This updated glossary defines key concepts used in ShiftGrit’s identity-level therapy approach. From core beliefs and behavioural loops to terms like Belief Unpairing and Identity Reconditioning, each entry explains how the brain wires survival-based responses — and how we break the pattern. 🔗 Learn more: Identity Reconditioning - https://shiftgrit.com/identity-reconditioning/ Pattern Reconditioning - https://shiftgrit.com/identity-level-therapy/pattern-reconditioning/ Belief Unpairing - https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/belief-unpairing ShiftGrit Glossary - https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/ I’m Not Good Enough – A Core Belief - https://patterns.shiftgrit.com/core-beliefs/im-not-good-enough For a deeper look at how we rewire belief-based emotional responses, visit https://ShiftGrit.com.

1. Glossary Schema
Explore glossary → https://shiftgrit.com/glossary

2. 📘ShiftGrit Therapy Glossary
Defined Terms for Identity-Level Change
🔹Limiting Beliefs
Core identity-level beliefs formed early in life that shape perception, behaviour, and self-worth.
🔹Walnut Brain
A metaphor for the reactive, emotional brain system responsible for automatic threat detection.
🔹Dysfunctional Needs
Coping strategies developed to avoid triggering limiting beliefs, often resulting in burnout and
identity strain.
🔹Opt-Out Behaviour
The system’s reactive release when emotional pressure becomes unmanageable — including
shutdown, rage, or sabotage.
🔹Confirmation Bias
The brain’s tendency to seek evidence that supports existing beliefs, reinforcing old emotional
patterns.
🔹Cognitive Dissonance

3. The inner conflict that occurs when behaviour contradicts belief, often exposing deeper
identity-level loops.
🔹Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
When belief-driven behaviour creates outcomes that reinforce the original belief.
🔹Non-Nurturing Elements
Emotionally formative experiences that undermine safety and connection, shaping early beliefs
and patterns.
🔹Pattern Loop
A repeated cycle of emotional reaction, coping, and belief confirmation that reinforces itself over
time.
🔹Pressure Cooker
The emotional buildup that results from maintaining a belief-avoidant coping strategy — until the
system collapses.
🔹Pattern Reconditioning
The process of rewiring belief-based patterns through guided imaginal exposure and threat
recalibration.
🔹Reconditioning Protocol

4. ShiftGrit’s proprietary multi-phase change process, designed to transform patterned emotional
reactions safely and systematically.
🔹Identity Reconditioning​
ShiftGrit’s foundational change process that targets core belief loops and reactive survival
patterns. Identity Reconditioning reframes how the self is emotionally encoded — replacing
fear-based identity rules with aligned, automatic clarity.
🔹Belief Unpairing​
The mechanism by which a limiting belief is disconnected from the emotional or behavioural
pattern it once triggered. This is what allows real-time change — the pattern no longer
auto-fires.
📘Glossary Schema
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"@type": "DefinedTermSet",
"name": "ShiftGrit Therapy Glossary",
"description": "A structured glossary of key identity-level therapy terms, pattern-based
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{
"name": "Limiting Beliefs",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/limiting-beliefs",
"description": "Core identity-level beliefs, often formed early in life, that unconsciously shape
perception and behaviour. At ShiftGrit, reconditioning these beliefs is key to lasting change."
},
{
"name": "Walnut Brain",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/walnut-brain",

5. "description": "A metaphor for the reactive emotional brain system — responsible for
automatic threat responses. At ShiftGrit, it refers to the amygdala-driven part of the brain that
fires before logic and is central to emotional patterns."
},
{
"name": "Dysfunctional Needs",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/dysfunctional-needs",
"description": "Protective strategies developed to avoid triggering Limiting Beliefs. These
needs create emotional pressure and often lead to burnout, perfectionism, or overfunctioning."
},
{
"name": "Opt-Out Behaviour",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/opt-out-behaviour",
"description": "The reactive behaviour that occurs when emotional pressure becomes too
much to manage — such as shutdown, rage, or sabotage. A core phase in the ShiftGrit pattern
loop model."
},
{
"name": "Confirmation Bias",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/confirmation-bias",
"description": "The brain’s tendency to seek evidence that confirms existing beliefs. In
therapy, it often reinforces Limiting Beliefs until the emotional filter is reconditioned."
},
{
"name": "Cognitive Dissonance",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/cognitive-dissonance",
"description": "The mental tension caused by contradictory beliefs and behaviours. ShiftGrit
therapy resolves dissonance by updating belief systems at the identity level."
},
{
"name": "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/self-fulfilling-prophecy",
"description": "A pattern where behaviour shaped by a belief causes the outcome that
confirms it. At ShiftGrit, reconditioning the belief breaks the loop."
},
{
"name": "Non-Nurturing Elements",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/non-nurturing-elements",

6. "description": "Repeated emotional experiences that undermine a child’s sense of safety or
worth — often responsible for the formation of early limiting beliefs and patterned emotional
responses."
},
{
"name": "Pattern Loop",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/pattern-loop",
"description": "A repeating cycle of emotional response, behaviour, and belief confirmation.
Core to ShiftGrit’s framework for identifying and reconditioning limiting emotional patterns."
},
{
"name": "Pressure Cooker",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/pressure-cooker",
"description": "The internal emotional tension created when dysfunctional coping strategies
suppress a limiting belief. Often precedes Opt-Out Behaviour."
},
{
"name": "Pattern Reconditioning",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/pattern-reconditioning",
"description": "The core mechanism of change in ShiftGrit therapy — using imaginal
exposure to safely rewire threat responses and dissolve limiting beliefs."
},
{
"name": "Reconditioning Protocol",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/reconditioning-protocol",
"description": "The Reconditioning Protocol is ShiftGrit’s proprietary therapeutic method for
identity-level change. It involves a structured, multi-phase process that targets belief-based
emotional patterns using guided exposure, mismatch integration, and pattern recalibration."
},
{
"name": "Identity Reconditioning",
"url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/identity-reconditioning",
"description": "ShiftGrit’s identity-level process for rewiring limiting belief loops and automatic
survival responses. Identity Reconditioning reframes a client’s self-concept through guided
imaginal exposure, belief unpairing, and nervous system recalibration. It is the theoretical
foundation of the Reconditioning Protocol and Pattern Reconditioning system."
},
{
"name": "Belief Unpairing",

7. "url": "https://shiftgrit.com/glossary/belief-unpairing",
"description": "The therapeutic process of disconnecting a limiting belief from its automatic
emotional or behavioural response. At ShiftGrit, belief unpairing is central to Pattern
Reconditioning and enables clients to respond with alignment instead of survival-based
reactions."
}
]
}