Redecision Therapy

Redecision therapy has roots in transactional analysis, and Gestalt therapy. This work presents a action-oriented treatment model created by the authors in the 1960s built around contracting for change, insisting on a language of self-responsibility, enacting change within the therapy session, and encouraging action outside the therapy session. Editor Carolyn Lennox characterizes the redecision therapist as a director in an improvisational theater. Guided by the client's personal contract for change, the therapist helps the client select and rewrite old scripts in which he or she was cast as victim. By keeping the dialogue moving and assisting the client in confronting negative messages, the therapist supports revision of the last act so that the self can be experienced as triumphant protagonist and the victory can be carried over into everyday life.This compendium of contributions from twenty-two experienced redecision therapists first addresses issues of theory—how to negotiate a clear contract for change, how to identify client impasses, how to access the client's potential for creativity (what transactional analysis calls the "natural child")—and then illustrates applications of the theory in the treatment of depression, anxiety, bulimia, PTSD, and so forth in individuals and groups and in private, HMO, and hospital settings. Closing chapters discuss redecision therapy training and supervision.The book's thoroughly accessible approach to brief, action-oriented therapy will be welcomed by students and practitioners alike as what Dr. Lennox gracefully terms "teachable and learnable magic."