Ordeal Therapy

by Jay Haley

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"With the ordeal technique, the therapist's task is easily defined: It is to impose an ordeal appropriate to the problem of the person who wants to change, an ordeal more severe than the problem. The main requirement of an ordeal is that it cause distress equal to or greater than that caused by the symptom. Usually, if an ordeal isn't severe enough to extinguish the symptom, it can be increased in magnitude until it does" - from the Introduction.

In this new book, noted therapist and therapy teacher Jay Haley explains how and why ordeals work in therapy and offers numerous case histories to illustrate how ordeals can help individuals, couples, and families solve a wide range of problems.

Haley first provides an account of the theoretical basis of ordeal therapy, showing how it builds on the work of Milton H. Erickson. Explaining how ordeals can succeed in promoting change even in cases with long histories of therapeutic failure, he describes the use of different kinds of ordeals, outlines the stages of ordeal therapy, and details special techniques to use with different clients.

The detailed and extensive case histories cover a wide variety of clients, problems, and therapeutic difficulties. Haley discusses stances to take with different types of clients, strategies to use when working with individuals alone or with several family members, pitfalls togaurd against, uses of different kinds of ordeals, stages of ordeal therapy, and important considerations when giving directives involving ordeals. He also gives advice on cases that present specialtherapeutic dilemmas, such as suicide threats, and provides new insights into the way individuals and families behave.

Problems discussed include psyschosomatic symptoms, uncontrollable and violent children, separation and divorce, anxiety, incontinence, sexual frustration, alcoholism, speech blocks, and depression.