Therapist spends years in college learning about family systems, theories on change and how problems develop over time. We take tests, write papers on everything we learn. Some of us believe that problem stems from childhood issues, other think our problems are just unhealthy behaviors that can be changed. Still, others believe that it has to do with underlying emotional issues. One thing for sure is that therapy can help people, and the way therapists work with people will affect their outcomes. While I have my theories and models that I use to guide the way I do therapy none of that matters to my clients. What is important to my clients is stopping their problems. I use the problem pyramid to explain how I work through therapy.
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The Problem Pyramid
No matter if your problem is big or small. Depression or Anxiety. Problems within your relationship such as fighting with your partner all the time. The problem pyramid can help you understand how therapy works. Sometimes you will have some problems, and if you can start to separate them, and take the steps of The Problem Pyramid you will learn to help solve these problems
Imagine your whole problem as a pyramid and then split the pyramid into 3’s with a top, middle and bottom. Your problem is the whole pyramid but now in smaller sections to be able to handle.
Step 1 in The Problem Pyramid
Not Controlling
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The goal in this step is to learn not to have your problem control you.
This is the first part of therapy. You take action to learn to lower the impact of your problem in your life, so you do not feel out of control. This can without with my clients with anxiety. If your anxiety is so severe that you cannot function at work, or talk to your loved ones with out your mind racing, and is impacting your sleep. Those symptoms of anxiety must be lowered before real work can be done. I always have my clients do a handful of activities to lessen their anxiety. Once their anxiety is reduced, we can move to the next step. This is the part of therapy that is important not to stop! It can take a number of sessions to start to feel like you have control over your problem, and that it is not controlling you. DON’T stop therapy now. You have just learned ways to make the problem less controlling. You have not yet learned how to change the underlying issues.
Step 2 in The Problem Pyramid
Manage The Problem
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In step 2 of The Problem Pyramid, you will learn new ways to deal with your problem. Developing ways to prevent the problem from re-emerging, and find out how to handle it when it changes, along with other ways to manage the problem. This means that you learn how to deal with the problem on an ongoing basis. For my clients with anxiety, this is learning to see situations that are anxiety provoking before they happen, and learning ways to cope. Developing self-care plans to manage the issue on an ongoing basis. The goal in Step 2 is learning how to just manage the issues. This is all about behavioral change, and doing the day in day out activities to create change.
Step 3 in The Problem Pyramid
Understanding and Change
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Sometimes it will take a while to get to step 3. Learning how not to let the problem control you, and learning daily manageable behaviors is hard. It takes time to change and make new habits. Step 3 is where the real work happens. This is when you look into your past and start to discover how the problem developed. What led to this? How has this issue benefited you in the past? How has the issue influenced you? Answering these questions bring new understanding of the problem. I believe that once you start to have deeper understanding, you can create new meaning and new reasons to stop the problems at a deeper emotional level. Learning to start to make pattern changes, and along with managing the other behaviors, this could lead to a decrease in the problem.
The important things to remember about The Problem Pyramid is that it is a way to view your problem in, in therapy. It is a visual example of how I work with my client. The Problem Pyramid is summed up by Stop letting your problems control you, learning how to manage your problems, then last learn how to understand and change the underlying issues of your problems. While this seems easy on the outside, it is hard of each of us to do. Real change can come with time, and with a developed focus on improving your life. If you do not know if you problem is big enough for counseling check out our post the on common reason why people go to counseling. Click the link below to get our free quiz on if now is a good time for you to start counseling.
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