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welcome to cognitive behavioral therapy nuggets I'm your host Dr Donnelly Snipes
in this video we're going to be talking about problem formulation and for this
I've developed the mnemonic device Peace Corps
the Peace Corps approach to problem formulation will help you explore what's going on what is
triggering your distress at the current moment so P stands for problem write down somewhere and I'm
a big fan of writing things down you don't have to write it down in long sentences but
jot it down so you can see it write down what the problem is e stands for early experiences
with whatever problem is going on right now how does this relate to other experiences you've
had in the past how is it similar and how is it different and it's important to look at how it's
both similar and different because the similar may be impacting how you're reacting right now
but the difference may help you draw on skills that you have now that you didn't have back then
so a stands for what are your assumptions rules and attitudes about the current situation a lot of
times when we experience distress our assumptions rules and attitudes are not accurate they can be
extreme or over generalized such as all dogs are vicious is that true are there any exceptions to
this and it's important to try to remove some of those extreme words and replace them with more
moderate words instead of saying all dogs you might say some dogs or many dogs or police dogs
categorize it the other way that a lot of our assumptions rules and attitudes
may be inaccurate is when we use if then statements a lot of times these statements
set us up to expect something when we don't necessarily know what's going to happen next
so an if then statement can be if I'm not perfect then I will be rejected if I'm not perfect then
I'm a complete failure you notice we have extreme language in here too perfect and complete failure
perfect and rejected ostensibly by everybody so it's important to address our if then statements
if I am not perfect what realistically is gonna happen and we're going to talk
about some of the ways to deal with that in a minute right now the peace part of it is just
identifying the problem and our core beliefs and reasons we're reacting the way we are
so your problem your early experiences your assumptions about the situation your core beliefs
about the world about yourself about what should happen and shoulds are an entirely different video
but a lot of times shoulds are things that we expect and when they don't happen we feel
upset we feel a loss of control but shoulds are things in in the future
we don't know exactly what should be done all the time so examining your core beliefs
and then e stands for effectiveness of your assumptions core beliefs and reactions this is
very similar to the ABCs and the four Ps it's just a matter of finding a method that works for you
so to sum up peace you identify the problem you identify how this problem is similar to Prior
early experiences that you've had and how it's different from those early experiences
you explore your assumptions rules and attitudes about the situation
trying to identify any words or phrases that are extreme or over generalized
you explore your core beliefs about the situation and about the world in relation to this situation
and then you evaluate your effectiveness of your assumptions core beliefs and reactions
are these assumptions core beliefs and reactions helping you or making you miserable
all right once you have that down then you move over to the core part of Peace Corps
evaluate the context in this context right now in this current situation at this current time
is my reaction effective are my assumptions correct and are my core beliefs helping me
if not move down to options what options do I have for adjusting my core beliefs
what options do I have for modifying or softening my rules and attitudes
moving down to resources you know sometimes life sucks let's just face it so even in the current
context even if you adjust your assumptions things may not feel all happy and warm and
fuzzy so what resources do you have that can help you deal with that your current coping skills your
strengths your friends you know what resources are available yeah if you use your resources and
you use your abilities what is the probability that bad things are actually going to happen
and S stands for support who can you reach out to where can you find support to help you get through
this particular situation and yes I know support is also up there under resources but I need a
needed an S for core so you have context evaluate the context and see if your assumptions rules
attitudes core beliefs and reactions are accurate and helpful evaluate your options how else could
you view the situation how else could you react to the situation that might be more helpful
identify resources that can help you cope with the situation
remember that it's important to explore the probability that bad
things are actually going to happen we may jump to the worst case scenario
but what is the likelihood what is the probability that that worst case is actually going to happen
and seek support find people who can help support you either by providing
encouragement or by providing practical support