BCA Holistic Mental Health Therapy: Cognitive Interweave

The BCA Holistic approach expands the perspective and understanding of what is actually dysfunctional. It does this by using a cognitive interweave, a snap shot of all the possible influences in their life, from the smallest intra-personal experiences to the world at large.

This small to large – large to small view and exploration helps understand the context of the behaviors, thoughts and feelings. Then, knowing the overall context, it is easier to more accurately narrow down and identifying the specific dysfunction, as opposed to discomfort, distortions or unwanted responsible functions.

One real life example is a teen client whose mother dragged him into therapy, and he started with saying, “I have a general hatred of school.” He was ready for a therapeutic fight. Instead, his anger was validated and accepted, and the details of the situation was explored, based on how he saw it. In looking at the whole picture, he was struggling with puberty, feeling very angry, focusing on every negative he could, was really struggling in one class that he wasn’t studying for, but overall doing average or better in most classes. At the end of the intake session, he stated, “Okay, maybe I kind of like some school, but not this class.”

So, the cognitive interweave is looking at the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of the individual and attempting to put those personal aspects and attributes within the broader context of their personal development, living environment, relationships, community-culture-society, and the world.