September 2010

 By Dr Francis Macnab

Twenty years ago Cairnmillar’s Exectutive Director, Dr. Francis Macnab, developed a specific treatment – a combination of counselling and psychotherapy called Contextual Modular Therapy.

This treatment was predominantly developed as it became clear that many problems, even complex problems, can be resolved using relatively brief forms of counselling and therapy.

The Difference between Counselling and Psychotherapy

Essentially the difference between Counselling and Psychotherapy (therapy) is that Counselling focuses on behaviour. It often targets a particular symptom or problematic situation and offers suggestions and advice for dealing with it.

Therapy is generally a longer term treatment which focuses more on gaining insight into chronic physical and emotional problems. Its focus is on the patient’s thought processes and way of being in the world.

Six Sessions

Contextual Modular Therapy provides the benefits of both Counselling and Therapy and is conducted in modules of six sessions. It includes cognitive behaviour therapy and the exploration of concealed and unconscious issues.

• Session 1 the patient explains their problem(s) and is introduced to what counselling and therapy can do.
• Session 2 the patient is encouraged to explore the different levels of their anxiety on the basis that anxiety pervades all problems, confuses the problems, and often blocks the solution and pathways to better self management.
• Session 3 explores the hidden aspects of the problem and the patients personality. This concentrates on the unconscious factors.
• Session 4 focuses on the patient’s thinking, their emotional overload and distortions, memories, tangled thoughts and troubled behaviour.
• Session 5 is called the existential session that invites the patient to explore their deeper concerns, aspirations and hopes.
• Session 6 brings the previous sessions together where the patient re-examines their identity, self worth and self-potential in the context of their relationships, culture, religion and resources.

 Dr Macnab has written several books describing this method and its application.

• The traumas of life and their treatment, Voulme 1 and 2
• What do older men really want?
• Work, what it does to us, what we do for it
• The Thirty Vital Years (55-85 years of age)

 Visit our bookshop for to purchase a copy of for further details.