Video 014 Feeling State Addiction Protocol
Use this video
With clients who have a behavioural or substance addiction. This protocol is based on the feeling-state theory of behavioural and substance addiction, proposes that just as single-event traumas can become fixated with negative feelings, intensely positive events can become fixated with positive feelings.
Any activity/experience that generates an intensely positive experience can become addictive. While some/many of these may be quite harmless, others can cause financial, emotional and physical difficulties for the addictive individual and those close to them. These can include gambling, pornography, extreme sexual practices, and use of addictive substances such as alcohol, ketamine, cocaine, etc.
Anecdotal evidence suggests FSAP outcomes may be boosted if the client alongside this protocol takes part in a Twelve step or other similar support programme.
Originator
R. Miller (2012). Feeling-state theory of behavioral and substance addictions and the feeling-state addiction protocol.
Video production
Matthew Davies Media Ltd, Llanidloes, Powys.
www.matthewmedia.com
What this covers
Stacey was a 45 year old woman with three teenage children. She had a history of difficult relationships. She’d used many different drugs during her adult life and had, in recent years, become addicted to crack cocaine.
This resulted in Social Services becoming involved in her life again, because her addiction had raised child-protection concerns. Her children had been taken into temporary foster care while she worked on getting free from her addiction. This wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get free. She’d been in and out of rehab at least twice, but this was her final chance to regain custody of her children. She was very motivated to succeed in overcoming the addiction and had already been clean for three weeks when she came to see the therapist.
How long
17.20 minutes
Go to ‘Take-away’?
For further information in Wrap up and for the Aide mémoire to use in a client session.
Take-Away Section
+ Wrap up
- Understanding the history of how the addiction began is very important in setting up the protocol. In this video, we use the Power Threat Meaning framework to understand the root of Stacey’s addiction as a response to a lifetime of emotional impoverishment. This framework also helped to ask questions that generated clues as to her abilities and strengths that enabled the therapist to trust that Stacey would be able to manage the EMDR based process.
Read more
+ Aide Mémoire
You can copy and paste this text into a Word document, and can edit it, adding any additional text you might find helpful.
Aide Memoire Feeling State Addiction Protocol
The Feeling State Addiction Protocol is in three parts
- Feeling State reduction
- Addressing the underlying trauma that made the person vulnerable to addiction
- Addressing the negative consequences of the addiction
General preparation
1. Obtain history, frequency, and context of addictive behaviour.
2. Evaluate the person for having the coping skills to manage feelings if he or she is no longer using the addictive behaviours to cope. If not, do resource development before continuing. Install a future template if necessary.
Feeling-State Reduction
3. Identify the specific aspect of the addictive behaviour that has the most intensity associated with it. If the addiction is to a stimulant drug, then the rush/euphoria sensations are usually the first to be processed. However, if some other feeling is more intense, process that first. The starting memory may be the first time or the most recent—whatever is most potent.
4. Identify the specific positive feeling [sensation + emotion + cognition] linked with the addictive behaviour and its Positive Feeling Scale (PFS) level (0–10).
5. Locate and identify any physical sensations created by the positive feelings.
6. The client visualizes performing the addictive behaviour, feeling the positive feeling, combined with the physical sensations.
7. Eye movement sets are performed until the PFS level drops to 0 or 1.
8. Install future templates of how the person will live without having that feeling.
9. Between sessions, homework is given to evaluate the progress of therapy and to elicit any other feelings related to the addictive behaviour.
10. In the next session, the addictive behaviour is re-evaluated for both the feeling identified in the last session as well as identifying other positive feelings associated with the behaviour.
11. Steps 3–9 are performed again as necessary.
12. Once the FSs associated with the addictive behaviour have been processed, the negative beliefs underlying the FSs are determined, and the desired positive beliefs are chosen.
Addressing the underlying trauma that made the person vulnerable to addiction
13. The negative beliefs are processed and the positive beliefs are installed with the standard EMDR protocol steps.
Addressing the negative consequences of the addiction
14. The negative belief that was created as a result of the addictive behaviour is determined and a positive belief is chosen.
15. The negative beliefs are processed and the positive beliefs are installed.
16. Install future templates.
Miller, R. (2012) Treatment of Behavioural Addictions Utilizing the Feeling-State Addiction Protocol: A Multiple Baseline. Study Journal of EMDR Practice and Research Vol 6 (4), DOI:10.1891/1933-3196.6.4.159
What this is about: The case is about a man in his forties who has lost his family and career. He experiences extreme dysregulation, suicidal thoughts and an inability to make sustained relationships. He has a childhood of extreme neglect and abuse. The defining condition is a lack of any hope of change or relief in the future. He is unable to contemplate dealing with past and current traumas.
What you will learn: How to work, first with the future loss of hope using the standard EMDR protocol. You will also learn how to use aspects of Brief Solution Focused Therapy to create a hopeful future, if the client is unable to do so himself. This hopeful future will become the target in this first phase of the three-part therapeutic journey.