The Process
The 12 Steps of Vital Code®
A structured, compassionate process of diagnosis, re-signification, and integration, led by the client and shaped around the person.
"The 12 steps don't follow a recipe. They follow the human being."
The Vital Code process unfolds across three phases and twelve steps. Each step opens a different area of the client's experience: from presenting complaint to family system, from body to belief. The practitioner adapts the depth, pacing, and emphasis to each person. No two processes look alike.
The thread running through all twelve steps is a simple conviction: every person already holds what they need to understand and change their story. The practitioner's job is to help them find it.
Phase I: Steps 1 to 4
Diagnosis and Construction of Vital Maps
The first phase builds a structured understanding of the client's world: their history, their body, their constructed self, and their essence.
CV-P / CV-S
Complaint & Life History
The First Map of the Person
The practitioner begins by listening. The client shares their presenting concern and the broader story of their life: key events, significant relationships, turning points, and recurring themes. This is not just information-gathering; it is the first act of being genuinely heard.
From this conversation, the practitioner begins constructing a first vital map: an initial picture of the territory they will explore together.
"Every complaint is a door. Behind it is a story. Behind the story is a person."
CV-S
The Body as Messenger
Reading the Language of the Body
The body does not lie. In Vital Code, physical symptoms, tensions, and somatic patterns are read not merely as medical events but as messages: expressions of unprocessed experience seeking acknowledgement.
In this step, practitioner and client explore together where tension lives, what the body has been carrying, and what it might be communicating. Somatic awareness and mindfulness techniques support this enquiry.
"The body remembers what the mind has tried to forget."
CV-P
Identifying the Constructed Self
The Mask and What It Protects
Every person develops a constructed self, a way of showing up in the world that emerged, often early in life, as a response to their environment. It was adaptive and often wise. But when it becomes rigid or unconscious, it can cut the person off from deeper resources.
Here, the practitioner maps the client's personality patterns, ego structure, and habitual defences, with curiosity and without judgement. The goal is understanding, not dismantling.
"The constructed self was a solution. The work is to find what it was solving."
CV-E
The Encounter with the True Self
Beneath the Construction, the Essence
Beneath the layers of adaptation and story lies the essence of the person: their authentic nature, values, and deepest sense of who they are. The fourth step invites the client into direct contact with this, not through analysis but through experience.
Mindfulness, breathing, and visualisation techniques may support this encounter. The practitioner holds the space, allowing the client to reach what is most genuinely theirs, often for the first time in years.
"The true self has never been lost. It's only been covered."
Phase II: Steps 5 to 10
Re-signification and Emotional Release
The second phase moves from mapping to transformation, working through the beliefs, emotions, relationships, and patterns that have shaped the client's life.
CV-L
Map of Beliefs and Learnings
The Conclusions We Carry
From our experiences, particularly early ones, we draw conclusions about the world, about others, and about ourselves. Many of these are held unconsciously and operate as invisible rules that shape our decisions and responses. In this step, the practitioner helps the client surface and examine these beliefs using CBT-informed techniques and cognitive restructuring approaches.
"What limits us isn't what happened. It's the conclusion we drew from it."
CV-L / CV-E
Vital Regression
Returning to the Moment of Origin
Vital Regression is one of the most distinctive elements of the Vital Code method. Used within a symbolic and therapeutic framework, it supports the client in revisiting earlier experiences through guided imagery and somatic awareness, accessing the emotional charge of past events and creating room for resolution and re-signification.
This technique is only used by trained practitioners with appropriate ethical grounding and when the client is ready.
"The past can't be changed, but our relationship to it can."
CV-P / CV-E
Vital Dialogues
The Conversation Between Parts
Drawing on IFS (Internal Family Systems) thinking, Vital Dialogues facilitates a structured conversation between different internal parts: the protector, the wounded child, the inner critic, the authentic self. The practitioner guides the client in listening to each part with curiosity rather than judgement, uncovering the purpose behind even the most limiting patterns.
"Every part has a purpose. The work is to understand it."
CV-R
Genogram and Laws of Love
The Map of the Family System
We do not arrive in the world as blank pages. We are born into systems: families with their histories, loyalties, unresolved griefs, and unspoken rules. The genogram maps these patterns across generations, revealing dynamics that may still be operating in the client's present. Principles from Bert Hellinger's systemic work inform the exploration of belonging, order, and the "laws of love" that govern family systems.
