Video of feedback from Provocative Therapy interview

Here Nancy feeds back her experences of working with Frank Farrelly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-52G2WlSuo

Regards

Nick
www.associationforprovocativetherapy.com

AFPT launch video clip

Here is an interview of me talking about the AFPT launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlQra-21mcE

Speed in client interactions

When I was first interviewed by Frank Farrelly in a Provocative Therapy module, I was totally amazed at the speed of what happened during the interaction. This is one of the elements of PT that in my view makes it so effective. The Provocative Therapist does not adhere to any traditional rules associated with CBT and does not rely upon specific techniques often used by other practitioners. The interaction with the client is very much in the here and now and the Provocative Therapist will provoke responses from the client by a variety of means. As Frank would say

"Run it up the flagpole and see if they salute it..."

The Provocative Therapist will often interrupt the client affecting a series of what NLPers would call "pattern breaks" resulting in the client shifting through a series of different emotional states. In doing so, the client often becomes wholly confused by what they used to think of as "the problem" and this provides the momentum for them to become free from the old "stuck state"
Often the therapist will work at lightning speed and not even wait for client responses, but instead forcing the client to defend "the problem" by insisting that "the problem" is not really all that bad and that the client may have actually missed all the benefits that the problem has to offer! The "What's wrong with that?" exercise is an excellent way to develop this approach where the Provocative Therapist insists that the client, thinks and feels the same and does even MORE of the old behaviour. This results in the client then protesting that they want CHANGE and this protest frequently produces accelerated changes in the clients perceptions.

I am running a 3 day event with Frank in May 2009 where we will be exploring this approach in detail. This event will be hosted by The Association for Provocative Therapy (AFPT) http://www.associationforprovocativetherapy.com/ and I will also be demonstrating the differences between NLP and PT at the 2008 IASH conference in SF USA- see http://www.nlpiash.org/dnn/

The Weapons of Insanity

The Weapons of Insanity

Arnold M Ludwig MD1 and Frank Farrelly ACSW2Reprinted from American Journal of PsychotherapyVol. XXI, No 4 – October 1967

It is becoming fashionable to view mental patients, especially chronic schizophrenics, as poor, helpless, unfortunate creatures made sick by family and society and kept sick by prolonged hospitalisation. These patients are depicted as hapless victims impotent against the powerful influences which determine their lives and shape their psychopathology. Such a view dictates a treatment philosophy aimed at reducing all the social and institutional iniquities responsible for the patient’s plight. However, in the process of levelling the finger of etiologic blame for the production and maintenance of chronic schizophrenia, theoreticians and clinicians have neglected another culprit – the patient himself. Professionals seem to have overlooked the rather naïve possibility that schizophrenic patients become “chronic” simply because they choose to do so.
Undoubtedly, a myriad of authoritative articles could be quoted to refute such an oversimplified approach to this problem. We do not deny the complexity of the problem of the multitude of theoretical factors which should be taken into account for the understanding and treatment of chronic schizophrenia. However, we do claim that all these theoretical considerations have little practical import for the current treatment of these patients. Since we cannot at this point in time unravel twisted genes, undo the past, reform society, or eliminate mental hospitals, we are left with a more modest, but still formidable task – the treatment of the patient himself. The major problem is in dealing with what is and not with what should be or might have been. In our own experience, the problem is not so much modifying factors outside the patient, but rather inc hanging certain patient attitudes and consequent behaviours, as well a complementary, newly traditional attitudes on the part of society and professional staff, which aggravate the basic problem and prevent effective therapeutic intervention.
We have had the opportunity to observe closely and work with a group of 30 male and female chronic schizophrenics, handled with a minimum of medication and housed together on an experimental treatment unit. In a previous article (1) we outlined a number of characteristic attitudes and behaviours, both on the part of patients and staff, which tended to perpetuate chronicity. These characteristics comprise what we have called “the Code of Chronicity”. Implicit in our discussion of the “code” are five important clinical “facts” which, we believe, underlie the behaviours of chronic schizophrenics.
i. First, these patients can use their insanity to control people land situations. ii. Second, they have an indomitable will of their own and are hell bent on getting their own way. iii. Third, one of the basic difficulties in rehabilitating these patients is not so much their “lack of motivation” but their intense, negative motivation to remain hospitalised. iv. Fourth, insanity and hospitalisation effectively pay off for these patients in a variety of ways. v. Fifth, these patients are capable of demonstrating an animal cunning in provoking certain reactions of the part of staff, family, and society at large which guarantee their continued hospitalisation and its consequent rewards.
Related to these characteristics are a number of other important ones, which are typical of these patients and which we want to elaborate on since they are relevant to our basic thesis concerning patient behaviour. These additional features have gradually come into focus for us during the various phases of our research treatment program; in this article we shall term them the “weapons of insanity”. It has become increasingly clear to us that patients both have at their disposal and employ effectively an array of counter therapeutic weapons against staff efforts to rehabilitate them. These weapons not only reach their targets but have the additional bonus of a “fallout” effect in the form of a series of predictable staff reactions. Since one of the most effective ways to cope with these weapons is
first to recognise them, we have felt the need to describe them and their effects. Moreover, since we have become convinced that for rehabilitative purposes these weapons of insanity must be jammed, there is a necessity to consider carefully the therapeutic implications and ethical issues involved. It is our purpose to do precisely this

For the remainder of this article check out

http://www.provocativetherapy.info/

Also check http://www.associationforprovocativetherapy.com/ for information and membership of AFPT

AFPT event for May 2009

The Association for Provocative Therapy will be hosting a unique Provocative Therapy event in May 2009. Further details will appear later this year!