Why do people phase?

The short answer is that each of us must get our phase psychological needs met in healthy ways in order to function at our best. When this doesn’t happen, we attempt to get those same needs met in unhealthy ways – called second degree distress. If this goes on for an extended period of time, and we do not authentically experience the accompanying emotional/psychological issue of our phase, we may be a candidate for a phase change. There is no guarantee that someone will phase, and people may stay in chronic second degree distress for a lifetime.

The 3-day PCM Core Competency seminar goes into detail about psychological needs and phasing. The 2-day Advanced PCM seminar outlines phase issues. We also recommend reading The Process Therapy Model Book by Taibi Kahler – Unit nine on Phase Issues and Unit thirteen on Personality Development – great book with many gold nuggets!