Self-image Building protocol for treating depression in hypnosis.

Abstract

This article explains the method of treating depression with an intervention called Self-Image Building. Several antecedents or correlates of depression are briefly discussed as they form a gestalt backdrop for the many therapeutic approaches that have been researched and promoted as treatment or solutions to depression. The rationale and construction of the intervention is illustrated with a brief case example. Self-Image Building is discussed in the context of other theories of self-image, over-generalization, negativity bias, and as an internal discriminative stimulus for performance. Self-Image Building is used to construct an actual referent and not a cognitive abstraction about how people make conclusions about themselves.