The Science Behind the Law of Attraction Magazine Mar April Full mag | Page 6

Ther apy Ends Suf fer ing
Using This Successf ul Appr oach
By An dr ew Hah n , Psy.D. an d
Joan Beck et t , M .B.A., M A., LM HC
A full case example can help illustrate a Lif e
Cent ered Therapy approach to a common clinical
problem. Last year, a colleague referred his son for
evaluation before he made an appointment for a
medication evaluation. The family was well versed in
multi-generational clinical depression and approach-
ed the young man?s symptoms from an open, if
somewhat resigned, position. Four generations of
family members had exhibited the standard clinical
signs of depression and two of Nate?s siblings were
already medicated, so his symptoms looked all too
familiar to him and his family. What follows is a
single, completed session.
Nate is a well-built, soft-spoken man of 19. He came
in for a session because he had been experiencing a
moderate depression in freshman year of college.
Generally optimistic, he had been feeling little sense
of hope, crabby, and very flat. He had been eating
less and, instead of being his usual happy go lucky
self, he had been waking with a lack of joy. This was
the second straight year he had had these symptoms.
In his senior year of high school, he had had a slightly
milder version of these symptoms that had lasted for
2½ months. He was not able to find any precipitant
for either depression and assumed that they were
strictly biological because there had been a history
of depression on both sides of his family.
Muscle Testing revealed that Nate?s HPI was a
blocked identity (Identity Pattern in the material
realms). I was therefore able to tell him that what he
called his depression was in fact a choice he had
made at an earlier time. While this was the best
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