Constructing Emotions and Accomodation Schemas

8/10/2019 Constructing Emotions and Accomodation Schemas

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Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, Volume 8, Number 145

Construyendo emociones y esquemas de acomodacin/adaptacin: Un modelo de exploracin delself, simbolizacin y desarrolloBasado en el concepto de esquema y en descubrimientos bsicos de la neuro-ciencia, se propone unmodelo de cinco pasos de exploracin del self. Una seal es seguida por asimilacin, afecto, proceso,emocin, y motivacin para la accin. Se puede entender este proceso como una activacin continua deesquemas. Las experiencias congruentes, incongruentes, o no-congruentes de una persona corresponden

a las maneras alternativas en que las redes del esquema y del subesquema encajan o no unas con otras. Elproceso del simbolizacin ocurre mientras emergen nuevas redes del esquema y las vas neuronales seextienden, de modo que los esquemas de orden ms alta acomoden/asimilen nuevas experiencias. Elproceso se fomenta/promueve cuando la persona toma una posicin de observador, manteniendo una cierta distancia de las experiencias inmediatas y el terapeuta ofrece experiencias de interaccin directas y desafiantes. Se dan ejemplos de la vida diaria y de terapia de juego.

La construction de schmes dmotions et dajustements : Un modle de lexploration de soi, de la symbolisation et du dveloppement Modle de lexploration de soi en cinq tapes, fond sur le concept du schme et sur les dcouvertesfondamentales de la neuroscience. Un signal dclencheur est suivi par : lassimilation, laffecte, le processing,

lmotion, et laction-motivation. Ce processus peut tre compris en tant quactivation continue deschmes. Les expriences congruentes ou non congruentes correspondent aux manires diffrentes dontles rseaux de schmes et de sous schmes senclenchent ou ne senclenchent pas. Le processus desymbolisation arrive au fur et mesure que de nouveaux rseaux de schmes mergent et que les cheminsneuronaux stendent, permettant ainsi des schmes plus volus de sajuster des expriences nouvelles.Le processus est facilit quand la personne se met en position dobservateur, conservant du recul parrapport aux expriences immdiates et quand le thrapeute offre des expriences directes et confrontantesdinteractions. Des exemples sont tirs de la vie quotidienne et de la thrapie par le jeu.

A construo de emoes e esquemas de acomodao: Um modelo de auto-explorao, simbolizaoe desenvolvimento

Tendo como base o conceito de esquema e descobertas bsicas das neurocincias, prope-se um modelode auto-explorao em 5 etapas. Segue-se uma sugesto de Assimilao, Afecto, Processamento, Emooe Aco-Motivao. Este processo pode ser encarado como uma activao contnua de esquemas. Asexperincias congruentes, incongruentes ou no-congruentes da pessoa correspondem a formas alternativasem que as redes de esquemas ou sub-esquemas se ajustam ou no umas s outras. O processo de simbolizaoocorre medida que emergem novas redes de esquemas e que as vias neuronais se alargam, de modo a queos esquemas de ordem superior acomodem as novas experincias. O processo forjado quando a pessoa assume a posio de observador, mantendo alguma distncia da experincia imediata, e quando o terapeuta oferece experincias interaccionais directas e desafiadoras. So dados exemplos provenientes da vida quotidiana e da ludoterapia.


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46 Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, Volume 8, Number 1

Constructing Emotions and Accommodating Emotional Schemas

HOW DOES PSYCHOTHERAPY FACILITATE CHANGE: DISCOVERY OR

CONSTRUCTING EMOTIONS?

For decades major models of psychotherapy, especially psychodynamic and person-centeredtherapy, viewed the discovering of feelings, which the person previously had been unaware

of, as a major principle of their work (Freud, 1986; Rogers 1951, 1959). More recent conceptsemphasize that therapy means facilitating an experiential process during which emotions canbe differentiated, adapted and emotional conflicts within the person can be resolved (Elliott,

Watson, Goldman, & Greenberg, 2004). For those concepts, a significant moment in therapy means that an emotional split is resolved or that a new emotional status emerges. Therapistsdo not focus on a search for unconscious manifestations of drives or for feelings, of which theperson is unaware. These would be strategies, as Ellingham (2001, p. 109) pointed out, thatare couched in Cartesian-Newtonian terms derived from Freud. In contrast these experientialconcepts are in line with a social constructivist paradigm, which means that the personsfeelings depend on how they interpret their surrounding social life and the meaning of other

peoples behavior for the persons self (Sullivan, 1953).In this article I will pursue the question of why and how psychotherapy facilitates change.

