Posted by coral on November 12, 2000, at 12:54:03
In reply to Re: Therapy length and impact??, posted by dj on November 12, 2000, at 12:15:19
Dear DJ,
Re: change.... self-effected or conscious change takes a minimum of nine months for the change to be considered permanent. Researchers don't know the reason for this but one thought is that change is a birthing process, and human beings require nine months from conception to birth - it's just a theory.
Again, this is specific to conscious change. It's easy to lose weight - hard not to gain it back, easy to quit smoking - hard not to start again. If a person keeps weight off for nine months, it's considered a true weight loss, and if a person doesn't smoke for nine months, people (other than intimates) will consider the person a non-smoker, forgetting that he/she ever smoked. This is true for organizations as well. A MINIMUM of nine months of continual attention is necessary for an organization to change. That's why so many organizational programs don't work. They're implemented but not reinforced, therefore, fail.
There is another organizational aspect that may also apply to individuals. When organizations implement but don't reinforce changes, employees become jaded and much more resistant to any "new" programs for improvement, etc., making change itself more difficult and requiring longer reinforcement. Individuals who have experienced failure in seeking treatment, such as incompetent therapists, wrong meds., etc., may become more resistant to change as a means of self-protection.This concept does not apply to external, forced change, such as trauma, where change can be truly instantaneous. Someone gets trapped in an elevator once, and becomes claustrophobic. A person may involuntarily flinch when driving on a road and passes the site of a previous automobile accident.
So, I can't answer the "why", just that the time table is proven.
Coral
poster:coral
thread:2566
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001031/msgs/2572.html