1. Running head: LIGOWSKI METHOD !1
The Ligowski Method: Trauma Victim Therapy
Ariel Ligowski
Liberty University

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The Ligowski Method: Trauma Victim Therapy
Each therapy is presupposed with a philosophy and motivated by a goal that makes it
unique from other forms of treatment. Despite the diversity in psychological practice, there is a
collective goal: to treat clients through various struggles and hurtful situations, from divorce, to
grief counseling, to personality disorders, to a misbehaving child. The Ligowski Method is a
therapy designed specifically for individuals who have been recently traumatized by a horrific
event, drawing on techniques and concepts developed in cognitive-behavioral, Adlerian,
existential, and Gestalt therapy. Trauma victims are individuals who have been devastated by a
situation in which they had no control. As a clinical social worker utilizing the Ligowski
Method, I believe psychopathology is at risk to develop when trauma victims are not given a safe
space to work through their experience. In the absence of a safe space, victims can be potentially
victim-blamed or pressured to grieve at an undesired pace. The Ligowski Method aims to
empower victims, providing them with a safe space to heal from a situation in which they were
powerless. This therapy is anticipated to show outcomes whether in an individual, group, in-
patient, or out-patient setting, as seen in treatment for trauma victims and individuals with
anxiety (Welfare-Wilson & Newman, 2013). Treatment using this method is likely to be a long
process, considering the pervasiveness of trauma and anxiety, and would function best through
two meetings a week with the client.
While the structure of the Ligowski Method is important, as a practitioner I need to first
establish the appropriate therapeutic relationship. My client will be freshly recovering from a
traumatic event, and may even have a history of trauma, negative life experiences, or negative
thought patterns as a foundation. The method is useless without a therapeutic relationship where

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I am a wounded healer (Tan, p. 111). I cannot expect honesty or encourage self-awareness if I
am distant or closed-off as a therapist. While remaining professional, I will be transparent,
warm, and real with my client, occasionally sharing my own experiences or insights when
appropriate. Furthermore, I will draw from Carl Rogers and express congruence, unconditional
positive regard, and empathic understanding. Committing to being a wounded healer will enable
my client to be wounded, therefore achieving congruence. Our sessions will be a safe space,
where they can process in whatever way they need without ever inciting negative reactions from
me, thus achieving unconditional positive regard. Finally, to achieve accurate empathy, I will
become intimate with my client’s frame of reference, so that I can empathize as sensitively and
accurately as possible. Our first session will be breaking ground for such a relationship.
The first session will also contain my intake interview. This is common practice in social
work regardless of the client population. Based on the research of Mayou and Furmer (2002), in
addition to a typical intake form, I will ask about previous trauma and substance abuse/misuse.
Meanwhile, I will strategically look for patterns of injuries, destructive life choices, or thought
patterns that may be pervasive and deliberate. I will follow-up by checking my client’s records,
and, if appropriate, share any subsequent suspicions with informants and colleagues. Treating a
client in the context of the present traumatic event can be potentially beneficial, but long-term
effects are unlikely without a full understanding of the client’s history and comorbid struggles.
Once I have a rounded clinical picture, I can effectively practice trauma therapy.
The Ligowski Method has 3 steps. Step one is processing and owning the traumatic
event. Everyone processes trauma and difficult experiences differently. To gauge where my
client is at in their journey and meeting them there, I will utilize a variety of Gestalt techniques.

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Some might be more appropriate than others, depending on the type of situation. Generally, I
have five techniques I will routinely practice in step one of the Ligowski Method. For a client
with disorganized, detached, or repressed thoughts, I will immediately refer to the empty-chair
technique (Tan, p. 166). This might seem silly at first, but it is typically easier for a client to
organize and then direct his/her thoughts toward a person involved in the trauma (imagined to be
sitting in the chair) instead of to me. Even in stoic clients, this typically fosters vulnerability. A
client might partake in the empty-chair technique and end up screaming at her rapist, talking to a
friend who just died, or explaining to her mother how much she wishes she’d be compassionate
through the healing process. Typically when people are confronted with strong negative
emotions, they don’t want to dwell because it hurts. They might repress it, project it, minimize
it, or even rationalize it. When this occurs I will then encourage my client to “stay with the
feeling,” guiding him/her to fully experience his/her immediate feelings in the present, instead of
blocking or avoiding them (Tan, p. 163). Though painful, fully experiencing the depth of his/her
emotions will help the client own the emotions. As aforementioned, the purpose of the Ligowski
Method is to enable victims to have control over their healing. I would say a client’s sense of
control in his/her healing process is imperative for any type of healing to occur.
Through the empty-chair technique and staying with the feeling, my client now has a
plethora of emotions rising to the surface. This can be overwhelming, confusing, and difficult to
sort. I will use three techniques to help my client organize these intense feelings. I will feed my
client sentences, in which I suggest a sentence for him/her to repeat, so s/he can verbalize an
implicit message or attitude that is unclear (Tan, p. 163). For example, if my client was pushed
out of a car by her boyfriend and expresses denial, I might feed her the sentence: “I am in

