive from an assessment of the future outcomes of various options and alternatives through some type of cost–
benefit analyses.
Bechara, Damasio, & Damasio (2000)
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Emotion Drives Behavior
The somatic marker hypothesis proposes that individuals make judgments not only by assessing the severity of outcomes and their probability of occurrence, but also and primarily in terms of their emotional quality.
Bechara, Damasio, & Damasio (2000)
OFC Damage
Damage near the orbitofrontal
cortex (OFC), the bridge linking our emotional amygdala and the rest of our brain.
This damages emotional drive, but leaves the intellect and memory intact
Patients with OFC damage often become completely rational but can't make decisions ‐‐ because they don't have emotions to lead them the right way.
Bechara, Damasio, & Damasio, 2000; Lehrer, 2009; Seymour & Dolan, 2008; Damasio, 1994; Damasio, 2009; Matheson, 1966
Engage the Unconscious
“It is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality…we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations.... It is filled with energy reaching it
from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle”
(Freud, 1933)
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The Ericksonian Unconscious
Insight is not necessary for change. As a matter of fact, hypnosis or indirection is frequently used to bypass conscious processes—and therefore to work utilizing unconscious processes. The unconscious is regarded as a vast storehouse of learning and as a context— in itself—for change. Such a view is a revolutionarily different conception of the nature and scope of the unconscious. In contrast to the traditional psychodynamic notion of the unconscious as a place full of negative forces, impulses, and ideas which are so unacceptable that they must be repressed from conscious awareness, Erickson had a positive view of the unconscious...
…Erickson encouraged individuals to trust the unconscious as a positive force which held more wisdom than the conscious mind… In other words, functions of the brain outside of an individual's awareness which include the wide
array of information processing, storage and retrieval processes, physiological self‐regulatory mechanisms, and processes involving learned neuromuscular responses are all part of the Ericksonian
unconscious.”
Feldman, 1985
Relaxation and Emotional Change
Cognitive processing (frontal lobe)
decreases as you relax
Working at a relaxed level allows more direct access to emotions
Emotional processing (limbic system)
is always functioning
Gruzelier, Gray, & Horn, 2002; Jamieson, & Sheehan, 2004; Gruzelier, 2006; Schjoedt, et al., 2009
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Hypnosis
Guided Imagery (Cognitive Behavior Therapy)
Directed Mindfulness Meditation
Functional Relaxation
Power in Imagination
Kinesthetic imagery can actually significantly increase strength.
Yao, et al. 2013
“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry, “Is this real, or has this been happening inside my head?”
Dumbledore beamed at him, “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?”
Rowling, 2007
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The Three Doors
Dr. Fredric Mau
LPC, BCH, DCC
Watermark Counseling LLC
WatermarkColumbia.com
[email protected]
Facebook.com/WatermarkHypnosis
Twitter.com/WatermarkCola
Amazon.com/author/fredric
Email me for a copy of this slide show
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References
Bechara, A, Damasio, H., & Damasio, A.R. (2000). Emotion, Decision Making and the Orbitofrontal Cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 10(3), 295‐307, retrieved from http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/10/3/295.full
Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason And The Human Brain. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.
Damasio, A. (2009, July 4). When Emotions Make Better Decisions. ForaTv. Online video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wup_K2WN0I
Feldman, J. B. (1985). The work of Milton Erickson: A multisystem model of eclectic therapy. Psychotherapy, 22, 154‐162.
Freud, S. (1933). New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. New York: Penguin. pp. 105‐106.
Gruzelier, J.H. (2006). Frontal functions, connectivity and neural efficiency underpinning hypnosis and hypnotic susceptibility. Contemporary Hypnosis, 23(1), 15‐32.
Gruzelier, J., Gray, M. & Horn, P. (2002). The involvement of frontally modulated attention in hypnosis and hypnotic susceptibility: Cortical evoked potential evidence. Contemporary Hypnosis, 19(4), 179‐189.
Hoffman, L. (1990). Constructing realities: An art of lenses. Family Process, 29(1), 1‐12.
Howard, G.S. (1989). A tale of two stories: Excursions into a narrative approach to psychology. Notre Dame, IN: Academic.
Howard, G.S. (1991). Culture tales: A narrative approach to thinking, cross‐
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Jamieson, G.A., & Sheehan, P.W. (2004). An empirical test of Woody and Bowers's dissociated control theory of hypnosis. The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 52(3), 232‐249.
Lehrer, J. (2009, February 28). Feeling our way to decision. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/national/feeling‐our‐way‐to‐decision‐20090227‐
8k8v.html Matheson, R. (Writer), & Penn, L. (Director). (1966, October 6). The Enemy Within [Television broadcast]. In G. Roddenberry (Producer), Star Trek. Los Angeles: Desilu Productions.
Mau, G. F. (2014). A Different Reality: Adventures in narrative therapy & a protocol to address anxiety disorders and insomnia. CreateSpace, North Charleston, SC.
Mau, G. F. (2013). Emotion: The Power of Change ‐ A Science‐based Approach to Ericksonian Hypnosis. CreateSpace, North Charleston, SC.
Miller, W. (1998). Toward a motivational definition and understanding of addiction. Motiverande Samtal. Retrieved from http://www.motiverandesamtal.org/miwiki/Toward%20a%20Motivational
%20Definition Nathan, D. (2012). Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case. New York: Free Press (Simon & Schuster).
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Neary, Lynn (2011, October 20). Real 'Sybil' Admits Multiple Personalities Were Fake. NPR. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/20/141514464/real‐sybil‐admits‐multiple‐
personalities‐were‐fake
Schjoedt, U., Stødkilde‐Jørgensen, H., Geertz, A.W., Lund, T.E., & Roepstorff, A. (2009). The power of charisma – perceived charisma inhibits the frontal executive network of believers in intercessory prayer. Social Cognitive and Effective Neuroscience, 4, 199‐207. Retrieved from http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/03/12/scan.nsq023.full
.pdf+html Rowling, J. K. (2007). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, New York: Scholastic.
Seymour, B., & Dolan, R. (2008). Emotion, Decision Making, and the Amygdala. Neuron, 58(5), 662‐671. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627308004558
Yao, W.X., Ranganathan, V.K., Allexandre, D., Siemionow, V, & Yue, G. H. (2013, September 26). Kinesthetic imagery training of forceful muscle contractions increases brain signal and muscle strength. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7(561). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783980/
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