Especially the schema construct and interactional concepts of the self will be used. I thusattempt to refine the person-centered understanding of the symbolization process and suggesta model of the self-exploration process, which integrates experiential and person-centeredideas, and which is grounded in major theories of developmental psychology.

Non-aware emotions?

The experience of a sudden emergence of a new feeling or aspect of the persons self is sopowerful that metaphors, which are based in orthodox viewpoints, are still very much alive inthe everyday language of therapists and clients. Examples: to get in contact with feelings; tobe in search of the self; to discover the persons true self; to discover a feeling; you might find

what prevents you from . These metaphors represent an understanding within whichsignificant experiences seem to be hidden under some surface and therapist and client takeon the challenge to dive below that surface and find something, an allegory certainly influencedby Freud and Rogers. On the other hand, Rogers didnt focus on a person setting out to finda true self. His complex theory always emphasized the dynamic character of the self, theever-changing configurations in which emotions come into awareness. He describes the fully functioning person (Rogers, 1963) not as a person who has found a true self but as a person

whose self changes from moment to moment (Bohart, 2007).Rogers theory is inconsistent at an interesting point: In his famous dialogue with Buber,

Rogers stated that the experiences of client and therapist are equally valid. Both experiential worlds exist with equal value and the therapist has no legitimate right to judge the clients inner world and to assume there are feelings which the client does not experience. Rogers suggests anever-changing self but at the same time a model of incongruence which claims existent butnon-aware experiences. Rogers 19 propositions and his two-circle drawing (Figure 1) from


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1951 (Rogers, 1951, p. 452) refer to three zones of the persons experience. The experiencesthat occur in zone 3 are supposed to exist, but have in the past beendenied to awareness ordistorted in awareness (Rogers, 1959, 1990, p. 240). This inconsistency between assigning the client as the only authority for his experiences and assuming experiences which have beendenied has been addressed earlier by some very notable person-centered scholars: Margaret

Warner (2006); Campbell Purton (2004); Ivan Ellingham (2001); Gerd Speierer (1998) andothers. Also Gendlins theory of the experiential process (1962) contributed to the modificationthe Rogerian model. All this has greatly facilitated and stimulated the development of thefollowing thread of argument.

Being overwhelmed by emotions

An interesting challenge for this paper is raised by empirical research. According to Rogerian(and Freudian) theory, a person whose experiences are not accepted into awareness wouldnot be able to get in touch with feelings. The person would be incongruent. The rationale forthe disorder is that the person would not be in contact with feelings, would not be able toname feelings; he or she would feel somehow neutral or empty. There are certainly clients

whose experience is like this. However some empirical data challenge this rationale. In a study with more than 400 participants (Behr & Becker, 2002, 2004) we found that, in line

with person-centered theory, the persons experience of having too few emotions correlates with basic measures of mental disorders and life stress. This provides some support for theidea that bringing emotions into awareness increases congruence. But the correlations arequite low and much lower than correlations of mental disorders with an emotional mode of experiencing too many emotions, of being flooded and overwhelmed by all sorts of emotions.

A much more powerful correlation with the measures of mental disorders and life stress

Incongruence between Self and Experience

More congruence

Self ExperienceSelf Experience

Figure 1. Visualization of the Rogerian Model of Incongruence


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emerges. These results are in line with Margaret Warners exciting work on fragile processes:the overly emotional person would experience high intensity fragile process. However thisexperiential mode has not been addressed as explicitly as the lack of emotions mode inRogers work.

Table 1Intercorrelations of the Scales for Experiencing Emotions (SEE) with Disorder SpecificMeasures

Personality anddisorder scales

NEO-FFI Neuroticism a FPI

Life Satisfactionb

StressbPsychosomatic Problemsb

ADS DepressioncSTAI Trait-Anxiety d

Experiencing lack of emotions

.12

-.20 ** .17 **-.04

.22 ** .17 *

Experiencing being floodedby emotions

.61 **

-.53 ** .34 ** .35 ** .46 ** .54 **

Note. NEO-FFI = Five Factor Inventory; FPI = Freiburg Personality Inventory; ADS = General Depres-sion Scale; STAI = State-Trait Anxiety Inventory a: n = 216; b: n = 442; c: n = 228; d: n = 226* p < .05; ** p < .01 (two-tailed)

Now these data do not necessarily reject ideas about existing emotions that are out of awarenessand that this causes incongruence and thus disorders. But the Rogerian model does notcompletely explain the dramatic role which overwhelming emotions play. It isnt bringing into awareness that seems to be the pivotal point, but more a bringing together, a managing,a controlling, the getting of a coherent feeling, a consistent sense of what is happening inside.It seems that the experiencing person is challenged to construct a coherent meaning of cues,affects, thoughts, emotions, and action tendencies.

