Method of levels

The Method of Levels (MOL) is an application of perceptual control theory (PCT) to psychotherapy. A therapist using MOL does not make diagnoses or propose solutions or remedies. As the client talks about some matter, the therapist is alert to subtle interruptions indicating a shift of awareness to a perspective about that matter. The therapist asks what they were just thinking or feeling, and as the patient talks about that the therapist continues to be alert for intrusion of background thoughts or feelings. This process of "going up a level" continues until the higher-level sources of contradictory goals come into concurrent awareness from a yet higher level, allowing an apparently innate process of reorganization to resolve the conflict that was distressing the client.^[1][2]