Partitioning Flashcards
DEFINITIONS
** 1. strategy for rechecking or reprising a client’s problems, goals, resources, attention, or even time/space
**2. breaking something down into smaller, more easily digested parts in efforts to make something more predictable, amendable to control, offer hope
**3. strategy that helps reduce the emotional impact of an overwhelming life situation
**4. separating impossibility from possibility
**5. **move the problem from being pervasive to being temporary, conditional, partial
**6. if someone cannot deal with the entirety of the problem, focus on what small part they are ready to take on
**7. when everything cannot be made right, it is good to have something rectified
**8. provides the patient with aid rather than a cure
Moments to use partitioning/Why
- when problem seems insurmountable
- when problem has become ingrained with person’s identity
- mind body split w/ individuals who have suffered severe disability
- reduce emotional impact of situation
Symptom definition
- symptom definition/defining the symptom: defining the problem makes it more predictable, amendable to control–defining it makes it a smaller part of the total life situation
- seeking exceptions to the problem: problem goes from all-encompassing–> being a small portion of life
(when does the problem not occur); rather than being overwhelmed by the problem at all moments, Pt can recognize exceptions
Formal diagnosis/diagnostic labeling
- labeling the problem rather than the person can separate the problem from the core person–> no longer a core of individual identity, problem labeled in such a way that it’s no longer a fluid reality
- in some cases, when a formal diagnosis is provided, Pt is less overwhelmed and less confused b/c now problems from identified MI can be separated from other problems of daily living
EX: women who was mentally ill: woman was completely overwhelmed by voices of neighbors; enraged b/c couldn’t get husband to believe her–> E reduced problem down to a label that had acceptable implications (when used respectfully, a diagnosis can give Pt direction, purpose, hope)
Prognostic splitting
providing aid rather than performing a cure, allowing for lack of perfection; progress is not black and white,
**a shift away from all or nothing perspective to thoughts of what can be accomplished, split the impossible from what is possible
a. AA: “god grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”
b. stages: Pt with benefit from ability to mark progress in relation to one piece of overall problem; also provides hope b/c it provides pt with map to the “final stage”
c. mind-body split: organic vs. psychological basis of pain (after separating organic from psychological aspects, Pt could take action in area where they could exert some control) –ex: boy with asthma
c. treatment plans: acknowledgment of risks and benefits in therapy and that it isn’t likely Pt will derive 100% improvement within timeframe they desire, but still informed about progress to be expected and in what reasonable amount of time
EX: Cathy’s cancer pain: prognostic split made in relation to amount of suffering she could expect to experience in the future; prior, Cathy was in an all-encompassing bodily pain; in end, pain broken down and localized in one spot, her breast
Dividing conscious
hypnosis: a partitioning of conscious and unconscious awareness, fundamental concept of “going into a trance” suggests a partitioning of perception and information processing
once E had partitioned conscious awareness, focus of attention was on healing process
-dissociation, depersonalization, amnesia
(overwhelming reality broken apart in various ways so that traumatic memory can be re-assimilated)
EX: the student’s traumatic memory (boy with stabbed leg, horse trough, color green): did the student want the whole thing to erupt into his mind at once? or would he prefer to have it come one piece at a time, with possibility of halting the process so he could more easily endure the next development? did he want to separate affective from cognitive elements and experience one or the other first? did he want to have the recovery follow the course of development/same chronology as og experience? when an overwhelming reality is broken down, memories can be more easily assimilated
Dissection
dissecting behavior using functional analysis: ABC–intended to draw attention to environmental factors that contribute to problem maintaining behavior
ex: microscopic self examination: partitioning and microscopic examination of physical anatomy reduced emotional power of negative thoughts associated with sex and helped her develop new understanding of herself and sexuality
Partitioning of time and space
- amnesia: fragmentation of immediate, remembered, and anticipated experience
removal of remembered vs. anticipated experiences (blocking out of parts of experience/protection from stimulus overload can be therapeutic)–> eliminating 2/3 of problem because you’re doing away with remembered and future pain
- partitioning of time, place, and person
EX 1. Rebecca and reaction to attack from dog:
a. fragmentation of time by pointing out the difference between how awful and fearful she had felt after the attack vs. at the current moment
b. ^ of space by pointing out that at the current location, she was happy and safe and if she was at the property of the dog she’d be frightened AND that she could be at any number of places and not be frightened as long as the dog was there
c. entity: description of harmless basset hound; it wasn’t every dog she was frightened of, only big and aggressive dogs
EX 2: man who could not drive out of town= fragmenting a problem that seems insurmountable
a. reality of unlimited space that was overwhelming so E introduced telephone poles to create compartments outside boundary of city–> after making it from one telephone pole to other, pt recognized he could travel from city to city
