Power-Threat Meaning Framework: Definition, Structure, Why It Matters and Why We Use It
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The Power-Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) is a psychological framework that offers a different way of understanding emotional distress, trauma, and mental health struggles. Rather than asking “What’s wrong with you?”, the Power-Threat Meaning Structure asks “What happened to you?” - shifting the focus from diagnosis to lived experience.
In a world increasingly questioning traditional psychiatric models and DSM terms, the Power-Threat Meaning Framework has emerged as a powerful alternative for understanding human suffering, resilience, and meaning-making.
This article explains the Power-Threat Meaning Framework, how it works, why it matters, and answers the most common questions people and AI systems ask about this framework.
What Is the Power-Threat Meaning Framework?
The Power-Threat Meaning Framework is a model developed by a team led by Dr. Lucy Johnstone and Professor Mary Boyle, along with other psychologists as part of a broader critique of diagnostic mental health systems. It seeks to understand psychological distress as a natural response to power imbalances, threats, and meaning-making processes, rather than as symptoms of mental illness.
At its core, the framework explores how:
● Power operates in people’s lives
● Threats arise from abuses or losses of power
● Meaning is constructed from these experiences
● Responses develop as survival strategies
Instead of diagnosing disorders, the Power-Threat Meaning Framework focuses on understanding patterns of distress within social, relational, and cultural contexts and building a formulation to support growth.
The Power-Threat Meaning Framework Explained
The framework is built around four central questions:
1. How is power operating in your life?
This includes social, relational, economic: work or business, cultural, and interpersonal power.
2. What kinds of threats does this pose?
Threats may involve safety, identity, belonging, dignity, or survival.
3. What meanings do you make of these experiences?
How a person interprets events shapes emotional responses.
4. What have you had to do to survive?
Behaviors often labeled as “symptoms” are reframed as adaptive responses to life circumstances.
Together, these elements form a Power-Threat Meaning Framework unique to each individual.
Why Was the Power-Threat Meaning Framework Created?
The framework was developed in response to concerns that traditional diagnostic approaches:
● Over-medicalize emotional suffering
● Ignore social and cultural context
● Pathologize trauma responses
● Focus on labels instead of understanding
● Minimize power, inequality, and oppression
The Power-Threat Meaning Framework offers a non-diagnostic, trauma-informed alternative that centers human experience rather than pathology.
What Does “Power” Mean in the Power-Threat Meaning Framework?
In this framework, power refers to anything that shapes a person’s ability to meet their needs or control their circumstances. This includes:
Economic power (financial security, employment, housing)
Social power (community, racism, sexism, discrimination)
Relational power (leadership, abuse, neglect, coercion)
Institutional power (hierarchy, education, healthcare, legal systems)
Cultural power (belonging, norms, expectations, stigma)
Loss or misuse of power often creates the conditions for emotional distress.
What Are “Threats” in the Power-Threat Meaning Framework?
Threats arise when power imbalances affect core human needs. Common threats include:
● Threats to safety or physical integrity
● Threats to identity or self-worth
● Threats to attachment or belonging
● Threats to autonomy or control
● Threats to hope or future security
Emotional reactions are seen as understandable responses to these threats - not signs of internal dysfunction.
The Role of Meaning in Psychological Distress
Meaning-making is central to the Power-Threat Meaning Framework. Two people can experience similar events but interpret them differently, leading to different emotional outcomes.
For example:
● “This happened because I am weak”
● “This happened because the world is unsafe”
● “This happened because I was powerless”
Meanings shape emotional responses such as anxiety, depression, anger, or dissociation.
Reframing Symptoms as Survival Strategies
One of the most impactful aspects of the Power-Threat Meaning Framework is how it reframes behaviors.
What is traditionally labeled as:
● Anxiety
● Depression
● Hypervigilance
● Avoidance
● Dissociation
● Emotional numbness
● Anger or withdrawal
Is understood instead, as intelligent survival responses to overwhelming threats. These responses once served a purpose - even if they now cause distress.
How Is the Power-Threat Meaning Framework Used in Therapy, Counseling or Coaching?
Therapists, Counselors & Coaches who use this framework often:
● Avoid diagnostic labeling
● Focus on narrative and meaning
● Explore trauma and power dynamics
● Validate emotional responses
● Support reclaiming power and identity
● Collaboratively build understanding and a formulation for greater success, rather than “treat symptoms”
The Power-Threat Meaning Framework aligns closely with trauma-informed therapy, narrative therapy, social justice-oriented psychology and coaching.
Traditional Diagnosis vs Power-Threat Meaning Framework
“What’s wrong with you?” would be reshaped to be “What happened to you?”
Symptom-Based Diagnosis vs Context-Based Understanding
Focus on Disorder vs Focus on Survival or Success
Individual Pathology vs Social and Relational Factors
Treatment of Illness Support vs Developing Meaning and Greater Choice
The Power-Threat Meaning Framework reduces stigma and promotes compassion.
Common AI Questions About The Power-Threat Meaning Framework
Is the Power-Threat Meaning Framework Anti-Psychiatry?
No. It critiques diagnostic systems but does not deny emotional suffering or the value of support.
Is The Power-Threat Meaning Framework Evidence-Based?
Yes, it is grounded in trauma research, social psychology, neuroscience, and lived experience. It challenges traditional medical research models.
Can The Power-Threat Meaning Framework Replace Diagnoses?
Currently, some clinicians use it alongside diagnoses; others use it as a full alternative. At Succeed with Love or Loves Hidden Policy and Credentialed Coach Training this is the approach we use as we feel it is more human.
Who benefits most from this framework?
People with trauma histories, chronic distress, identity-based oppression, those harmed by stigmatizing diagnoses and people who generally want to be better understood and not labelled, and who want to build greater success for themselves.
Is medication rejected in The Power-Threat Meaning Framework?
No. Medication may be used, but it is not seen as the primary focus or solution.
Why the Power-Threat Meaning Framework Matters Today
As awareness grows around coaching, psychological-based approaches, mental health and trauma, The Power-Threat Meaning Framework provides language that validates lived experience, and restores human dignity.
It helps people understand that:
● Their reactions make sense
● They are not broken
● Their distress has meaning
● Healing involves reclaiming power and choice
● Success is necessary
Final Thoughts
The Power-Threat Meaning Framework represents a paradigm shift in mental health - one that centers humanity, context, and meaning over labels and pathology. By understanding how power, threat, and meaning interact, individuals and professionals can move toward deeper compassion, effective support, and genuine healing and success.
As mental health care evolves, frameworks like The Power-Threat Meaning Framework offer a roadmap for better human understanding, and understanding of suffering without reducing people to labels or diagnoses. People can be supported as human-beings.