Constructing emotions

Thus this papers first proposal is:

Proposal 1: It makes a great deal of sense to regard the process of symbolization as a process oconstruction. An emotion, of which the person is not aware, does not exist. When talking about episodes, thoughts, feelings, or self, the emerging emotion is a construction taking place in this vermoment.


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One first general example may convey the constructive nature of an experience:

Example 1:Suppose the cue which you became aware of was a frog. Which emotion would emerge? This would depend on various factors like mood, past episodes, theactual context, the meaning it has for you. Even if every other factor were equal,

different contexts would produce completely different emotions. Imagine encountering the frog in open country near a lake, or in the bathroom of a second-class city hotel, orfinding its legs on your plate in a French gourmet restaurant! The emotion is constructedsome moments after the cue comes into awareness. It was not there before.

There are two major tracks of general psychological theory building on which a person-centeredunderstanding of these processes can be grounded. One is the astonishing progress that hasbeen made in neuroscience. The other is the concept of the schema, which has its roots in thecognitive theory of Barlett (1932) and in the developmental theory of Piaget (1976, 1981).

THE SCHEMA CONCEPT

The use of this term has a long history. Condensing the various definitions, a schema may becalled a pattern that organizes experiences . It is a structure within the brain that invites certainactions, cognitions, or emotions more than others. It is based on a set of experiences andknowledge that has been gained through personal experiences. The term was first coined by Barlett (1932) who used it to describe an active organization of past reactions or experiences:in an act of recall a process of construction is set off which uses already developed schemas toconstruct compatible details (Kriz, 2004, 2008). Piaget adapted this and described processes

within childrens development with the term schema (Piaget 1976, 1981). He originally used it to describe the development of infants sensorimotor actions, e.g., when they learn tograsp an object, an invariable structure of what to do emerges. In his later work the term wasalso used to refer to operational thoughts that lead to schematic representations based onreflection. Thus Piagets concepts comprise both operative and abstract thinking.

On this basis a differentiated view of client processes has been developed by the Britishperson-centered child psychotherapists Wilson and Ryan (2005), and within an experiential,emotion-focused perspective (Elliott, 1999; Elliott, Watson, Goldman, & Greenberg, 2004;Greenberg, 2004; Greenberg & Paivio, 1997; Leijssen, 1998). This view centers on changeableschemes. Their term schemes, rather than the usual term schemas, is intended to convey

the fluid, process-like nature of the experiences. They include the components of cognition,affect, motivation, and behavior in relationship. Stiles, Osatuke, Glick, and Mackay (2004)therefore provide a differentiated assimilation model to describe the change process of schemes.These schemes are complex structures that organize experience whilst remaining outside of awareness. They are activated by cues and thus can be regarded as potential emotions. Basedon a dialectical-constructivist viewpoint (Pascual-Leone, 1991), the emotion is seen as a construction that is rooted in the scheme, is triggered by a perception, and constituted by theaforementioned components.


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As experiential, emotion-focused psychotherapy explicitly refers to the schema conceptand is most thoroughly rooted in Piagets paradigms, this has led to major recognition by independent general psychotherapy research and conceptualization (Grawe, 1998, 2004).

Young, Klosko, and Weishaar (2003), who position their concept ofSchema Therapy among cognitive therapy approaches, draw from these experiential concepts as well. The change

process is understood as a change of emotional schemes within the person. In therapeutic work, schemes are activated, client and therapist go through the emotions and motivationsthat are evoked and clarify the underlying meanings; thus maladaptive schemes are reorganizedand new meanings may be found.

NEUROSCIENCE

It is interesting to note briefly that neuroscience has arrived at findings and at models thatparallel the schema concept. As in the human brain neurons are interconnected within complex

networks, most of them emerging within the first three years of life, it is an obvious hypothesisthat the ways in which these networks are constructed attune the organism to the environment.This includes the conditions of interpersonal relationships which the infant experiences.Research has found that functional units for the different tasks of life can be located physically:distinct areas of the brain are active while distinct tasks are being performed. This has suggestedhypotheses about neuronal networks that are manifested during all sorts of experiences andfunctions within the person. A broad consensus exists for some basic assumptions about thenature of these networks:

Figure 2. Networks located and organized on different hierarchical levels


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The information processing networks are located on different hierarchical levels,apparently a large number of them (Figure 2).

