Interpersonal Framework for Conceptualizing Clients
What two psychological mechanisms do clients use to defend against anxiety associated w/ unmet attachment needs?
Clients respond to themselves in the same way significant others originally responded to them and they use inflexible/over-generalized coping styles.
What are the three lifestyle adaptations Horney created?
1) moving-toward
2) moving-against
3) moving-away
What are some treatment goals therapists have when dealing with inflexible interpersonal coping strategies?
1. Identify patterns/painful feelings that make up the client's core conflict
2. Highlight the interpersonal coping strategy the client learned to cope
3. Clarify when and how the client's coping strategy is being expressed in current interactions w/ the therapist and others
4. Begin changing this pattern first in the relationship w/ the therapist and then w/ others in the client's life
Why do clients avoid their unmet attachment needs?
Because they're too painful and disruptive to continually experience and address.
What is the moving-toward coping strategy?
Pleasing people - learning that you could earn some needed approval and diminish threats by being unfailingly good.
What is the "tyranny of the shoulds" and what are some examples that clients can display?
When individuals feel that they somehow don't live up to the idealized form of themselves they think they should be.
Ex. Saying - "I can't be a perfect parent, great spouse, and the most productive person at work."
What are three types of disruptive IWMs that help clients avoid/manage distress but cause further problems?
Clients (1) respond to themselves in similarly hurtful ways others have responded to them, (2) avoid experiencing unwanted developmental feeling/memories by re-creating/reenacting in current relationships the same type of interpersonal scenarios that originally caused distress/fear in earlier relationships, (3) avoid the anxiety they experienced developmentally by making it a current issue with others.
What is the moving-against coping strategy?
Learning that aggression or resistance is a way to ward off pain or manage insecurity.
What factors can develop core conflicts?
1. Insecure attachments
2. Problematic child-rearing practices
3. Faulty family relations
A combo of all of them.
What is an internal working model (IWM)?
Mental representations for understanding the world, self, and others - usually based on the relationship with the caregivers.
What is the moving-away coping technique?
Learning that the best way to reduce interpersonal threats is to create some safety by moving away - physical avoidance, emotional withdrawal, or total self-sufficiency.
Most core conflicts involve a failure to.....?
1) Provide children w/ clear communication and consistent emotional access
2) Support for autonomy and differentiation