Man by nature is a limitless being. This is the key thesis of Buddhism and - the method in which I was lucky to work - emotional-imaginative therapy (EOT). When a person experiences the unbearable (horror, grief, for example), the defense mechanism of the psyche is triggered. To prevent a person from completely drowning in this horror, the part of the personality that lives through it is isolated in the unconscious. This is called splitting. And the person’s consciousness loses access to these experiences, and often to memories associated with the traumatic situation. And everything would be fine. Seems like a useful mechanism. But the isolated part of the personality gets stuck in that traumatic situation almost forever. And along with it, some basic human abilities become “stuck” - to trust, to rejoice, to create, to feel one’s worth, etc. It depends on your luck. Years go by, a person changes, studies, finds friends, gets married, but the isolated fragment of the personality is not at all aware of it. He is still two years old and no one loves him. No one is, of course, mom. And he knows for sure that he will die soon. Do you think I'm exaggerating? Not at all. This is the story that I come across more often than others when working with clients. You just don't remember it. Consciousness has no access there. At least without a guide. So, maybe you shouldn’t go there? - you ask. - Why stir up old things? Maybe you don’t need it) When an adult finds himself in a situation similar to a situation of trauma, this wounded fragment of personality is actualized in consciousness, and then a reasonable adult suddenly begins to yell like a victim, feel sad for no reason, take on someone else’s responsibility, or, for example , afraid of everyday things (public speaking, heights, dogs, or even expressing your opinion out loud). If an inner adult is at the helm of a person’s life, then sooner or later he will come to a psychologist with these experiences. Because the inner adult is an extremely intelligent structure. And why live with restrictions if you can fix it and be free. If a child or pseudo-adult structure is at the helm of life, a person will structure his life in such a way that he encounters triggers less often. For example, he will choose a field of activity where he does not need to express his opinion. Never. Thereby limiting the possibilities of its implementation. This is a somewhat simplified model of personality, but it is enough to outline the main differences between psychotherapeutic approaches. CBT will tell you how to adapt to your limitations so that they interfere less in your life. Here we do not touch the material of the trauma, but decide how to take off with all this now. Psychoanalysis, Gestalt, catathymic-immagnetic therapy will help restore access to an isolated fragment of the personality with its experiences and recognize it as part of oneself. A brilliant, provocative therapist will create a situation for you where you will be forced to act contrary to restrictions. And it will be a valuable experience. A good art therapist will restore access to the traumatic situation in a gentle, dissociative format and provide the tools to rewrite its ending. A variety of body-oriented methods, from Reich to Bodynamics to POT, will find how this trauma is reflected in the body and offer ways to “discharge” traumatic material, often through living out unfelt emotions in a safe therapeutic space. (Such living is also found in the psychoanalytic approach and is very therapeutic.) Other body-oriented methods, including yoga and EMDR, can help remove fixation from trauma at the level of the body. Hypnotherapy allows you to get in touch with traumatic experiences and reduce their intensity (probably brilliant hypnologists can do something else - the tool allows it - but I have not met them). I would be glad if one of the hypnologists complements my experience. Finally, new decision therapy of the Gouldings allows one to find a decision that was made at the moment of unbearable experiences (don’t trust anyone, don’t be happy, don’t have children, don’t express your opinion, etc.) and change it;but this method (almost?) is not available in the Russian Federation, I am familiar with it only in theory, so I cannot compare its effectiveness with EOT. Actually, EOT allows you to instantly reach the primary situation, then, as carefully as possible, with different levels of dissociation for the client, identify its structure, including the primary solution, secondary benefits and the entire complex of psychological defenses and brilliantly unravel this knot, filling the frustrated need, removing fixation from traumatic experiences and returning the repaired isolated part under the wing of consciousness. And along with it, the basic abilities lost as a result of injury return. As a result of such therapy, limiting decisions made at the time of injury lose their relevance for the client as crutches unnecessary for a healthy person. The integrity of the individual, its natural supports (dignity, inner strength, sense of security, etc.) and a clear vision of one’s path are restored. EOT is an intensive method, changes occur rapidly. I recommend that my clients come to therapy no more than once every two weeks in order to have time to get used to new opportunities and integrate them into their daily life. In fairness, I would add that the effectiveness of EOT depends very much on the therapist’s position in relation to the client. This is typical of most therapeutic methods, but in the telescope there are several areas where the therapist’s technical skills are important, and the role of his personality is reduced to a minimum. Among them are W. Reich’s somatic vegetative therapy, bodynamics and process-oriented therapy. And, perhaps, EMDR, but this is not certain :-) If you are looking for your therapist in other methods, you should pay attention to what position he takes in relation to you. For me, the criteria for a healthy therapeutic position are the therapist’s faith in the inner strength and beauty of a person (even if the person himself doesn’t believe in it all... especially if he doesn’t believe it himself) and self-esteem. As we see, almost all approaches have as their target primary traumatic experience. Almost everywhere there are ways, whether long or short, to gain access to it, but few places have the tools to fully heal (or at least understand) trauma and restore integrity. In most approaches, opening access to traumatic material is the goal of therapy. As my Gestaltist friend says, “if the client cried during the session, the session was a success.” This does not mean that healing does not happen in such approaches. It happens. The psyche strives to restore integrity, and giving consciousness access to the material of trauma is already half the battle. I mean, sometimes this is enough for a person to correctly experience, digest and integrate this material. Sometimes. And here the key difference between EOT is not only a clear understanding of the structure and mechanisms of injury, but also a comprehensive set of tools to repair all this in a jewelry manner. In addition, EOT works so gently with psychological defenses that clients almost never experience resistance (colleagues who work in other methods know that overcoming resistance can take months and even years of therapy). All this adds up to the incredible speed and efficiency of the method. Such that, with the exception of special cases, I do not recommend that my clients come to therapy more often than once every two weeks. To have time to get comfortable with your new capabilities and give them space in your daily life. Of course, I have not listed all modern areas of psychotherapy. There is also acceptance and responsibility therapy, NLP, short-term therapy, field and shamanic practices, about which I know nothing at all, etc. I tried to briefly describe the mechanism of therapy in the areas with which I personally dealt. I hesitated for a long time before writing this text. On the one hand, the request is long overdue - there are many methods, but very little summary information. I have experience working and therapy in different methods, and I am constantly asked to make some kind of comparison, to recommend a method for a specific request. On the other hand, I