Networks are built out of networks from lower levels. Very different networks are allinterconnected and build functional units in multiple ways within and acrosshierarchical levels.

Habitual ways of functioning within the organism mean, on a neurobiological level,that within the structure of the networks the electro-biochemical flow of neuronalinformation goes via preferred pathways. Neurons and systems of neurons that areresponsible for a certain function have especially trained connections and thus exchangerelated information in more intense, rapid and dominating ways.

Connections, networks, and pathways can also emerge and change through experienceafter infancy and childhood.

A CIRCULAR CONSTRUCTIVIST MODEL OF THE SELF-EXPLORATION

PROCESS

The schema construct from developmental psychology and the network model fromneurobiological research now allow the proposal of a person-centered theory of what congruentor incongruent experiences are on the level of these models. Both claim that the mind isorganized in functional units even on a micro level, that these are hierarchically organized,complex, interconnected, and changeable. Neuroscience can in part already prove thison a physical level. I will continue to name these functional units schemas. This is becauseschemas can be understood as being neuronal networks, but on a detailed level much of

neuroscience is also just a theoretical model, and the schema construct is widely used andmuch better differentiated in psychology. Both models suggest that there is a hierarchicalstructure of schemas, but also a complex, somewhat chaotic multiple interconnection; perhapseach schema can connect to each of the other schema via a different pathway. Figure 3provides a visualized model of this.

Figure 3. Model of a complex network structure


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What happens if the person experiences something that we would call a congruent experience?I propose to divide a schema-based model of this into five steps. This five-step process mightbe called an exploration unit in which a cue is assimilated and an affect is launched; someprocessing starts resulting in emotion and action motivation. An example will clarify:

Example 2: I am watching my wife have a tennis lesson at a holiday club. The attractiveand creative trainer makes my wife laugh heartily and be energized throughout. What is happening inside me? I will divide what is happening into the above fivesteps:1. Assimilation:There are a number of cues provided by the trainer as just described.Perceptive schemas are activated which allow me to categorize and give words to this.

2. Affect:Some affective schemas of mine are activated: especially boredom and somedisgust while looking at him. My breathing is flat, and I become aware of a slightcontraction in the stomach area.

3. Processing:Some cognitive schemas of mine get activated: the trainer quickly goes

into higher order schemas that I assume to be narcissistic and sex-seeking. And Ibelieve that he is supposed to offer nothing else but training. And I am giving meaning to the situation: my wife is involved in a relationship which is a tennis lesson and a flirtation at the same time and her mood is euphoric. A self-reference arises; I tellmyself that my skin is pale, my face looks strained, and that I am too distressed tocrack jokes all the time.4. Emotion:I suddenly see that I am comparing myself to another person. The meaning I am suddenly able to put on the whole situation is: I am jealous!5. Action Motivation:Some first impulses to do something awaken in me.

My becoming aware of the meaning that I am putting on the experience and of my emotionand motivation is now a new cue for me. Again five steps:

1. Assimilation: I perceive myself to be a jealous person. 2. Affect:My affect is astonishment. 3. Processing:My processing consists of cognitions that I often smile at jealousy andfind it a superfluous emotion. I recall that I dont want to manipulate the feelings of others.4. Emotion:My emotion is of some shame: I had thought I would surely not be a victim of jealous feelings and that thus I would be better than others!5. Action Motivation:My action motivation now is to distract myself from what ishappening on the court.

This example stands for a schema-based model of the self-exploration process. At this stage we may call it anexploration unit . It is located on a relatively general and high hierarchicallevel within the network of schemas. It is mainly a serial process, developing over time. It


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basically consists of five steps, each of which is defined by a schema and is based on numeroussub-schema levels and sub-schemas.

The five steps are:

1. Assimilation: The person perceives a cue entering his field of awareness. The process

of perceiving includes that an existing schema assimilates the cue to known content.The schemas do not accommodate at this point, thus the person does not perceive thecue itself but what his or her schemas propose. Thus it may be possible not to see a person as he is but instead as a narcissistic, sex-seeking tennis trainer.

