Resolution Of An Internal Conflict By The EOT Method. Exercise Detachment

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The main reasons for intrapersonal psychodynamic conflict: the inability to get what you want or get rid of what you don’t want (options a and b in the picture). It makes people unhappy. Buddhism talks about attraction and aversion. It is proposed to free oneself from attachments, practice self-observation and realize the illusory nature of this world (anitya / anicca).

How is the internal conflict resolved in EOT? Emotional imagery therapy recognizes the philosophical principle of detachment. One exercise asks the client to imagine two chairs in front of him. On the first place, what he wants, but cannot receive. On the second - that he wants to push away, but also cannot do it.

Further work with images makes it possible to understand the presence of intrapersonal conflicts and work them out. One example of such work, with gratitude to the client who gave me this opportunity, I present to your attention.

Anastasia, 32 years old (name changed, consent to publication received).

On the first chair, Anastasia sees a small fluffy woolen ball. "Love in the heart" - so he calls it. On the second chair there is a brick of a characteristic reddish color. This is associated with the attitude "you can love only one (man)", which gives the client discomfort. We start with him.

We ask the image of the brick what it does. Answer: "I protect from rash actions." In the language of the unconscious, brick is pent-up angry feelings. I ask Anastasia to tell the brick: "Become who you really are." He becomes a grandfather whom she loved very much.

I remembered a case. When grandfather passed away, Anastasia was in the hospital. For the time of mourning, she was allowed to go home. The very next day, friends visited her at home. In the conversation, one of them joked and Anastasia laughed. At that moment, her mother reproached her for not loving her grandfather, since she laughs during mourning. Because of this, she was very worried. I invite Anastasia to express her feelings, and she objects to her mother that she loves her grandfather, even if not in the way that her mother thinks is right. The brick crumbles to dust. We are looking for other attitudes and return to the mother the attitude "one must love", this leads to the ancestor of the clan, which, left without a man, devoted its life to a child. We acknowledge the experience, thank you, leave the client the right to live differently. Brick and dust disappear. I ask what comes to his place.

A flower appears, but it turns out to be wilting, this causes unpleasant sensations. Anastasia remembers her grandmother, who was not worried about feelings: “The main thing is not to drink, not to beat, to work,” - love is not important. The flower looks like a womb exhausted by childbirth. Women in the family had to give birth a lot. We also acknowledge the experience, we thank, we inform that now it is no longer required to give birth so much and we allow not to exhaust ourselves. In response, gratitude comes. Now you can rejoice, love. The flower has renewed itself. Anastasia planted him in the ground, poured water on him, let him be nourished by the rays of the sun. The withered petals flew around, he was filled with youthful strength, became fresh and pleasant. Now you can take it into yourself. The flower entered the space of the body. You could see how it straightened out. The client felt calm and vitality.

We returned to the first chair. The image of a nice little lump, as often happens, is an inner child. Nastya is 4-5 years old, she is in an orange dress with hair in two tails, swinging on a swing on her mother's lap. She's very good. I ask Anastasia, who inside her (an adult) is missing this little Nastya. The image of Baba Yaga appears. This image has different interpretations. One of them is a wise woman, a healer. For the client, this image means transition and transformation. Baba Yaga reports: "She (little Nastya) played too much, she needs to grow up."Letting them interact, and it's time to go. Nastya grows up, becomes a teenager 17 years old and it is time for her to leave the hut of Baba Yaga. The forest ahead is bright, there is no danger. At first, it seems that time must pass for Nastya to come to Anastasia, but after the integration of Baba Yaga into herself, it turns out that Nastya has already come and is ready to unite. We allow her to enter Anastasia's body. The client smiles happily and claps her hands (a manifestation of the liveliness of the inner child and his great energy). Anastasia says: "Now I am whole!" A day later, she reported that the pain in her heart, which had bothered her for the past few days, was gone.

Each internal conflict is individual, requires a different approach and tools used. This article presents one of the possible options and demonstrates how to resolve it using emotional imagery therapy.