Have you heard the story about the blind men who encounter an elephant for the first time? The story is believed to have originated in India, with the earliest version appearing in ancient texts from around 500 BC, although it is believed that the story is even older than that! The details of the story vary from source to source, but in general the story tells of several blind men who find out that an unfamiliar exotic animal called an “elephant” is coming to their town, and they decide that they will examine it by touch to get to know it. When they encounter the elephant, one of the men feels the elephant’s trunk, and proclaims that the creature is most like a large snake. The second man feels one of the elephant’s thick, round legs and rough skin, and notices the similarity to a tree trunk, and he declares that this new creature is most like a tree. The third man goes to the elephant’s long, pointy tusks and asserts that the animal most resembles a spear. In some versions of the story, the men eventually come to blows! They each insist that their own conclusion about the elephant is correct, and they refuse to accept the observations from the other men.
This story illustrates that focussing on a narrow viewpoint of something that is large and complex can significantly limit our understanding and experience.
As a counselling therapist, this story reminds me of the importance of taking a holistic and multifaceted approach to mental health. Mental health is complex, and is connected to several different important aspects of life: emotions; thoughts; physical body; relationships; values; identity; etc. In my work, I use a framework and process called “STEP” to work on four important domains of mental health with clients: Self, Thoughts, Emotions, and Physiology (or Physical body). STEP provides a a simple but effective framework for understanding how these domains are connected to mental health and well-being. STEP helps people to understand difficult situations in their lives and then respond to those situations in ways that they prefer, as opposed to reacting to those difficult situations in undesirable and unhelpful ways.
This article is Part Two of a two-part introduction to STEP.
Part One walks through a difficult moment in the life of James, and describes how he uses STEP in that situation. James is a fictional person, but the work-related stress that he faces would feel very real to many people. James uses STEP on his commute home to try and prevent his stressful workday from ruining the evening with his family. As a counsellor, I use STEP to help people with a wide variety of tough situations that they face in their lives. James’ work-stress is one example, but I work with people facing many different kinds of challenging situations, such as negative moods like depression and anger, challenges with anxiety, difficulties in relationships, unresolved past traumas, preparing for important moments, loss & grief, and many more. This Part Two article provides an overview of the STEP framework, sometimes referring to James’ experience in part one.
Let’s take a quick look at each of the four domains.
The Self domain includes elements such as free will (and agency), values, meaning, identity and spirituality (in fact, some people may prefer to use the word “Spirituality” in place of the word “Self” if their Spirituality is an important part of their identity, meaning, and values). In the Part One article, James checked in with his values, and it was helpful for him to remember that both his job and his family were important values that were connected to the difficult moment he was facing, but that his family was the more important of the two.
The Thoughts domain includes various categories of thinking (cognition) such as predictions, assumptions, ideas, interpretations, etc. An important part of mental health is found in the ability to step back from your thoughts and observe them (a process called “metacognition”) and learn to focus on realistic and helpful thinking. James recognized that the thoughts associated with his memory of his positive 6-month review was helpful to counteract the worrisome thoughts he was having about his job performance.
The Emotion domain in the STEP model includes our feelings, and working in this domain involves developing a healthy relationship with your emotions as you identify, accept and listen to your emotional experiences (even the negative emotions!). James identified worry and sadness as two major emotions he was experiencing, and was able to connect them to his values in a way that made it easier for him to accept those emotions.
The Physiology domain focusses on our relationship with our physical bodies, and emphasizes various elements of our Physiology as a key element of mental health. Work with this domains involves our fight/flight/freeze response, physical self-care (sleep, nutrition, exercise, etc), and techniques that regulate our body such as breathing and other body-based exercises. James noticed the tension he was feeling in his body in response to his work stress, so he intentionally took a few deeper breaths, relaxed some of his muscles, and felt some relief from physically “unwinding”.
Each of the STEP domains are complex and can be addressed separately, but it is also important to recognize that they highly influence one another. An analogy can be drawn to the various systems of the human body that work together to contribute to overall physical health, such as the respiratory system, the digestive system, the brain & nervous system, etc. Just as we need to pay attention to all of these bodily systems to achieve and maintain good physical health and well-being, we also need to pay attention to these various aspects related to mental health – Self, Thoughts, Emotions, and Physiology – to achieve and maintain positive psychological health and well-being.
I encourage you to reflect on these four important domains in life.
Just taking a bit of time to slow down and think about each of these domains can be beneficial.
If you are interested trying out counselling, then I’d be happy to explore that option with you. As a counselling therapist, I help clients use STEP to gain a deep understanding of difficult situations in their lives, and develop an action plan to improve their responses to these situations. I draw upon several well-known therapeutic approaches to work on these domains, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness, Emotionally-Focussed Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I would be glad to meet with you and discuss how you can apply STEP to your life. Feel free to contact me at eli@mtnviewcounselling.com or 778-802-8385 if you have any questions or would like to book an appointment.