2. Affect: An affect arises. This reaction is innate or classically conditioned. No cognitiveelements are necessarily involved such as fear, surprise, or disgust for a smart tennistrainer. This has been outlined in its most differentiated form by Pascual-Leone (1991).

3. Processing:This includes recall of past experiences that are connected in some way:The person is giving meaning to the cue and affect, especially in relation to the self-concept. Cognitions, e.g., about the fit of past and present, are launched, and theprocess may be connected to words and language. Again this is an assimilation process:perception and affect are worked through with the existing schemas as operators.4. Emotion:The emotion is a consequence of the previous points. It is a constructionresulting from a valuing process. As outlined by Elliot and Greenberg: the emotionalschema is the organisms operative structure to experience the emotion when givenelements are present. I am jealous; or I am ashamed about being jealous. The emotioncan also be regarded as being neuronal activity within a certain system of broad neuronalpathways. Once activated it dominates other possible networks and therefore theexperiences.

5. Action Motivation: In order to regulate emotional arousal, a tendency for actions,and sometimes an action, emerges. It mostly occurs as an automatic habitual process,

which immediately follows the affect or follows specific emotions in specific contexts.

As the example tries to convey, in the cluster of steps 3 to 5: processing-emotion-action canbe perceived as a new cue by the organism. This new cue activates a new exploration schema:the person perceives jealousy as a new cue, followed by astonishment, several memories,shame and distraction. Again the cluster of steps 3 to 5 could be taken as a new cue thusperpetuating the process of experiencing like a never-ending spiral. This model might bevisualized as a circle or spiral, see Figure 4. Again and again an experience undergoes processing,and the processing results in a new cue. It is a continuing experiential process parallel to whatGendlin (1962) had outlined much earlier.

To simplify the model, steps 1 and 2 might be subsumed as assimilation, and steps 3 to5 might be subsumed as processing, which results in a new cue that will be assimilated. Thusthe flow of the self-exploration process can be regarded as an ever-developing chain or spiralof assimilation and processing.


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A SCHEMA-BASED MODEL OF CONGRUENCE

In contrast to the fairly congruent person A, the following example sketches the processes ina less congruent person B.

Example 3: If I were this person B, the same cues the smart trainer and my euphoric wife would broadly activate the same perceptive schemas and stimulate affects. Asto the processing (step 3), allow us to suppose there would be no schema in me that

would give a sexualized meaning to such situations. Maybe I generally have few schemasto categorize interpersonal relationships. The meaning I put on the situation is: he isa clown and she is having fun. In addition, another cognitive schema is working:having a lesson means having to pay to work on improving skills, and having fun ismainly in order to increase motivation and to sustain the learning process. Now they are acting vice versa: fun is the main thing. Strange tennis lesson! I think. I amfeeling somehow odd, I can feel a slight tension; it makes no sense to watch this.

Figure 4. The ever-continuing circle of exploration


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Why might person Bs process be called less congruent? The processing takes place on thebasis of existing schemas. Some perceptions thus do not make sense to him. There seems tobe an absence of significant symbolizations. Perceiving the whole situation does not evoke a meaning for his self. The existing schemas cannot evoke or construct the interpersonal trianglesituation. Person B just assimilates a limited choice of what he perceives. In order to create an

adequate meaning for the self the existing schemas are insufficient.Given these examples some ideas can now be gathered about how congruence,incongruence, and symbolization could be defined. First I propose to use the termabsence of congruence , when lower order schemas are activated, but somehow isolated from one anotherand from the rest of the experiential and cognitive field. Within the example a flirt schemadoes not exist. Such isolated lower order schemas do not generate a conflict, but also they donot generate a stronger meaning. I propose to regardabsence of congruence as an incomplete schema : a meaningful experience, a schema on a higher, general level, cannot evolve. In thisexample this is because person B lacks some elements, sub-schemas, and thus cannot identify a relationship where flirting is taking place.

A second important case is that ofconflicting schemas . An example of this would be a person C who booked the expensive club hotel only because everything else was booked up but who has cognitive schemas to favor a simple, modest life, which leads him to regarda five-star hotel as decadent, and whose organismic experiencing then starts to enjoy all theseluxurious facilities. These experiences conflict with the self-image of being a modest person.Emotion-focused therapy conceptualizes conflicting schemas explicitly as the point of departurefor emotional change. Classical person-centered theory describesincongruence as a conflictbetween self and experience and thus implicitly also as conflicting schemas.