"We carry more than our own story. We carry the echoes of those who came before."
CV-R
Relational Patterns
How We Connect and Disconnect
This step looks at how the client relates to others: their attachment style, recurring relational dynamics, and how early experiences have shaped adult relationships. The practitioner supports the client in seeing these patterns clearly, and starting to relate from a more conscious and grounded place.
"We repeat what we have not yet resolved."
CV-R
Vital Constellation
Seeing the System from the Inside
Vital Constellation draws on the methodology of systemic constellations, used here in a symbolic and therapeutic context, to give the client a new vantage point on the dynamics of their family or professional system. Through this process, entanglements become visible, excluded members can be acknowledged, and the client can find their proper place within the system.
"What is excluded keeps seeking inclusion until it is seen."
Phase III: Steps 11 to 12
Integration and Future
The third phase consolidates the work and orients the client toward what is now possible, grounded in a clearer sense of self and what matters most.
CV-V
Vital Goals and Actions
From Insight to Movement
Understanding without action changes little. In this step, practitioner and client work together to translate the insights and resolutions of the process into concrete goals, grounded not in pressure or obligation but in the client's own values and renewed sense of direction.
Drawing on positive psychology and motivational approaches, this step builds a bridge between the inner work and the life ahead.
"Insight becomes change only when it meets intention, and intention meets action."
CV-V
The Portal of Life
The Beginning of What Comes Next
The twelfth step is not an ending; it is a threshold. Having worked through the landscape of their inner world, the client arrives somewhere new: more self-aware, more settled, clearer about what matters. The practitioner facilitates a closing ritual of integration, acknowledging the journey and what has shifted, and releasing the client into what comes next.
A summary vital map is offered: a document of self-knowledge that the client carries forward as a compass for the road ahead.
"The journey doesn't end here. It begins again, but differently."
Learn More or Get Certified
Ready to Go Deeper?
Explore the full Vital Code method, or begin your path toward becoming a certified practitioner.
The Process
The 12 Steps of Vital Code®
A structured, compassionate process of diagnosis, re-signification, and integration, led by the client and shaped around the person.
“The 12 steps don’t follow a recipe. They follow the human being.”
The Vital Code process unfolds across three phases and twelve steps. Each step opens a different area of the client’s experience: from presenting complaint to family system, from body to belief. The practitioner adapts the depth, pacing, and emphasis to each person. No two processes look alike.
The thread running through all twelve steps is a simple conviction: every person already holds what they need to understand and change their story. The practitioner’s job is to help them find it.
Phase I — Steps 1 to 4
Diagnosis and Construction of Vital Maps
The first phase builds a structured understanding of the client’s world: their history, their body, their constructed self, and their essence.
01
CV-P / CV-S
Complaint & Life History
The First Map of the Person
The practitioner begins by listening. The client shares their presenting concern and the broader story of their life: key events, significant relationships, turning points, and recurring themes. This is not just information-gathering; it is the first act of being genuinely heard.
From this conversation, the practitioner begins constructing a first vital map: an initial picture of the territory they will explore together.
“Every complaint is a door. Behind it is a story. Behind the story is a person.”
02
CV-S
The Body as Messenger
Reading the Language of the Body
The body does not lie. In Vital Code, physical symptoms, tensions, and somatic patterns are read not merely as medical events but as messages: expressions of unprocessed experience seeking acknowledgement.
In this step, practitioner and client explore together where tension lives, what the body has been carrying, and what it might be communicating. Somatic awareness and mindfulness techniques support this enquiry.
“The body remembers what the mind has tried to forget.”
03
CV-P
Identifying the Constructed Self
The Mask and What It Protects
Every person develops a constructed self, a way of showing up in the world that emerged, often early in life, as a response to their environment. It was adaptive and often wise. But when it becomes rigid or unconscious, it can cut the person off from deeper resources.
Here, the practitioner maps the client’s personality patterns, ego structure, and habitual defences, with curiosity and without judgement. The goal is understanding, not dismantling.
“The constructed self was a solution. The work is to find what it was solving.”