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disbelief that the man I love is capable of pushing me out of a car and driving away”. This helps
organize my client’s thoughts, which is crucial in order for healing to occur. Another way to
encourage my client to own his/her experience is to require personal pronouns (Tan, p. 165).
Particularly when confronted with negative emotions, a client might distance him/herself from
the situation using semantics. For instance, a client who watched her friend die might say “It
was horrifying.” Utilizing personal pronouns, I would have my client restructure and restate the
following: “I was horrified watching my friend die.” While another technique that will prove
difficult for the client, it will guide the client to continuously own and process the situation.
Finally, in a further attempt to deflect passivity or denial, I will have my client convert questions
into personal statements (Tan, p. 165). If my client asks, “How am I supposed to go on?”, I will
have him/her restate the question as “I don’t know how I am going to move past this”.
Furthermore, if I have a client who asks “Why do bad things keep happening to me?”, I will have
him/her restate the question as “I feel like I keep experiencing bad things”. This is yet another
technique that seems trivial, but the emotional ramifications truly clear the way for healing in a
traumatized client.
Step two of the Ligowski Method is to eliminate automatic thoughts that formed in light
of the event. By now, the client has processed the reality of the trauma s/he has experienced.
Although s/he was given a safe space to fully experience those emotions and was guided through
the process by a professional, trauma runs deep, and cognitive distortions are almost guaranteed.
Cognitive therapy states that there are four types of cognitive distortions that I must confront as a
practitioner: arbitrary inferences, selective abstraction, overgeneralization, and magnification/
minimization (Tan, p. 261). A client makes an arbitrary inference when s/he makes a conclusion

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without supporting evidence. A client makes a selective abstraction when s/he forms a
conclusion based on an isolated detail of an event. A client makes an overgeneralization when s/
he holds an extreme belief on the basis of a single incident. Finally, a client magnifies or
minimizes when s/he perceives a situation in a greater or lesser light than it truly deserves. Some
of these can be tricky in the context of trauma, as we don’t want to accidentally victim-blame as
we attempt to correct their inaccurate thought processes. The best way to proceed is to not spell
it out for the client or take on the role of advice-giver, but assist the client in working it out for
him/herself. The best way to make cognitive distortions tangible is to write them out. On a
whiteboard or piece of paper, I will have the client write down the extreme belief, inaccurate
conclusion, or inappropriate perception that is the problem. The client will then draw an arrow
and write to the right of the belief what they feel is going to occur as a result of his/her belief.
The client will then write to the left of the belief what they feel happened that formed this belief
(an arrow connecting the event and the belief). For a rape victim, the result might look like this:
The action of drawing out the logical progression alone might help the client understand it is not
a plausible way to think and encourage him/her to deflect this cognitive distortion in the future.
If this is not the reaction, that is alright. From there, I will proceed by changing the diagram. I
will point out to the client that the only thing we know for sure is the original event (the text on
the lefthand side). We will then erase all the other text. I will encourage the client to write out a
belief that is appropriate, working only from the information provided by what is written on the
My father raped me
as a child and my
boyfriend raped
me recently
All men are
untrustworthy &
potential rapists
All men I get
close to will
eventually rape
me

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left. Once that is accomplished, I will encourage the client to write what they feel should or
could occur as a result of the newly written belief. Through this activity, the client restructures
the thought process activated by the traumatic event independently. The result may now look
like this:
Step three of the Ligowski Method is more applicable and imperative for those who have
years of traumatic or negative experiences preceding the recent trauma. The goal of step three is
to help the client reintegrate back into his/her normal lifestyle in a healthy way through rational
responding (Tan, p. 168). In rational responding, I will first assist the client in systematically
exploring evidence for and against a particular client belief. Let’s return to the rape victim
example. To combat her belief that all men are untrustworthy and potential rapists, I will
encourage an association with a male. It might be going out to lunch with her pastor or distant
male acquaintance, visiting a male professor on office hours, or having a lengthy conversation
with a male coworker. I would encourage her to interact with whatever man she chooses in a
public place, in a setting where she feels comfortable and like she has the power. Through this
relationship, she might contrive evidence that not all men are untrustworthy. Next, I will assist
the client in developing an alternate view or explanation that is more adaptive or reasonable than
the current belief held. Through this, I will utilize confrontation (Tan, p. 168). Rather than
combating the client’s belief with “why” questions, I will ask him/her “how” and “what”
My father raped me
as a child and my
boyfriend raped me
recently
My father and
my boyfriend
are
untrustworthy
rapists.
My father and
my boyfriend
should not be in
my life.

