The Power Threat Meaning Framework: Summary

The Power Threat Meaning Framework: Summary
Core principles of the PTM Framework

The Power Threat Meaning Framework is a new perspective on why people sometimes
experience a whole range of forms of distress, confusion, fear, despair, and troubled or troubling
behaviour. It is an alternative to the more traditional models based on psychiatric diagnosis.
It was co-produced with service users and applies not just to people who have been in contact
with the mental health or criminal justice systems, but to all of us.
The Framework summarises and integrates a great deal of evidence about the role of various
kinds of power in people’s lives; the kinds of threat that misuses of power pose to us; and the
ways we have learned as human beings to respond to threat. In traditional mental health practice,
these threat responses are sometimes called ‘symptoms’.
The Framework also looks at how we make sense of these difficult experiences, and how
messages from wider society can increase our feelings of shame, self-blame, isolation, fear and
guilt.
The main aspects of the Framework are summarised in these questions, which can apply to
individuals, families or social groups:
▪ ‘What has happened to you?’ (How is Power operating in your life?)

▪ ‘How did it affect you?’ (What kind of Threats does this pose?)
▪ ‘What sense did you make of it?’ (What is the Meaning of these situations and experiences to
you?)
▪ ‘What did you have to do to survive?’ (What kinds of Threat Response are you using?)
In addition, the two questions below help us to think about what skills and resources people might
have, and how we might pull all these ideas and responses together into a personal narrative or
story:
▪ ‘What are your strengths?’ (What access to Power resources do you have?)
▪ ‘What is your story?’ (How does all this fit together?)
Possible uses of the PTM Framework

The Power Threat Meaning Framework can be used as a way of helping people to create more
hopeful narratives or stories about their lives and the difficulties they may have faced or are still
facing, instead of seeing themselves as blameworthy, weak, deficient or ‘mentally ill’.
It highlights the links between wider social factors such as poverty, discrimination and inequality,
along with traumas such as abuse and violence, and the resulting emotional distress or troubled
behaviour.
It also shows why those of us who do not have an obvious history of trauma or adversity can still
struggle to find a sense of self-worth, meaning and identity.
The Framework describes the many different strategies people use, from automatic bodily
reactions to deliberately-chosen ways of coping with overwhelming emotions, in order to survive
and protect themselves and meet their core needs.
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It suggests a wide range of ways that may help people to move forward. For some people this
may be therapy or other standard interventions including, if they help someone to cope,
psychiatric drugs. For others, the main needs will be for practical help and resources, perhaps
along with peer support, art, music, exercise, nutrition, community activism and so on.
Underpinning all this, the Framework offers a new perspective on distress which takes us beyond
the individual and shows that we are all part of a wider struggle for a fairer society.
One of the most important aspects of the Framework is the attempt to outline common or typical
patterns in the ways people respond to the negative impacts of power - in other words, patterns
of meaning-based responses to threat. This part of the Framework, like all of it, is still in a process
of development. However, the evidence summarised in the Framework does suggest that there
are common ways in which people in a particular culture are likely to respond to certain kinds of
threat such as being excluded, rejected, trapped, coerced or shamed.
It may be useful to draw on these patterns to help develop people’s personal stories. These
general patterns can help to give people a message of acceptance and validation. The patterns
can also assist us in designing services that meet people’s real needs, as well as suggesting ways
of accessing support, benefits and so on that are not dependent on having a diagnosis.
In addition, the Framework offers a way of thinking about culturally-specific understandings of
distress without seeing them through a Western diagnostic model. It encourages respect for the
many creative and non-medical ways of supporting people around the world, and the varied
forms of narrative and healing practices that are used across cultures.
Taking the PTM Framework further

It is important to note that Power Threat Meaning is an over-arching framework which is not
intended to replace all the ways we currently think about and work with distress. Instead, the aim
is to support and strengthen the many examples of good practice which already exist, while also
suggesting new ways forward.
The Framework has wider implications than therapeutic or clinical work. The main document (link
below) suggests how it can offer constructive alternatives in the areas of service design and
commissioning, professional training, research, service user involvement and public information.
There are also important implications for social policy and the wider role of equality and social
justice. It is a work in progress, offered as a resource for any individuals, groups or organisations
interested in developing it further.
This link will take you to FAQs, the project documents and a possible ‘Guided discussion’ for one
to one work in services or for peer support/self-help.
• https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/introducing-power-threat-meaning-framework
Appendices 2-14 in the Overview Document give examples of good practice in various service and non-
service settings.
Videos of the talks from the launch can be seen here:
• https://vimeo.com/267401691
Interviews with project team and others are here:
• https://vimeo.com/264387393
Copies of the Overview document can be ordered from membernetworkservices@bps.org.uk.

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The Power Threat Meaning Framework: Summary

Core principles of the PTM Framework

▪ ‘What has happened to you?’ (How is Power operating in your life?)

Possible uses of the PTM Framework

Taking the PTM Framework further

Interviews with project team and others are here:

Copies of the Overview document can be ordered from membernetworkservices@bps.org.uk.

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