Essential levels of change and peek into my process.
Creating lasting change goes deeper than the surface-level motivational techniques or application of the latest self-help fad. What is needed is an approach that goes to the true root of the problem, alters our internal blueprints, and reprograms our mind.
Levels of Change
As we established, our unwanted behaviors and experiences are outcomes of our internal blueprints, and to change those outcomes we need to address all levels of change:
1. Subconscious level
2. Emotional level
3. Mental Level
4. Behavioral Level
1. Subconscious LEVEL
At this level, we address unconscious behavior drivers stemming from our blueprint aka internal working model, and we transform them, so they propel us forward us instead of impeding us. We use specific methods to get in touch with the subconscious/right brain such as image-based protocols, spontaneously created metaphors, and other techniques.
Interesting fact:
It’s been proven that traumatic experiences, especially childhood experiences, get registered in the subconscious or the right hemisphere of the brain. Early conditioning is developed before rational thinking, or narrative memory is operating, that’s why it can be challenging to put them into words. Therefore they are best represented and transformed through metaphors, imagery, or stories.
2. Emotional Level
Here we focus on processing our emotions. We do it by getting in touch with suppressed feelings and fully feeling them. The goal is to transform painful emotions which seem to be running in the background of our daily lives. This doesn’t equal to re-living painful experiences, it’s about achieving emotional equilibrium and regulation through the use of symbolic tools.
You can access the free mini-course guiding you through this particular process. Click here to access the mini course.
3. Mental Level
This level is about using cognitive tools. It’s about challenging our thought patterns, gaining distance to our thoughts, increasing our awareness, debunking faulty, limiting beliefs, and building and strengthening so-called metacognition, which means developing the capacity to think about our thinking. If we achieve it, we are no longer prisoners of our repetitive thought patterns, and internal stories are no longer running our lives.
Interesting fact:
We get in trouble when we try to solve emotional problems with cognitive techniques. For example, trying to move through grief by attempting to control our thinking or “thinking positively.”
4. Behavioral Level
It's about developing a step-by-step plan of action aligned with our deepest values and desires and following through on it. Once we remove subconscious, emotional and mental blockages, taking action becomes infinitely more manageable. We are free to act.
But there is still a need for strategy, recognizing and harnessing our strengths and resources and avoiding potential pitfalls. And this level of change is all about that.
Interesting fact:
Most often we try to change behavior alone while ignoring all the other levels of change. For example, we want to lose weight by dieting and working out, and when we fail, we blame it on the lack of willpower. However, we might self-sabotage because we are blind to the fact that we eat to self-soothe (emotional level) or we unconsciously cling to the excess weight because we associate it with protection (subconscious level).
Peek into my process
My process is different in that I address all levels of change and thus provide viable solutions for my clients.
The foundation of my work is the use of scientifically proven image-based protocols and techniques derived from Jungian psychology to alter our attachment styles and create internal safety. Once internal safety is developed, we can build self-worth and motivation. And from this secure base, we can go on and execute on our plans, goals, and desires. Then we can move to all other levels of change and work with them simultaneously.