The Singapore Family Physician

Back to issue Vol 51 No. 1 - Extended Consultation

Pattern Approach

Cheong Pak Yean
The Singapore Family Physician Vol 51 No 1 - Extended Consultation
27 - 31
10 January 2025
0377-5305
In pattern approach, salient life experiences of the patient which are selectively stored as narratives are examined. Such narratives may reflect a negative life pattern of thought and feeling, of maladaptive situations linked by theme(s), This becomes the problem-saturated story. Patients can be helped to change their pattern of negative thought and feeling and instead store their life experiences as preferred positive stories. The 4Rs — Re-membering, Re-framing, Re-authoring, and Re-telling are the tools used to help us to construct these preferred positive stories. When we do this consistently, the pattern work approach help us create present and future stories of hope for the sufferer.