Martijn van Teffelen

Chapter 5 106 (i.e., the harmful behavior) about me (i.e., the victim) to separate us deliberately (i.e., the intention)”. A one-sentence summary of the event (e.g., my friend went on holiday without me) and the hostile belief (e.g., my mother said something nasty to my friend about me to separate us deliberately) were then written on a whiteboard. Examples of events and their related hostile beliefs in three participants (i.e., pseudonyms John, Bastian, and Kim) are presented in Table 1. Table 1 Examples of events and related hostile beliefs in three cases Participant Event Hostile belief Hostile image John My daughter lied by saying she did not have sex with her boyfriend She is doing this on purpose to hurt me Scornfully sly little infant who is ridiculing me Bastian My mother told my friend to go on holiday without me She deliberately says harmful things to separate me and my friend. A scornfully laughing old witch with a wrinkly, mean, laughing facial expression Kim My friend acts nervous on my birthday My friend purposefully tries to spoil my birthday My friend looks at me with angry accusing eyes, standing arms crossed Imagery recall After the hostile belief is identified, participants recalled the situation in imagery modus. The aim of this phase is to let participants relive the anger-provoking event in imagery, as preparation for the next phase in which the hostile belief was transformed into a hostile image. During the imagery recall participants were asked to describe their anger-provoking event with their eyes closed, as if it is happening here and now, making use of their five senses. We then observed and checked with the participant if (s)he was experiencing an optimal level of hostility (i.e., high enough to sense some hostility, but not to the extent that a participant is overwhelmed). Next, we repeated the hostile belief that was written on the whiteboard. Below is an example of John (see Table 1), who’s 15-year old daughter asked for sexual education, because she met a boy at school that she liked. John says that one of the most principal things he tried to teach his daughter while raising her was that lying is not tolerated. While giving his daughter sexual education he finds out that his daughter already had sex the day before. THERAPIST: “Alright John, now I want to ask you to close your eyes and imagine you’re going back to the situation where you found out your daughter lied about having sex. Please go back to the moment you were most angry and describe what happens as if it is happening here and now as vividly as possible.”