The APET Model

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A must-read for therapists! Some of you may wish to retire.. - Rated
This is a refreshingly simple yet idea-packed little book. It takes account of recent discoveries in brain science and psychology to update the 'ABC' model of cognitive therapy, and has implications for any other therapy model that claims to be effective, as well as for communication in business and in everyday life.

The model starts from these well-referenced propositions about the brain:

- We perceive the outside world through partially completed inner templates. Only the incoming stimuli which complete one of these pre-existing templates can be perceived. Stimuli which do not complete this pattern-matching process are not perceived.

- The primitive part of the brain known as the limbic system - the 'emotional brain' - assesses all incoming stimuli for potential threat before the conscious brain - the neocortex - is even aware of them. Where a threat is perceived, the limbic system triggers the 'fight or flight' reflex before the neocortex has even become aware of the 'threat', let alone had a chance to assess it.

- If emotional arousal is sufficiently strong, it overrides the thinking brain altogether. Emotions operate from a good/bad, either/or perspective. "High emotional arousal makes us stupid." In this model:

'A' is the activating event

'P' is the pattern matching process

'E' is the emotional response this gives rise to

'T' is the thought pattern (if any) triggered by this response

Some implications are:

- Ensuring the client is calm is an essential precondition for cognitive interventions, or any other, to work.

- Counselling for PTSD which encourages the person to relive or 'talk through' the incident may well make the problem worse.

- In cases of depression, analytic or person-centred interventions which encourage the client to focus on and 'understand' the events of their lives will tend to trigger emotional arousal and reinforce existing negative patterns.

While the discoveries underlying this model will be familiar to anyone taking a serious interest in current brain research, the authors have put them together in a simple and powerful model from which all approaches to therapy can learn.

The applications don't stop there. In business, for example, any approach to organisational change which fails to manage the potential fear, uncertainty and doubt caused by inadequate communication is bound for a very rocky ride. Once that fear has set in, it makes communication much more difficult, as any signals emanating from management are viewed with suspicion.

And most people in a relationship will recognise those sometimes inexplicable times when your partner is impossible to reason with...

This is a powerful model which is a must-read for anyone interested in therapy and communication. It has already changed the way I work as an NLP therapist and trainer and I'm sure that change will continue to work through. The sooner the thousand competing schools of therapy absorb and understand its implications, the better for everyone.