Abstract
Clients presenting unsolved problems are asked, after identifying possible courses of action, to fantasize themselves at some specified future time. They then are directed to develop separate scenarios, each based on a different course of action, for that future. Each ego state responds to each fantasized alternative condition, and a decision selected, based on the responses of the ego states and their evaluation of the decision. The exercise is useful for identifying key steps from the present to the desired future outcome, and a number of aspects and issues of therapeutic relevance become evident. In particular, potential sources of sabotage by either the person or by the therapist's intervention can be recognized and averted. The general approach readily incorporates a variety of therapeutic interventions, e.g. Gestalt and hypnotic techniques.
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