-IBIS-1.5.0-
rx
process work
interventions
psychospiritual approaches
definition
see preliminaries:
process paradigm
process work: basic principles
process work: glossary
process work: observation
process work: channel examples
Watch for double signals:
This occurs when the primary and the secondary messages carry different information. For example, while thinking, scratching can be a secondary process. These secondary processes become double signals when they are incongruent with the primary process (for example, saying "yes" while scratching your head: you're identified with agreement, but movement is giving another contradictory message; the double signal is in the unoccupied kinesthetic channel, the scratching is the secondary process).
Find the limit of the person's process and stay there. What do you learn? Double signals may demonstrate the unconscious information. Being gentle and supporting the primary process to its conclusion is very important; i.e., respecting who the person is and the innate wisdom this process represents.
Watch for the patient's "edge":
The edge splits processes up into primary ones which s/he is identified with, and secondary ones with which s/he is not directly associated. It contributes to making the individual congruent or incongruent (split).
"Edges which continue for long periods of time develop into blocks and are associated with psychosomatic problems, apparently because information not consciously picked up is always rerouted through the body". (Mindell, 1987, p.49)
Illness and disease always seem to occur right on people's edges. This is the border or limit of the patient's current awareness, and the point at which s/he says "this I cannot do, or will not do" - feel a specific feeling, see a detail of a vision, hear a certain voice, make a certain movement. It tells the practitioner where the patient's growing edge lies. "Process work deals with the edge by staying near it, by switching channels and going around it, by letting it be, by jumping over it or by whatever means achieves positive feedback from the patient". Touching upon an edge amplifies the experience of a symptom. Working around the edge can make a symptom appear, worsen, heal, or even disappear. (Mindell, 1985, p. 25-6)
Change channels:
When the patient reaches an edge, a decision must be chosen to either continue and go over the edge, or to go around it in search for more information, or simply to let it be. NOTE FEEDBACK to determine how to follow each step of the entire process! Another option is to "change channels". For example, if the patient cannot amplify the feeling of burning in his stomach and the experience is not moving, the practitioner could suggest, "is there an image that would express that burning?", "how does that burning sound?"
Often the patient will change channels when an edge is reached. The burning may switch to seeing a fire, hearing a screaming sound, etc. The practitioner's task is then to follow the channel switch and look out for the patient's edge.
On interpretation: It's important not to assume that you know what a double signal means. The messages of these signals are always changing and uncertain. Misunderstanding arises because people are unaware of their double signals and also because receivers assume they understand the content of the message and frequently don't. One should very humbly amplify them and give them a fair chance to express themselves. (Mindell, 1987, p. 22-3)
Referral: The use of these briefly illuminated interventions requires skill and experience. It may serve as a starting point for some useful insights, after which referral may be appropriate for continued work. As Mindell states, "Process-oriented psychology is one method of allowing dreaming or implicit order to unravel itself through the awareness, discipline and courageousness of the observer. Practical reality, however, requires the process worker, interested in perceiving and 'enfolding' 'implicit orders,' to have a wide range of experience and as much knowledge about 'subjective' human signals as possible [Editor's note: more than five hundred commonly occurring signals are noted in this system, many of which are non-verbal; training is a five year course of study and supervision.] Practical demonstration, personal experience, training seminars and the use of video equipment are useful aids in developing this discipline."
(Mindell, 1985, p. 38-9)
(Mindell, A.; 1985, p. 1-39; 1987, p. 16-55, plus training seminars)
(Burg, Mische, Schuepbach)
see:
process work: working with signals
process work: working on the edge
process work: interview
transference and countertransference
footnotes