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questions, in order to avoid rationalization. For example, when my client reflects on her negative
view of men, I will gently ask her how all men are untrustworthy and potential rapists. Next, I
will encourage the client to decatastrophize (Tan, p. 259). The belief that all men are
untrustworthy and potential rapists is austere and debilitating socially. I will therefore encourage
my client to state the same belief in a less extreme way, which will bring her closer to reality.
My client might therefore minimize her extreme belief to the following: “All men like my father
and boyfriend are untrustworthy and potential rapists”. This belief is still slightly extreme and
problematic, but it is progress. It is also partially true, as there are universal red flags found in
abusive boyfriends and parents, and her ability to identify that is key to recovering from her
experiences in a healthy way. Finally, I will have my client develop concrete behavioral steps
that can be used to cope more effectively with the problem. I will instruct relaxation training for
my client to use whenever she feels anxious or triggered. I prefer relaxation training over
hypnotherapy, which reaps similar benefits (Golden, 2012). My reasons for this are that many
patients object to hypnotherapy, particularly patients that have been traumatized through a
situation in which they were not in control; Joseph Wolpe created relaxation training as an
alternative to hypnotherapy for this purpose (Golden, 2012). Furthermore, I can utilize
paradoxical intentions to eradicate unfavorable coping skills. For instance, my client might pick
at her skin whenever she is anxious. I will have her pick at her skin when she is feeling fine, in
various settings. Doing the action without the emotional instigation can potentially make her
feel silly or uncomfortable, therefore conditioning her to avoid the behavior. I might also utilize
the reversal technique (Tan, p. 169). If my client is reserved and quiet, I will have her scream

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everything at the top of her lungs, using profuse hand gestures. Similarly, if my client is volatile,
I will have her express herself quietly with her hands folded in her lap.
The hope in the Ligowski Method is that at the conclusion of the three steps, the client is
ready to healthily live their life and “get back to normal”. The Ligowski Method is meant to
emulate motivation enhancement treatment, which entails enhancing the intrinsic motivation of
the client to continuously help themselves, concluding with the discussion of varying treatment
options and discussing diagnosis’s (Korte & Schmidt, 2013). Based on the research of Korte and
Schmidt (2013), this process alone should alleviate the fear of manifesting anxiety. The goal is
for the client to then develop a “confidence to change”, guiding him/her to seek help for a
clinical diagnosis in anxiety. This is meant to equip the client with the tools to reintegrate into
everyday life, in spite of what s/he has experienced.
In light of trauma, “normal” is eradicated; it might take a long time for the trauma to feel
distant. It will always affect you. However, through fully processing and owning the trauma,
reorganizing various thought patterns, and developing effective ways to cope, a client can
potentially function well, even if the traumatic experience still hurts. Furthermore, regardless of
the success of the Ligowski Method, comorbid issues must be dealt with. For my rape victim
client, marriage and family therapy could be useful. I might have clients with mood, stress,
eating, or substance abuse disorders, all of which would need respective treatment. Though the
Ligowski Method only helps a victim process and cope with their trauma, a successful healing
journey will further enable wholistic treatment.

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References
Golden W. L. (2012). Cognitive hypnotherapy for anxiety disorders. American Journal of
Clinical Hypnosis, 54(4), 263-274.
Korte, K. J., & Schmidt, N. B. (2013). Motivational enhancement therapy reduces anxiety
sensitivity. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 37(6), 1140-1150. doi: 10.1007/
s10608-013-9550-3
Mayou, R., & Furmer, A. (2002). Trauma. British Medical Journal, International Edition,
325(7381), 426-429.
Tan, S. (2011). Counseling and psychotherapy: A christian perspective. Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Baker Academic.
Welfare-Wilson, A., & Newman, R. (2013). Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis and
anxiety. British Journal of Nursing, 22(18), 1061-1065.