ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the identification and specification of the vicious circles that the short-term coping strategies set up. To return to the process of formulation, the establishment of the central feeling driving these strategies is the first task. The next task is to map the vicious circles that serve to feed the emotion and so keep the past alive. Identifying comprehensive, accurate behavioural cycles is key. These will give the therapy its focus, as the goals of therapy will be based on breaking the cycles, which in turn should lead to breaking the grip of the horrible feeling, and through this, the hold that the past has over the individual. The distinctiveness of Comprehend, Cope and Connect (CCC) is often in the detail and the style: the use of everyday language and the importance of true collaboration in creating the cycles, in order that the process of working to break them is genuinely owned by the individual, who must feel heard, understood and validated.
