METHODOLOGY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA TREATMENT WITH HOLISTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

The first step in the holistic psychotherapy process is for the patient to learn to challenge his/her own beliefs and thoughts about self, others and the world in which he/she lives. A great effort is made to free patients of what are called contaminations. A contamination exists when the patient's adult ego state is contaminated by his/her parent ego state or child ego state (TA terminology). A rough way of describing this is that his or her thinking may be obscured or unconsciously influenced by his/her feelings or by his/her negative beliefs, attitudes and values.

A therapist discusses a patient's journal containing his experience of various thoughts and feelings during the day.

For example, the patient believes that he/she would be free of his/her schizophrenia if only he/she were married.

Another example would be to believe that others can read his or her mind.

This can be a long and painstaking process in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Decathexis
In the next step, the patient with a mental illness becomes aware of the negative attitudes and beliefs they have formed from the past.

Discharging this conscious and unconscious energy is called decathexis. This decathexis is not total. There is always some healthy core personality within the individual.

For example, in decathexis the patient is taught to give up negative attitudes such as "I'm worthless", "I'm bad", "I should be rejected".

These are given up through different procedural means. For example, through a fantasy in which the patient changes the memories of traumatic incidents of the past.

Other ways of doing this are by writing out these negative messages and tearing them up or burning them.

The next step in the holistic psychotherapy process is the incorporation of new, effective and positive parental values and messages. Through a trustful and close relationship with the therapist, the patient incorporates a new, positive internal parent. The incorporation can be done through regressive procedures. By regressive procedures we mean a conscious shift to an earlier stage of life, to an age where the issues need to be addressed.

Staff meet each day to discuss the progress of patients.

Through exploratory holistic psychotherapy, he becomes aware that his fears started at the age of five. So he makes a contract with the therapist to be five years old and to relive some of the trauma he experienced.

With the therapist's support, he learns to express himself freely and thus has a new experience.

Conflict resolution
Through this process he incorporates new beliefs. Other methods of incorporation include the learning of new ways of dealing with situations, exercises in conflict resolution, and effective ways of communication.

For example, when there is a dispute between two patients they learn to resolve the conflict through a newly learned pattern of communication based on the concept of "I'm OK - you're OK".

The last stage of schizophrenia treatment is the integration and testing-out period of these new attitudes and values.

For example, when put in charge of the house cleaning, a patient with a mental illness learns to be understanding and positive toward the others whom he is directing.

By meeting outsiders during shopping or at social functions, a patient finds that his/her new attitudes toward others enable him/her to relate effectively with people.

In order for this process to take place, the therapist needs to be open to a long and enduring commitment to the patient as the therapist functions in the role of "a new parent". This process takes place in a community of patients and therapists in which all relationships and transactions are directed toward the well-being of the patient. Holistic psychotherapy has proved to be successful for patients with schizophrenia or other mental illness, many of whom have had psychotic episodes in their lives. This therapy has also been used with non-psychotic patients.

An active sesssion of yoga each morning stimulates therapeutic progress in the treatment of schizophrenia and other mental illness.

If desired, the patient can later make a parenting contract with the therapist. This means the therapist contracts to a commitment to give special care and support to the patient while under treatment and also to give new parental messages to the patient.

Patients can also contract (that is, promise) to work specifically on certain issues over a period of time.

Confrontation
In order to bring patients out of their passivity (that is, when they are reluctant to seriously work on their problems), it is necessary to confront the discounts and redefinitions which they continue to make unconsciously and so remain in their pathology.

An example of being "passive" is when the patient sees that it is beginning to rain but still sits quietly and doesn't bring in the dry clothes which had been left on the clothes line outside.

A "discount" means the person is avoiding or not paying attention to certain aspects of reality which concern him/herself, others or his/her beliefs about the world.

An example of a discount would be when the patient with a mental illness is having a bath, but he or she unconsciously neglects to wash certain parts of the body.

Redefinition is a means of avoiding giving a meaningful response to a question that is directed to bring the person to reflect on themselves in the present situation. The "redefinition" is an unconscious mechanism of mental illness to avoid thinking clearly in the present moment. An example of a redefinition is when the person is asked "what support system do you need?". The person answers: "I'm Einstein". Alternatively, when the person is asked "Did you wash your clothes today?", he/she replies that "The tea is not ready yet".

Patients use indoor games to break out of their isolation.

It is expected that all members of the community take part in confronting and supporting all of the other members through confrontation.

The community has found the Transactional Analysis vocabulary and theory to be very effective in the treatment of schizophrenia and other mental illness because it is very simple yet very deep.

Besides Transactional Analysis, many other therapies are used - whatever is helpful at the time.

Our therapists have learned a wide range of therapeutic techniques from their intensive involvement with patients suffering a mental illness. Therapists are also trained in other therapies through training sessions given to the community by outside therapists.

Although Transactional Analysis is the basic language of the community because of its simplicity, other methods of holistic psychotherapy are also used... for example, Gestalt, NLP, psychosynthesis, bodywork, movement therapy and dreambody process work for schizophrenia treatment.