Coherence therapy, formerly known as depth oriented brief therapy, utilizes an empathic and swift approach to delve deeply into a client’s firmly held emotional beliefs. It was developed by Bruce Ecker and Laurel Hulley. Usually accomplished in only a few sessions, a therapist can dig down to the root of a client’s belief system and uncover the basis for the symptom that led them to therapy. Coherence involves using a group of techniques and strategies that allow a therapist to dynamically alter a client’s belief relating to a particular symptom or issue. This type of therapy creates long-lasting transformation at the core of the problem in a much more focused and expedited way than traditional depth-oriented therapy. Upon the first meeting, the therapist encourages the client to use his own resources to locate and dispel emotional truths that, most often formed in childhood, create present day symptoms.

Quick Timeline of Coherence Therapy

Coherence therapy provides results in a very quick fashion. In just a number of sessions, a client can achieve a surprisingly real change in belief perception and the implications it has on current emotional state. Careful to distinguish between necessary and negative symptoms, a therapist will identify which ones serve critical functions and which ones do not but are still necessary as an effect of another coherent response. Both forms of symptoms, functionless and functional, are recognized as coherent relative to a client’s psychological structure. Many symptoms are created by an individual’s unconscious in order to perform purposes related to self-preservation or self-realization. This is in keeping with the theory of constructivism, which theorizes that behavior and experience are shaped in part by the self.

Depth has been seen as the only way to achieve results swiftly in the field of psychotherapy. Most clinicians who strive to complete therapy rapidly avoid addressing a client’s deeper, unconscious beliefs and perceived realities. However, Coherence Therapy exhibits powerful and permanent results in very few sessions using this precise technique with individuals as well as families and couples.

Resources Related to Coherence Therapy:

• Official Website for Coherence Therapy
• Dobt.com - Depth Oriented Brief Therapy

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Last updated: 05-14-2013