ABSTRACT
Ambivalence seems to support the underlying assumptions (UAs) that elicit safety-seeking behaviors, which in turn, promote experiential avoidance. The way Trial-Based Cognitive Therapy (TBCT) collaboratively explores ambivalence, making it explicit and clearer to the patient, is a distinctive feature of TBCT. Consensual role-play (CRP) is used transdiagnostically, typically taking around 3040 minutes to be implemented, and can be repeated as many times as necessary regarding the same or different decisions during the therapy process. The therapist explains to the patient that the most important thing is what she learns and not the decision itself. The therapist assures that the patient will not be pressured to make the decision of confronting the feared situation/object, decreasing the patient's defensiveness, and freeing her to express any concern and not try to please the therapist. This strategy paradoxically frees the patient to make the decision to challenge the feared situation/object.
