Checklist of Basic Co-Counselling Techniques

1) CELEBRATING
My qualities.
My skills.
My body and mind.
Celebrating others.
Celebrating differences.
Non-verbal celebration.
2) ATTENTION SWITCHING
Attention out to the environment.
Physical actions requiring some attention.
Simple mental tasks.
Positive memories.
3) HELPING DISCHARGE HAPPEN: Focusing on Specifics
Focus on a specific event.
Talk through event using present tense.
Use concrete literal description.
Finish with "What's left unsaid."
    HELPING DISCHARGE HAPPEN: Going With Negative Feelings
Repetition of Distress signals.
Increasing the loudness of the voice.
Involving body in postures and gestures appropriate to words and feelings.
Acting into Discharge.
Roleplaying.
    HELPING DISCHARGE HAPPEN: Going Against Negative Feelings
Contradictions of Distress: content; voice; gesture; posture.
Celebrating Distresses and people who upset you.
Reversing roles; playing the other part of the Pattern recording.
Physical Relaxation; going against chronic tensions.
Physical arousal; going against paralysis, shut down, sag.
Direction holding against Patterns.
    HELPING DISCHARGE HAPPEN: Exploring Pattern Connections
Following associations that occur spontaneously.
Moving to earliest or strongest similar memory.
Scanning: listing and /or talking through events connected by a theme.
Following signposts: making repeated responses to cue phrases.
Exploring fantasies, images, symbols.
4) TARGET PRACTICE: Coping with Restimulation; Moving from Pattern to Person
Separations of past distress from present reality.
Constructing ladders out of distress and patterns:
a) Directions.
b) Attention switching associations.
    TARGET PRACTICE: Rational Rehearsal; Being and Acting as a New You
"What's left unsaid?"
Future Roleplay.
Present and future reality.
Commitment techniques.
    TARGET PRACTICE: Rational Thinking
Creative thinking and problem solving.
Goal Setting, short and long term.
Action planning.
Creative actions and learning new skills.
Reprogramming.

The next section deals with each of the four main strategies in more detail, following the order given in the above checklist.

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