[1][2] The Method of Levels originated in Bill Powers' phenomenological investigations into the mobility of awareness relative to the perceptual hierarchy.
[4] Cary, Warren Mansell, Sara Tai, Eva de Hullu, and their colleagues and students continue to research, practice, and teach MOL on several continents.
Eva de Hullu (Open Universiteit, the Netherlands), Warren Mansell (Curtin University, Perth, Australia) and Ana Churchman (Manchester University, UK) are leading collaborative development of an accreditation program on PCT principles, under the umbrella of the International Association for Perceptual Control Theory (IAPCT).
Conflict is usually transitory, but when it is not resolved and becomes chronic it may manifest as "inflexible control" and in distress processes such as worry, suppressed emotion, and self-criticism.
When the client has relocated attention above the level of the hierarchy from which the conflicting goals are set, an innate process called reorganization re-establishes satisfactory control.
It is hypothesized that when any therapy is successful the mechanism is this innate capacity for reorganization in the client's nervous system, irrespective of the therapist's conceptual 'toolkit'.
More than two decades of case histories by different therapists in different settings working with different people about a wide range of different problems show that nothing additional is needed to enhance MOL.
In conjunction with another clinical innovation, Patient-Led Appointment Scheduling (PLAS), MOL has been demonstrated to reduce waiting times and improve access to services with no reduction of its effectiveness and efficiency as therapy.