Linguists have identified a certain class of sentences such as:

Max makes Sue weigh 357 pounds on Tuesdays.

And

Mildred forces Tom to be 8 feet tall on Saturdays.

as semantically ill-formed.

Within the context of therapy, we have found an extension of this linguistic class very useful. Specifically, any sentence such as:

He makes me sad.

is called Cause-Effect semantically ill-formed.

She makes me really mad.

He really makes her sad.

Walking along the beach makes me feel refreshed.

We understand that these sentences may be a valid description of a person's experience. However, what we are saying is that the Cause-Effect relationship which each of these sentences seems to require is not necessary. We have determined in working with people in therapy that, all too frequently, their pain and lack of freedom and choice are connected with parts of their experience which they represent in the Cause-Effect semantically ill-formed pattern we have just identified. This, typically, takes the form:

This caused that.

I am helpless.

It is final.

We have found it useful in our work to assist people in having a choice about whether a particular movement, act, smile, word, etc., from someone else necessarily has to have the effect on them that they claim. Typically, people who do not have such choices experience little or no control and responsibility over their own lives. Specifically, as therapists we have found that we can effectively assist clients in coming to have these choices by asking them to describe in detail the process by which someone causes them to feel or sense what they are experiencing.