When a client first comes up with a statement that presents ownership of a limiting belief or non-useful state, we can use temporal disassociation to weaken the validity of the statement. The formula is:

“How do you know?”  →

Dissociate to third perceptual position →

Anchor the Vr dissociated image →

Separate old ‘self’ from current reality.

Example:

Client: “I am really stupid”

Therapist: “How do you know?”

Client: “I failed my math exam last month”

Therapist: “Think for a moment about who you were at that moment in time, back then, right as the exam ended. See yourself sitting there after giving the teacher the paper, and step back from the scene for a moment” (anchor the client)

Client: “ok. It feels better.”

Therapist: “We’re not done just yet. Now that you know that this person sitting there in class is the old you, because we humans are evolving all the time, we are never always stupid or always smart, and as you think about this old you failing that exam, see if the present you can answer a better question…”

A moment of silence for the client to prepare to answer.

Therapist: “How does not excelling a single match exam, over a month ago, makes the new you stupid, while the fact remains that you are smart enough to evaluate the reasons that have lead up to that singular failure, over a month ago?”

Reinforcing the disassociation: “In fact, it would be accurate to say, that given you are a new you today, it is unfair to judge how much you are smart today, based on what this other version of you, back then in the past, did not do on time, like preparing for the exam, that would be unfair, would it not be so?”

Client: “I suppose”

Therapist: “So let’s make your assessment of your old self more accurate, so that it can be useful. You were stupid at one point in time, over a month ago, but it was not during the exam. You were stupid by not preparing ahead of time, which means there was only a single moment in time in which you have made the decision not to adequately prepare for that specific exam… and that means…”

Client: “that I was stupid for one moment only and it does not mean I am always stupid”.

Therapist: “Exactly so. What are you going to say from now on when you think you’re stupid?”

Client: “I don’t think this way now. But if it comes up, I will find that moment of decision and say it was a one time thing, the old, not who I am now”.