A congruent experience has its roots in acomplete schema : all needed aspects of humanfunctioning are involved. Once the cue is assimilated, all schemas addressed allow processing to proceed without contradictions or missing elements and they thus provide meaning forthe self. Elliott and Leijssen have described this as an emotion schema with componentssimilar to those mentioned in the circle model Figure 4 (Elliott, 1999; Leijssen, 1998). Butthis is not necessarily a new experience and a change of the schema network; an accommodationhas not necessarily begun.

SYMBOLIZATION

How can a symbolization be described? According to classical person-centered theory a new self-experience is integrated into the self-structure. Person As sudden experience of jealousy isa good example: existing schemas interact but some of them did not do so before. Neglectedpathways were activated and broadened a little, especially those which connect the self-schemas with the notion of jealousy. So a new combination of sub-schemas was used for theprocess. However, symbolization of experience is taking place, not only during significantmoments, but all the time during the experiential flow of everyday life. This experiential flow has received a parallel description by Gendlin (1981) in the theory of focusing. We are


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experiencing all the time in some way, but only when we focus on a special set of cues can a meaning for the self arise (a felt sense) and a modification of it is possible (a felt shift). Thisexperiential flow can now be described as the circle above (Figure 4), where the processing andfinding meaning become a new cue for the next circle and so on. The experiential process thuscould be regarded as therotation of exploration units as described above. Thus our everyday

experiencing is an ever-continuing flow of symbolization, and schemas of all sorts and on alllevels are activated all the time. Most of the time they form networks that do not provideoptions to create meanings on a high level. Therefore they are too incomplete or conflicting.But sometimes they do, and a significant symbolization can occur. And sometimes thissignificant symbolization isnew : this means:unconventional networks interacted via neglected pathways.

This leads to the culminating question of this model: How can the process ofschema accommodationbe understood? How do schemas and thus the patterns of the persons generalfunctioning change? If repeated new significant symbolizations of a similar type occur, thismeans that higher order network structures have to adapt: new lower level networks of schemas interact via pathways which had been previously neglected or did not even exist.

This forces the pathways to learn to function, it broadens them and thus creates a new network. This new network represents a new skill for the person to experience, express him-or herself and to act. Thusschema accommodation is theemergence of new sub-schema networks or the extension of neuronal pathways. It is imposed by repeated experiences ofnew significant symbolizations .

A highly functioning person would be someone whosecircular processing of explorationschemas would work well and rapidly . Thus this rotation would include many sub-schemasand as a result provide more options to modify networks or allow new networks to emerge.New interactions between the networks, thus new pathways, would often become necessary.This person would have a reasonable chance of repeatedly experiencing significantsymbolizations and consequently, over some time, of creating new schemas. In contrast, in a low functioning person the rotation of the exploration schemas would be slow or blocked.

The process whereby clients shift to symbolizations by constructing experiences andemotions can be seen clearly in child psychotherapy. Young peoples symbolization processesinclude language but this is not the predominant medium. Young people symbolize via staging play scenes within the playroom and via acting out relationship issues with the therapist.The playrooms toys are assimilated into the existing schemas, meanings are given to them,and we assume that the staged scenarios refer to existing views of their reality (Behr &Cornelius-White, 2008; Frhlich-Gildhoff, 2008). An example for schema accommodation:

Example 4:Seven-year-old Sue is aggressive, refuses to do school work and closes upcompletely when asked to learn or to do something. Her father is addicted to alcohol;the mother tries her best to keep the situation secret within the village. Within thefamily she cannot protect Sue, Sues sister or herself when the father gets aggressive,beats her and destroys the childrens toys. The mother cannot set boundaries anywhere.

As the therapist learned later, Sue is the only family member who is sometimes valuedby the father and at those moments can relate to him.


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Given this information we might understand the scenes Sue stages during the play therapy process as incomplete schemas. In her fourth session a crocodile attacks thecastle of some animals and attempts to steal the storks eggs, the stork flies away andthe crocodile pursues the bird. I would regard this to be experiences and behaviorbased on some kind of threat and flight schema with not many detailed aspects. An

aggressive figure takes away beloved objects and threatens the family at home. Thisrepresents one dominating life experience of Sue, one major schema of experience.Later on in therapy Sue creates all sorts of what we might interpret as father figuresand assigns all sorts of bad personality traits to them. Sometimes the figures arethreatening as before, sometimes they are put in prison, sometimes they slowly start tobe more pleasant. In the twenty-third session the animal family sits in their castle andis visited by the crocodile, who now gets a name: Croco. Croco is allowed to come in,they show their treasure, Croco wants some of this and they negotiate and give someitems to Croco. Finally Sue even decorates Croco.

