The Art of Facilitating Redecisions in Redecision Therapy

By Emily Keller, Ph.D., LPC, RPT

The power of Redecision Therapy is rooted in science. Redecision Therapy leverages the emotional brain to rewire well-worn neural pathways that stand in the way of the changes we seek to make. The process of facilitating redecisions, the heart of Redecision Therapy, however, is an art.

Redecision Therapy was developed by Bob and Mary Goulding. They were friends with both Eric Berne, who developed transactional analysis (TA), and Fritz Perls, who developed gestalt therapy. After Berne and Perls died, the Gouldings integrated the models and theory of TA with the theory and experiential strengths of gestalt therapy. In essence, they integrated the strengths of thinking and feeling into a powerful change agent: the process of redeciding and re-experiencing childhood decisions as adults. The re-experiencing is key to accessing and changing the emotional brain.

Facilitating Redecisions is an Art

Dr. Vann Joines discusses the art and many paths to facilitating redecisions.

There are seven main components of redecision therapy. They are:

1. An emphasis on personal power and responsibility, which invite clients away from seeing themselves as victims
2. Fostering a nurturing environment that promotes internal and external support for change
3. Modeling, as therapist, aggressive health, genuine joy, and full presence, which offer to clients healthy attunement
4. Helping clients sort through their thinking and beliefs to separate myths from reality such as “I can’t be happy until … ” and “I can’t change who I am … ”
5. Confronting incongruity in clients, thus pointing out how the subconscious and conscious mind are not aligned
6. Techniques such as double-chair work, playful confrontation, and ways we offer strokes for authenticity
7. Procedural rules that guide the when, where and what of sessions.

There are also five types of work in redecision therapy. Those are:

1. Contracting for change
2. Decontamination, deconfusion, and restructuring
3. Impasse clarification
4. Facilitating the redecision
5. Implementing and reinforcing the redecision.

Most of the components and types of work involved with redecision therapy are built on specific theory and steps. Facilitating redecisions, however, is an art. Each therapist will do that a little differently. They will vary according to their personality, life experience, strengths, and intuition.