 Hello, this is Bob Cook here from Manchester Institute of Psychotherapy, this is a presentation for psychotherapists on how to work with the vulnerable self within the therapeutic process. Okay, so let's look at defence mechanisms that clients will put up in terms of keeping away from the relational contact of the vulnerable self. So there are psychoanalytical defences which were first talked about from Freud onwards. I've put a few down, denial, projection, regression, dissociation, compartmentalisation and splitting. So denial is the first probably primal defence mechanisms that all of us use. So denial is the refusal to accept reality, acting as if a painful event, thought or feeling did not exist. Next one, projection is the misattribution of persons and self thoughts, feelings or impulses onto another person who does not have those thoughts, feelings or impulses. Projection is used especially when the thoughts are considered unacceptable for the person to express or they feel ill at ease with having them. So projections are important ones to confront to actually get hold of to sort out whose projections they are and of course projections are used as a protective mechanism for the distortion of reality to confirm the person's script. Dissociation is a move away from the self, all forms of dissociation there. A person who dissociates often loses track of time or themselves and their usual thought processes and memories. People will dissociate often in the face of trauma and extreme stress. Compartmentalisation is a form of dissociation and again the person will compartmentalise in the face of stress and trauma. It is a lesser form of dissociation. Splitting where the different parts of the self split or fragments through the mechanism of dissociation. Again, splitting is used creatively as a defence mechanism. So they are defended against the will self and sometimes the splitting is called the move to the adapted self. Either way the therapist's job is to help the person integrate the different parts of the person. Okay let's look at regression. So regression is going back to an earlier developmental stage in the face of unacceptable thoughts or impulses. So in the face of trauma and face of stress or unacceptable thoughts or impulses they will regress to a younger age often to protect the self and a move away from reality. Okay and the defence mechanisms are TA mechanisms, we can look at them. First analysis defence mechanisms. Eric Byrne and the Gouldings came up with the decisions that the young child may make. Don't exist, don't be you, don't think, don't be sexual etc. These are called injunctions and TA terms and they're injunction to the script and it's defending against the person being hurt. It's defending against the real disturbance and the therapist needs to get to these injunctions to work with the don't exist, the don't think, don't be a child, the don't grow up and find out where those decisions came from, how the person made those decisions. Of course they will be made at a time of stress and they stop the person achieving the nectar of today. Other TA defences which are defence against the injunctions of course. Try hard, be perfect, please others, hurry up, be strong. Point again for the therapist to look at what those behavioural defences are, to work with those defences to get to the injunctions so they can get to the early script decisions. Other TA defences, as I said the core script decisions we must get to, the rackets and of course the games, all defending against the vulnerable self. Okay, how do we reach the vulnerable self then? That's the important thing, now we've talked about all this and the defence mechanisms. Firstly, we must respect their defences, honour their defences. We must work with integrity, a sense of genuineness, an expression of compassion and of course love. So the person will feel met within the relational contact. Three methods I really enjoy or like in the search for connection with the clients, comes from Richard Erskine's integrative set of methodology. That's the use of inquiry, asking questions, being curious, but in an open way and not in a closed way. To be attuned to the client in a developmental and within Nick view, to actually get alongside the skin of the client and to be truly in tuned with them. The client involves himself, they don't stay passive. That will show interest and validation to the client in the search for connection. These are the methods I really like when we're working with the client to get some sort of connection with the relational self. And of course, we must use the transference, especially the idealising transference, a cohort who was a psychoanalyst and a self-psychologist, talked about how we can use the desire of the client to be better, the desire of the client that someone will be dependable, have a sense of continuity, be able to help them through their distress. As through this idealising, idealising transference, looking for the ideal person to really help them in connection, to feel safe and secure. Of course, we know eventually they need to move away from the idealising transference to be able to tolerate negative transference and to be able to tolerate negation and to get at home status and central integration. OK, a quick slide on the relational needs. The vulnerable self will need. They definitely need to feel sense of security and self-definition, to feel loved. They need to be expressed love. They need acceptance by the dependable other, i.e. the therapist in this case. And they need to make an impact and not be ignored or not heard. So when these needs aren't met, the person will feel vulnerable. Their relational needs are not being met. And they'll defend. We talked about some of the defence mechanisms earlier in the actual presentation. So as we start to prepare the fertile ground, i.e. the need for security, self-definition, etc., then we'll be able gently to work with them through their defence systems to give support and to help repair some of the relational needs that weren't met back in their origins and early history. So these relational needs are very important to recognise when we're working with the vulnerable self. OK, hope that was useful for you. Bye bye.