Although fathers behavior did not change during therapy, Sues schemas underwent

an accommodation process. While experimenting with different modes of family lifeand handling threatening people, new schemas emerged. They have significance inaddition to the threat-fight schema. A higher order schema was constructed, whichincluded a variety of views and continuous changing of experiences towards the father.This schema did not exist before, it was constructed and it is new. It is interesting tonote that at this point in the therapy Sues behavior in school changed completely andshe became a pleasant, interested and accessible student.

DISTANCING

In addition to the emergence of new sub-schema networks there seems to be a further process which facilitates personal growth and which could be named distancing. This processhappens, for example, when the childs symbolization of a sad experience shifts from justcrying to saying I am sad. Obviously the child has found a further level of symbolization inaddition to a bodily and behavioral one. Similar processes occur when adolescents or adultscan put experiences into words instead of acting them out. For example, an adolescent whosucceeds in verbalizing needs and negotiating areas of decision making instead of violating boundaries in a provocative fashion. What the client has achieved here is to gain a distancefrom their immediate experience. They can look at their experiential process from a meta position, or, as Bohart (2007) puts it, gain a meta-cognitive and meta-experiential relationship

with constructs. The person can learn to apply this in everyday life. In stressful situations they keep their control by switching between two modes of perception: On the one hand they perceive and are in the situation and acting, and on the other they can look at the situationand at themselves from a certain distance. Thus, for instance, they can observe that angerbuilds up in them and then follow self-chosen instructions to calm down.

This process seems to start with every new experience. The person dives into the experience


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when a cue is assimilated and an affect arises. During the processing a distancing may takeplace. The person perceives what is happening in her on an experiential level. The explorationcircle mentioned above (Figure 4) sometimes has a very small radius and sometimes a greaterone. In a person who acts out, the radius is near zero. Increasing the circles radius meanselaborating perception schemas, which allow the person to monitor her experiential process.

This is accomplished by gaining diverse modes of symbolization. In play therapy thishappens within the childs staging of inner processes. The child creates visual symbols, actionprocesses and experiences of self within this. The therapist supports this by offering the coreconditions and adds one pivotal mode of symbolization: namely language. The therapistputs into words what is happening, addresses actions, motivations, cognitions, and feelings.The child can perceive manifest aspects of his or her schemas: for example, see what has beenbuilt, become aware of the play process, and hear the words the therapist adds to this. Thechild can observe what has previously been an inner experience. Some distance arises. Thusthe childs exploration circle increases its radius.

Accordingly my second proposal is:

Proposal 2:The exploration process is a sequence of continuous constructions. It functions like acircular process. Extending the radius means that symbolization increases in quantity and significance. The more the radius is extended, the more the person can monitor her experientia process from a meta position. The person can distance herself from her experience.

RELATIONSHIP SCHEMAS

I propose to think not only in terms ofone person-centered relationship, but to distinguish atleast two modes of person-centered relationships (Finke, 1994). Using the above mentionedfive-step exploration circle model (Figure 4) we can well identify at which phase of thisexploration process therapy work occurs: mainly within the processing, emotion, and actionmotivation components, i.e., elaborating the dominating thoughts, feelings, motivations,

what contradicts, what is basic, how can this be reframed, which thoughts give better feelings,etc. The client works this through and the therapist facilitates the clients process with empathicand clarifying reflections. The person-centered relationship within which this work is groundedmay be called a facilitative relationship.

In addition an interactive relationship means that the therapist brings in his person andexperiences. They become the cue for the client and often launch most powerful and effectiveprocesses. This leads to

Proposal 3: Most if not all relevant cues within psychotherapy are interpersonal and relational innature. They trigger interactional schemas. A symbolization is an accommodation or a new creationof an interactional schema. The more the client enables the therapist to and the therapist succeeds in responding on an interactional, relational level, the more effective therapy will be


