The process and outcome of visual kinesthetic dissociation in the treatment of fear of death in women

• Main Author: Panikulam, Dalmatia George
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1991
• Subjects: Fear of death; Dissociation (Psychology); Women > Psychology; Counseling Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/640
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study investigates the process and outcome of visual kinesthetic dissociation in treating fear of death in women. The approach was designed by the researcher. To assess the process, an analysis was done of the positive and negative events and experience during the session from the perspectives of the participants. The study used an idiographic (N=1) design with the individual as unit of study. The study was replicated with 8 English-speaking college-educated Filipinas ranging in age from 25 to 55 in order to learn how and why the approach does what it does and the conditions under which it is likely to be most effective in the future. The treatment result was synthesized from insights provided by NLP therapeutic patterns (Bandler and Grinder, 1975 and 1978). The therapeutic package consisted of a) situating the troublesome aspects of the personal functioning of the client (concerning fear of death) therapeutic intervention using a group of procedures called visual kinesthetic dissociation (VKD) procedures which essentially consisted of assisting the individual to elicit, alter, modify and reorganize internal processes and responses. The number of sessions were five including feedback gathering and follow-up sessions.The results showed that the clients changed on all the outcome variables which were perceived as positive by the clients, by the significant other and by the therapist assessment. The pretest, posttest and follow-up results of the Attitude Towards Death Questionnaire also indicated a change in the attitude of the clients from negative to positive. The Color Test result also indicated some positive changes in clients' use of inner resources after the therapy. These changes were assessed after a one-month period from the time therapy was initiated. From the findings, conclusions drawn were: 1. The neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) concept and its procedural dynamics of VKD seemed to be an effective therapeutic tool in treating fear of death in women. 2. It helped the clients to evoke, alter, modify, reorganize and integrate processes and responses. 3. The analysis process in the light of the feedback from clients showed that the most effective, incident in the processing was the holding of the client's hand by the therapist (positive anchoring) and the embracing of the younger one (intervention integrating the internal processes). The clients did admit that during the therapy they again went through the fear experience which they learned from the past and they re-learned to dissociate from that pain and associate with new strength. All these may indicate that anchoring will get almost everything (Bandler and Grinder, 1979).