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Paradox

10 techniques · 7 approaches
Adlerian
Anti-Suggestion Technique
Anti-Suggestion Technique
When a client systematically devalues their successes or sabotages progress, the therapist predicts that sabotage in advance. "I notice that…
Adlerian
Paradoxical Intention
Paradoxical Intention
The client is invited to deliberately intensify or bring on the symptom. When a person tries to do on purpose what they fear, fear loses its…
DBT
Dialectical Strategies
Dialectical Strategies
The core of DBT: dialectics means that opposites can be true at the same time. The client is ill AND can change. Their pain is real AND life…
Deurzen
Exploring Paradoxes and Polarities
Exploring Paradoxes and Polarities
Van Deurzen sees human existence as fundamentally paradoxical: each dimension of life contains irreducible polarities (life/death, freedom/n…
Frankl
Paradoxical Intention
Paradoxical Intention
The client deliberately wishes for, or tries to bring on, precisely what they fear. The technique breaks the vicious circle of anticipatory …
Gestalt
Creative Indifference
Creative Indifference
A state of wise passivity: I allow life, I do not fight, I do not strain, I am simply present. I let myself, the other, the situation BE. Af…
Gestalt
Paradoxical Theory of Change
Paradoxical Theory of Change
Arnold Beisser's theory: change happens not through the fight with the problem, but through full acceptance of what is. "Change happens when…
Gestalt
Reversal Technique
Reversal Technique
The client becomes the opposite of their habitual pattern: timid → aggressive, dependent → independent, the eternal giver → the taker. Throu…
MCT
Thought Suppression Experiment
Thought Suppression Experiment
A behavioral experiment that demonstrates the paradox of suppression. The client is asked not to think of a particular object for several mi…
Yalom
Paradoxes and Polarities (van Deurzen)
Paradoxes and Polarities (van Deurzen)
Life is arranged through unresolvable paradoxes: life–death, freedom–limits, loneliness–closeness, meaning–meaninglessness. Van Deurzen show…
Materials are informational and educational and summarize publicly available scientific sources. They are not medical or psychological advice, are not intended for self-diagnosis or self-treatment, and do not replace consultation with a qualified professional.