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Behr


Most of the exploration schemas mentioned above could also be called relationship schemasor interactional schemas. I prefer the terminteractional schema , as this refers to a more detailedview of sub-schemas dealing with what is observably happening between persons. The morecomprehensive experience of a relationship is rooted in arelationship schema. We mightregard arelationship schema as a higher order schema and as a construction of the lower level

interactional schemas.It is interesting to note that two developmental theories have already conceptualizedsimilar constructs. One is attachment theory where Bowlbys notion ofinner working models refers to mental processes in which the child develops interactive schemas about both themothers and the selfs relational functioning (Bowlby, 1951; Grossmann & Grossmann,2004). The other, D. Sterns infant research (1986), even regards a self-schema and an interactiveschema as the same thing. The components of the experiencing self are schemas that holdexperiences of relationship and interaction. Stern especially provides a very useful theory.Reconsidering it for therapy, it suggests that the development or accommodation of schemas

will best be fostered by immediate interactional experiences. Thus immediate interactional

experiences would be very powerful cues in therapy. This can also be explained within themodel of an exploration schema mentioned above (Figure 4). Within a therapeutic facilitating relationship a high proportion of attention is paid to the processing components. But whenoffering immediate interactional experiences the therapists interventions shift forward towardsaddressing the assimilation step. When this happens the client is challenged to assimilate thetherapists behavior and thereby to question existing schemas much earlier. This model supportsa person-centered way of thinking in which the relationship in itself is regarded to be thedecisive element of psychotherapy (Mearns & Cooper, 2005). In the following example thetherapist provides an immediate interactional experience. The assimilation of the cue isimmediately questioned because, instead of working through with language, the therapistbrings herself in by acting as a whole person.

Example 5:Tim chooses a board game and cheats. His interactive schemas are preparedfor this to be addressed, and also for going through a power struggle when claiming that he did not cheat, and for receiving moral advice about being fair. But instead thetherapist starts to cheat in a similar, but not too threatening way herself. Most childrennow struggle to retrieve an adequate interactive schema in order to assimilate thisbehavior of their adult board game companion. A challenging process starts.

In contrast to the person-centered facilitative relationship, this mode of therapist behaviorcould lead to a relationship that might be called a person-centeredinteractive relationship(Behr, 2003, 2009). For example:

Example 6: Jo, a seven-year-old-boy, seeks an interactive process at his very first play therapy session. He constructs a cave and then hides there, seeking verbal and auditory contact all the time while not being visible. Of course the general topic of hiding in a secure place gives room for many interpretations and therapeutic considerations. To


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me the major topic staged by this boy is a relational one. He communicates to me hisemotional state but conceals what he is doing at the same time. This little client actsout relationship schemas and seeks interactive experiences: establishing privacy,autonomy, and feeling superior in this hidden position; at the same time schemasabout seeking interaction and empathy are awakened: Guess what I am doing. He

most skillfully stages this double experience and is completely immersed in this.This goes on for some ten minutes. I sense an explicitly provoking and reaction-seeking element in this guess-what-I-am-doing scene. Maybe he is acting out aninconsistent interactive schema which combines search for privacy, feeling superior,and provoking contact from this superior position. Thus I decide to give a cautiousresonance to this behavior: Thinking aloud I consider vaguely peering into the cave.This provokes a strong reaction. Jo equips himself with a crossbow and threatens toshoot at me. The inconsistent schema with the components I want to be heard,understood, want contact shifts towards some clear defending privacy schema.This is pivotal and a prerequisite for other experiences.

This little client acts out relationship schemas. He stages a scene with a distinct distributionof privacy and power. In staging this he can, to some degree, watch and experience variationsand clarifications of this. Maybe a tiny bit more distance to experiences arises, when heexperiments with the ongoing process: In these minutes I never sensed that he had a plan of how to proceed but instead abandoned himself to a flow of ideas and experience, working through the privacy, superiority, contact topic, and finally shifting to clearly experiencing and successfully defending the privacy need.

CONCLUSION

This papers main line of argument is: It makes sense to regard the process of symbolizationas a process of construction. When talking about episodes, thoughts, feelings or self, theemerging emotion is a construction taking place in this very moment. This construction isan ever-changing circular self-exploration process. The flow of exploration is continuous asthe processing is the cue for the next exploration unit. The self-exploration process goes onand on in an ever-continuing circle. An accommodation of self-schemas is likely to occur,

when the rotation of the self-exploration circle is vibrant and when the person can distance

herself from and perceive the immediate experience. Thus I suggest a circular-constructivistmodel of the self-exploration process. A still greater potential for change is present when the therapist can respond to interactive

schemas which are acted out in therapy. The therapist therefore offers an interactive relationship,giving resonance to relationship issues. This seems to be very challenging and very helpful inmany therapeutic situations. New interactive experiences are possible and thus new interactiveschemas, which can be regarded as self-schemas, may change directly and thus change theself.


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Constructing Emotions and Accomodation Schemas

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