NYC Psychologist
SFT FAQs
What is SFT?
SFT SELF-Focused Therapy is an integrated psychotherapy based on the understanding that fears developed in childhood led you to constrain your Real SELF. It is these constraints and the rules they engendered that are the basis of most psychological difficulties and psychiatric problems.
What is the Real SELF?
The Real SELF began developing when you were born. If you are experiencing psychological problems, your Real SELF is comprised of two components, the part of your SELF that was accepted and nurtured by your childhood environment and the part that you experienced as unaccepted by your childhood environment and unlovable.
What happens to these two aspects of my Real SELF?
Both aspects of your Real SELF continue to grow and learn. The Accepted Real SELF learns in all the ways people learn, by observation and by experience. She1 interacts with the world. In contrast, the Rejected Real SELF does not learn by experience as s/he is constrained, in essence encaged, by the Objectified SELF.
What is this Objectified Self?
Perceiving the unaccepted aspects of your Real SELF as unlovable, you feared that exposing this part of you would lead to abandonment. Knowing you couldn't survive without the caretaking of others, you experienced what SFT terms Survival Fear.
The Objectified Self is the inauthentic Self you created in an effort to escape your Survival Fears. She started out as a masking Self meant to hide the unaccepted aspects of your Real SELF, but due to the power of Survival Fear, you gave her the power to ensure that the unaccepted aspects didn't emerge. She is a tyrant who dictates your decisions based on a set of irrational rules that you experiences as "should"s.
Why is it called the "Objectified Self?"
Because, like an object, it is meant to please others. It is the "thing" to which action or feeling is directed, rather than that which directs feelings an actions2. Under the rule of the Objectified Self, you are the object not the subject of your life.
How does SFT work?
SFT works by helping you to disempower your Objectified Self and re-empower your Rejected Real SELF thereby freeing you from the "tyranny of the should"3 and enabling you to make decisions about when and if to sacrifice based on what you want to do rather than fear-motivated rules.
How does SFT differ from other psychological and bio-chemical therapies?
SFT is an integrated treatment while other extant therapies are reductionist, focusing on one component of the components of the SELF associated with psychological and psychiatric problems.
What are the advantages of SFT over other treatments?
SFT enables the use of interventions developed in essentially all previous psychotherapies without loss of cohesiveness and guidance from an understanding of the bases of your problems. Hence, unlike reductionist psychotherapies like, for example, CBT, SFT does not restrict its endeavors to one component of your difficulties. And, unlike eclectic approaches, SFT has a theoretical frame which not only guides your work to resolve psychological difficulties while you are in therapy and, of possibly even greater importance, after treatment is ended.
How can I know SFT will will work for me?
No treatment for any disorder, physical, emotional, mental, can guarantee success. However, because SFT combines extant therapies that have demonstrated success, the likelihood that it will help you is very high. Evaluate for yourself by reading the attestations of some of the people who have been helped by Dr. Haley using SFT.
Isn't your claim that SFT provides advantages over previous psychotherapies just another salvo in the "psychotherapy wars?"
No, because there is nothing to "fight" about. SFT encompasses rather than repudiates previous psychotherapies.
Who created SFT?
Rita M. Haley, Ph.D., Founder and Resident Psychologist of NYC Psychologist conceived and developed SFT
How was she able to do this?
The diversity of Dr. Haley's educational and life experiences provide her with a depth of understanding of people, their problems, the dynamics underlying human behavior and the science of behavior that is outstanding.
Can I be treated with SFT at other Psychologist's office?
NYC Psychologist is the Center for SFT SELF-Focused Therapy. It is not available anywhere else at this time.
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Index of "Choose SFT Therapy" Pages
SFT SELF-Focused Therapy: Brief Description
SFT SELF-Focused Therapy: Full Description