-IBIS-1.5.0-
rx
process interview
cardiovascular system
psychospiritual approaches

definition

process work cardiovascular system interview:
development of associations

see preliminaries:
process work: interview

The most important function of the therapeutic interview is to develop an understanding and experience of the person's pattern and process; that is, to find the precise meaning of the individual's relationship to their specific cardiovascular condition. The 'meaning' of the cardiovascular condition may be consistent with the person's own associations with their symptoms, which represent the primary consciousness. As one becomes aware of what the person is identified with, then the secondary, more unconscious signals will become apparent. When we observe the persons' associations with their condition and follow carefully what happens in the moment, the condition will then begin to appear as part of the whole process with which the person is involved. By amplifying the person's associations with the cardiovascular system and their individual symptoms, the primary process can be supported to completion, and new insight may be facilitated. No "psychospiritual meaning" is given for specific conditions, as the meaning of symbols/symptoms is individual and does not have a universal interpretation.

The following are some of the 'associations' or concepts which came to mind by allowing possible ideas, thoughts, visions, and/or feelings of the cardiovascular system to come into consciousness. As you think of the cardiovascular system, ask yourself 'what do I know about it, what are my associations?' Try other channels, for instance feeling and seeing, etc. It is most helpful to examine your own associations and the client's at the time of the interview. These examples represent the reviewers' associations at a moment in time:

• heart/love, broken heart, wounded in love, heartless, longing, eat your heart out
• is breathing a labor or a love?
• pumping, plugging, nourishment, oxygen-carrying capacity, transport, distribution
• what is symptom doing to/for the person? chest pain, shortness of breath, claudication, swelling? who is having the symptom?
• are there other systems associated? does the heart/lung relationship associate to the four chambers? what about the thymus and immune responses?
• does it happen to the patient, or do they identify with it? ("It came when I was walking up a hill", or"I have angina", "I had a heart attack")
• what is it the person cannot do? accepting or giving love? what does the symptom or condition allow?
• what would happen if the symptom were exaggerated?
• what structural coincidence is occurring? head or chest depressed or collapsing?

specific conditions: as examples,
angina - who is hurting? about what? what is the precise description of pain?
arrhythmia - what does the irregularity produce? meaning of being irregular? slow, fast, fluttering, skipping, associated proprioception? life threatening or not?
• congestive heart failure - who is failing? who cannot breathe, or exercise?
edema - who is the fluid?
hypertension - anger? who is tight, constricted? can the person elevate their pressure?
myocardial infarction - an injured heart? who? how? what? what is happening? are there fears? meaning of being stopped and of the hospitalization? what is the person's metaphor for this experience?

see:
process paradigm
process work: basic principles
process work: glossary
process work: observation
process work: channel examples
process work: interventions
process work: working with signals
process work: working on the edge
process work: interview
stress-hardy profile
type A behavior pattern


footnotes