04
CV-E
The Encounter with the True Self
Beneath the Construction, the Essence
Beneath the layers of adaptation and story lies the essence of the person: their authentic nature, values, and deepest sense of who they are. The fourth step invites the client into direct contact with this, not through analysis but through experience.
Mindfulness, breathing, and visualisation techniques may support this encounter. The practitioner holds the space, allowing the client to reach what is most genuinely theirs, often for the first time in years.
“The true self has never been lost. It’s only been covered.”
Phase II — Steps 5 to 10
Re-signification and Emotional Release
The second phase moves from mapping to transformation, working through the beliefs, emotions, relationships, and patterns that have shaped the client’s life.
05
CV-L
Map of Beliefs and Learnings
The Conclusions We Carry
From our experiences, particularly early ones, we draw conclusions about the world, about others, and about ourselves. Many of these are held unconsciously and operate as invisible rules that shape our decisions and responses. In this step, the practitioner helps the client surface and examine these beliefs using CBT-informed techniques and cognitive restructuring approaches.
“What limits us isn’t what happened. It’s the conclusion we drew from it.”
06
CV-L / CV-E
Vital Regression
Returning to the Moment of Origin
Vital Regression is one of the most distinctive elements of the Vital Code method. Used within a symbolic and therapeutic framework, it supports the client in revisiting earlier experiences through guided imagery and somatic awareness, accessing the emotional charge of past events and creating room for resolution and re-signification.
This technique is only used by trained practitioners with appropriate ethical grounding and when the client is ready.
“The past can’t be changed, but our relationship to it can.”
07
CV-P / CV-E
Vital Dialogues
The Conversation Between Parts
Drawing on IFS (Internal Family Systems) thinking, Vital Dialogues facilitates a structured conversation between different internal parts: the protector, the wounded child, the inner critic, the authentic self. The practitioner guides the client in listening to each part with curiosity rather than judgement, uncovering the purpose behind even the most limiting patterns.
“Every part has a purpose. The work is to understand it.”
08
CV-R
Genogram and Laws of Love
The Map of the Family System
We do not arrive in the world as blank pages. We are born into systems: families with their histories, loyalties, unresolved griefs, and unspoken rules. The genogram maps these patterns across generations, revealing dynamics that may still be operating in the client’s present. Principles from Bert Hellinger’s systemic work inform the exploration of belonging, order, and the “laws of love” that govern family systems.
“We carry more than our own story. We carry the echoes of those who came before.”
09
CV-R
Relational Patterns
How We Connect and Disconnect
This step looks at how the client relates to others: their attachment style, recurring relational dynamics, and how early experiences have shaped adult relationships. The practitioner supports the client in seeing these patterns clearly, and starting to relate from a more conscious and grounded place.
“We repeat what we have not yet resolved.”
10
CV-R
Vital Constellation
Seeing the System from the Inside
Vital Constellation draws on the methodology of systemic constellations, used here in a symbolic and therapeutic context, to give the client a new vantage point on the dynamics of their family or professional system. Through this process, entanglements become visible, excluded members can be acknowledged, and the client can find their proper place within the system.
“What is excluded keeps seeking inclusion until it is seen.”
Phase III — Steps 11 to 12
Integration and Future
The third phase consolidates the work and orients the client toward what is now possible, grounded in a clearer sense of self and what matters most.
11
CV-V
Vital Goals and Actions
From Insight to Movement
Understanding without action changes little. In this step, practitioner and client work together to translate the insights and resolutions of the process into concrete goals, grounded not in pressure or obligation but in the client’s own values and renewed sense of direction.
Drawing on positive psychology and motivational approaches, this step builds a bridge between the inner work and the life ahead.
“Insight becomes change only when it meets intention, and intention meets action.”
12
CV-V
The Portal of Life
The Beginning of What Comes Next
The twelfth step is not an ending; it is a threshold. Having worked through the landscape of their inner world, the client arrives somewhere new: more self-aware, more settled, clearer about what matters. The practitioner facilitates a closing ritual of integration, acknowledging the journey and what has shifted, and releasing the client into what comes next.
A summary vital map is offered: a document of self-knowledge that the client carries forward as a compass for the road ahead.
“The journey doesn’t end here. It begins again, but differently.”
Learn More or Get Certified
Ready to Go Deeper?
Explore the full Vital Code method, or begin your path toward becoming a certified practitioner.