Source Code: The Self-Help Treatment With Big Benefits

If you've been to therapy, you know that it can be a long and — at times — discouraging journey to make it to a breakthrough in your most challenging behavioral patterns. What if there was a shortcut that allowed you to hack your own internal programming and rewrite your Source Code as if you were a computer program? Good news: This approach to correcting any figurative glitches or errors you tend to experience as you navigate life exists in the form of a new self-help treatment called Source Code.

Source Code, created by Dr. Sam Rader, who worked as a licensed psychologist for 18 years before establishing Source Code, is a groundbreaking process for quickly identifying a person's "glitch" in the form of their Dysfunctional Coping Style. Once the trained coder guiding the process — known as a Solvent — helps a client identify their Coping Style, they can begin to heal through embodiment and energy work. Let's take a closer look at the process. 

The premise of Source Code is that each individual's Source Code — or programming — is written during their early childhood years, per Poosh. Depending on what the individual has experienced and witnessed and the interactions they had with their caregivers before the age of 5, they will have developed a particular Dysfunctional Coping Style. Rather than asking the client to extensively describe their early childhood experiences as they might in talk therapy, Source Code goes straight to the source: current thought and behavioral patterns.

Once a Coping Style has been identified, a Solvent can help the client integrate this knowledge through embodiment practices, which are key to processing memories and emotions and gaining self-awareness through the entire body and self rather than just within the mind, according to The Good Trade. The result is adopting the corresponding healthy Coping Style or Antidote. For people who tend to get stuck in their heads and over-intellectualize problems, a technique like Source Code can be life-changing. 

There are 12 dysfunctional Coping Styles a person may develop based on the programming they receive during their early childhood years: Symbiotic, Disconnected, Premature, Idealizing, Squashed, Indulged, Deprived, Frustrated, Omnipotent, Frictive, Constricted, and Provocative, according to Dr. Sam Rader. Each Dysfunctional Coping Style has a corresponding Functional Coping Style — known as an Antidote — that can be achieved through the Source Code method. For example, the goal of a person who starts the process with a Premature Coping Style is to emerge with a Nourished Coping Style.

A client who embodies an Omnipotent Coping Style, for instance, will begin the Source Code process exhibiting a need to control their surroundings at all times. These individuals never learned how to regulate and soothe themselves internally, so they compensate by dictating every detail of their external life. Through Source Code, a person living with an Omnipotent Coping Style can transform into one with a Safe Coping Style that allows them to accept the world around them, knowing that they have a safe haven inside of themselves. 

If you decide that Source Code is for you, it might help you feel more comfortable during the process to get familiar with what to expect during your session(s). First, be sure you have a safe, private, and comfortable space available for conducting a video meeting. You may not be able to fully open yourself to the process if you're worried about your roommate overhearing or about embarrassing yourself in front of your partner.

You may also want to consider familiarizing yourself with the concepts of embodiment and energy healing if these are new ideas for you — including chakra balancing. If you're already familiar with these concepts, you may wish to practice meditation or select a crystal, incense, or essential oil to keep near you before your session begins. Source Code combines the wisdom of counseling with those of computer programming and Eastern medicine, as per Dr. Sam Rader, so a passing familiarity with all three is a good place to start. 

Are you convinced that Source Code is the right move for you? You can book an online one-on-one session with Dr. Sam Rader herself or one of her five trained Solvents. However, if a live session isn't in your budget at the moment, you can still benefit from the technique. Dozens of self-paced digital courses are available with the option for monthly payment plans, and mini-courses are offered for as little as $11.

There is also an abundance of free resources available for those who aren't ready or able to make a financial investment. These include a quiz to help you self-identify your Coping Style, a guide to the styles, a free community of Source Code followers, and the option to view others' recorded Source Code sessions. Exploring these options can give you the chance to make sure that it's the right move for you before taking the plunge and committing to a paid experience.