Coherence Therapy - General Description

General Description

The basis of coherence therapy is the principle of symptom coherence. This is the view that any response of the brain-mind-body system is an expression of coherent personal constructs and schemas, which are nonverbal, emotional, perceptual and somatic knowings, not verbal-cognitive beliefs. A therapy client’s presenting symptoms are understood as an activation and enactment of specific constructs.

The principle of symptom coherence maintains that an individual's seemingly irrational, out-of-control symptoms are actually sensible, cogent, orderly expressions of the person’s existing constructions of self and world, rather than a disorder or pathology.

Coherence therapy is considered a type of psychological constructivism. It differs from other forms of constructivism in that the principle of symptom coherence is fully explicit and rigorously operationalized, guiding and informing the entire methodology. The process of coherence therapy is experiential rather than analytic, and in this regard is similar to Gestalt therapy, focusing or Hakomi. The aim is for the client to come into direct, emotional experience of the unconscious personal constructs producing an unwanted symptom and undergo a natural process of revising or dissolving these constructs, ending the existence of the symptom. Practitioners claim that the entire process often requires a dozen sessions or less, although it can take longer when the themes and emotions underlying the symptom are particularly complex or intense.