The Pragmatics of Change – Andrew Austin

Some people with depression are not depressed. A mask of smiling and being jolly on the outside can make people feel bad on the inside. Without witnesses, their pain is often a secret. Andrew T. Austin shows a method of working with a client with a history of depression. Austin does not explore the client’s story or personal history in order to begin a profound process of change and self exploration. The client is led through a structured interview with a simple recollection of a minor but troublesome memory before moving quickly into the deep underlying emotional states that drive the depression.

Austin introduces the client to two key elements of The Patterns of Chronicity which better enables the client to follow the change work without inadvertently blocking the work. Austin asks the client what the problem is before delivering much of the change work. At this point in the interview, he begins to explore aspects of identity and personal growth. Austin explores a number of themes including people pleasing, masks, aging, difficult relationships and self esteem. The client wrote, After filming, I had rather a leisurely afternoon and was quite agitated, but not depressed. I was expecting to feel depressed but I didn’t and I felt confused and clumsy. I am not depressed or expecting to be depressed today. For the first time in a long time, my head is not filled with meaningless nonsense and I have good mental clarity.

Suppressing Anger and Dealing with Strong Negative Emotions is what The Angry Insomniac does.

This is a second session with a client. The first session was for insomnia. The client reports that the insomnia was not improved by the first session, but that other areas of his life have changed. The changes are discussed at the beginning of the session. The work of Frank Farrelly and Nick Kemp inspired Andrew T. Austin to start the change work playfully. The use of state fractionation as well as the chaining of states in the first half of the session will be noticed by advanced practitioners. Austin explained by way of explanation that the approach works really well and that the client was very responsive to the work.

The use of violent fantasy, mechanisms of suppression and control, and feeling as though one is potentially like an exploding volcano are some of the themes explored in this session. Austin demonstrates how the metaphors of movement process, strategy reframing, submodality changes, kinaesthetic dissociation and future pacing can all be achieved quite conversationally and without any conscious resistance by the client.

At the end of the session, the client remarks, How did you do that?!?, contrasting to the intensity of the feeling of anger earlier in the session. That is amazing. I can not imagine myself getting into a state like that.

Depression, Tinnitus, and Physical Illness are some of the problems.

Problems with excessive alcohol intake, depression, and ringing in the ears are some of the problems presented by the client in this session.

With limited time, Andrew T. Austin chooses to work with the depression aspect, followed by excessive alcohol and finally the tinnitus experience. The client shows early in the session that he is at effect, but he struggles with finding cause. His experience shows that problems just happen to him and that the solutions are outside of conscious control.

Austin sticks with the structured interview, a structure of which the client is clearly unaware, because he ignores the tangential thinking that the client presents. Austin helps the client to begin to examine his own mental strategies. Before the client begins to feel uncomfortable and challenged by the nature of the session, this stage is reached. Austin teaches his students that sometimes they need to be comfortable with other people’s discomfort, and that it just stops and the client is dismissed quickly despite the worsening of a particular symptom.

Austin claims that this is a vital therapeutic maneuver and not just a function of the necessity of time constraints. He will let the viewer work out the exact reason for this.

The Distressed Late Guy deals with extreme emotional distress when bad things happen to good people.

Andrew T. Austin considers this one of the best demonstrations of his work from 2009. The client in this session has struggled with depression for a long time. The language patterns used in this client session need to be studied by advanced practitioners. The content and story of the client’s problems are not disclosed during the session.

Austin quickly engages the client at the level of his personal strategies using his metaphors of movement approach to reframing, despite the negative effects of these problems upon his life. Working with both the psychological representations and the manner by which the client moves and positions his muscles, Austin’s unconventional approach moves the client’s awareness away from the effect of how bad he feels and chunks up towards addressing the strategies by which the client addresses life’s challenges. metaphors of movement, advanced reframing, strategies, timeline organization, future planning/future pacing and translation of strategic thinking into physical actions are some of the areas addressed or demonstrated in this DVD. After arriving late due to a long car journey and heavy traffic, the client’s level of stress is very noticeable at the beginning of the session. The level of change is noticeable at the end of the session.

The client wrote, Many thanks for seeing me, despite my lateness! I believe that the journey I made was worth it. The session with you seems to have made me a different person. Positive things are happening to me. This is weird. A big thank you again.

Andrew T. Austin is a former nurse with an interest in neurosciences. He is known for his creative exploration of his clients problems and innovative solutions.

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