Impact Therapy

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Ed Jacobs, Christine Schimmel, Danie Beaulieu · 1992 · West Virginia University

What it is

Impact Therapy publishes no fixed phase model of treatment in the sources. Its structure works at two levels: the session (warm-up, middle, closing) and the counsellor's ongoing decisions (focus, depth, timing, theory). The book's own chapter structure is not described here.

Format

• Impact Therapy publishes no fixed phase model of treatment in the sources. Its structure works at two levels: the session (warm-up, middle, closing) and the counsellor's ongoing decisions (focus, depth, timing, theory). The book's own chapter structure is not described here.
• Course of treatment

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• If an exercise has no clear purpose, drop it.
• The client starting to write the TRUE statements themselves.
• Have a towel ready, and do not actually make the client open it.
• The client spontaneously using the model's language in later sessions.
• The client noticing the mismatch on the board before you point it out.

Problems the guide addresses

• The client is stuck or the session is circling
• Resistance to props ("this feels silly")
• Overwhelm or strong emotion (empty chair, phone call, childhood drawing)
• Non-adherence with written or drawing homework
• Ruptures
• Approach-specific difficulties
• Touch, restraint and staged tricks

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.