What is Coherence Therapy?

Coherence Therapy is an experiential depth therapy that aims to uncover and change the root emotional learnings that make unwanted patterns and symptoms arise in the mind. Many of your symptoms once served as perfectly coherent solutions to a suffering or a series of sufferings during an earlier time in your life. The problem is your mind is still unconsciously producing these symptoms even when the original suffering has passed.

A child who gets shut down every time they cry will develop a schema that says, “I cannot ever express grief or I will be ridiculed and shut down, so I am going to form a solution and never allow myself to cry, express grief, or become vulnerable with other people.” A learning like that operates as a powerful emotional truth to your nervous system. You take the schema or construct as reality itself, as being absolutely emotionally true.

These emotional truths can be accurately discovered and made conscious, and when made conscious, they can be powerfully and experientially juxtaposed or unlearned.

The issue with many other approaches is, first, the unconscious schema is not adequately discovered and integrated into conscious awareness. Some generalizations of a pattern or smaller pieces may be uncovered, but we have found that these schemas are very specific, and when you put accurate wording and expression to them, it becomes absolutely undoubtable to the client that this is true. Clients will often light up when we discover it. For the first time, you are seeing clearly and precisely the reason why the symptom is arising, with no more confusion. You are taking your agency back from that which was previously unconscious and running in the background.

The second issue is a lot of approaches try to counteract these schemas and provide tools and strategies to push them down or create a sense of relief. This is still a great way to do therapy, but it is not the only way. The symptoms can be permanently changed, from the root. We have found, that if a specific process is followed, the schema can be discovered and transformed decisively and effectively. The approach follows four steps.

1. The target emotional learning is fully and accurately discovered and activated

2. A juxtaposition/emotional contradictory experience is created where contradictory knowing is held simultaneously with the old learning

3. This opens the reconsolidation window

4. The original schema dissolves (not inhibited, not overridden)            

                                                                         

A lot of skill and care is needed to discover and change these schemas, especially with ones that may be overwhelming or traumatic. Once achieved, this opens up far greater agency and free will for you, which is the goal of coherence therapy.