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25: Constructive Avoidance of Present Day Situations: Techniques for Managing Critical Life Issues

DOI:

10.1891/9780826122452.0025

Authors

  • Forgash, Carol

Abstract

The purpose of the constructive avoidance script is to assist clients in dealing with their anxiety or stress-provoking present day situations. Dissociative clients generally are phobic or avoidant of many activities such as medical procedures, going to the dentist, taking examinations, going for job interviews, and so forth due to the complex nature of their traumas, panic, anxiety, and other trauma-related problems. When the client is going to encounter a situation that has caused high stress or triggering in the past and has not completed eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) target focusing on that issue, chances are that the ego states involved are not yet ready to deal with the situation. The client can practice with the parts before the upcoming event in sessions and as homework between sessions. This protocol assumes that clients have already established a Home Base and Workplace.