The Method of Levels: How to Do Psychotherapy Without Getting in the Way

Based on Perceptual Control Theory, PCT (explained in the foreword), this therapeutic method, called The Method of Levels (MOL) leaves the patient in control with no interference from the therapist.

Author Tim Carey shows how you can ask very simple questions about background thoughts to assist a friend in distress. Without offering advice or commentary of any kind, you can help your trusting friend review his or her problem, finding his or her own solution by "going up a level," looking at his or her own internal conflict "from above" and finding ways to resolve it by changing his or her sense of what is important-changing how he or she looks at the internal conflict.

While working for Scotland's National Health Service Dr. Carey used the approach described in this book exclusively with his primary care patients. Some of his colleagues learned MOL from Dr. Carey and used it too. MOL achieved a new level of service efficiency such that a 15 month waiting list was reduced to 0 months.

From a review by Kalen Hammann: I've just finished the Method of Levels, and I'm astonished, delighted, and inspired. I was a psychotherapist for many years, using a variety of approaches (predominantly Gestalt Therapy, several versions of family therapy, and more recently Psychology of Mind), and while my clients were often happy with the results, I frequently wasn't. My fundamental dissatisfaction arose from the fact that I never knew WHY we were successful when we were, and what had gone wrong or failed to go right when we weren't. Now I think maybe at last I know.

Professor Tim Carey is a psychologist specialising in clinical psychology with a background in teaching including preschools, special education, and behaviour management. He developed the Method of Levels (MOL) and worked closely with William T. Powers, the developer of Perceptual Control Theory. Tim has over 100 publications including journal articles, books, and book chapters and also has blogs with Psychology Today and Mad in America.