Healing Interpersonal Trauma Using the Interpersonal Discrimination Exercise

Conclusions

In this chapter I discussed the rationale underlying the IDE and illustrated how disciplined personal involvement is integrated in the IDE and used to heal developmental trauma.

CBASP therapists, by highlighting their salubrious strivings with patients in IDE work, expose patients to positive interpersonal experiences that contrast sharply with learning experiences many report having had with significant others. Over time, four goals are realized as a function of IDEwork: (1) patients acquire the ability to discriminate between the therapist and maltreating significant others; (2) new positive emotional bonds are strengthened between clinician and patient; (3) the perceived connection between the patient and the situational context (represented by the therapist) helps to overthrow the preoperational dilemma, as new emotional responses now become available; and (4) the transfer of these new perceptual cognitive-emotional skills as well as novel behavioral skills to relationships on the outside offers additional interpersonal opportunities that have not previously existed.