I am teaching a 6-day residential workshop in South Africa. Many of the participants are leaders in their communities who have come to learn about the unconscious beliefs and motivations that shape a person’s life. The first evening, one of the participants tells the group that she is terrified of snakes and is afraid to walk through the grassy area from the meeting room to her cabin, about 100 feet away. Several participants offer to escort her. Sensing that she could rapidly be helped with this phobia, I arrange—with her tense but trusting permission—for a guide at the game reserve where the workshop is being held to bring a snake into the class at 10 a.m. the next morning.

I set up the chairs so the snake and the handler are 20 feet away from her, but within her range of vision. I ask her what it is like to have a snake in the room. She lets us know she has been dissociating: "I am okay as long as I don’t look at it, but I have to tell you, I left my body 2 minutes ago."  Within less than half an hour, using methods presented in this program, she is able to imagine being close to a snake without feeling fear. I ask her if she is ready to walk over to the snake that is across the room. As she approaches the snake, she appears confident. The confidence has soon grown into enthusiasm as she begins to comment on the snake’s beauty. She asks the handler if she can touch it. Haltingly but triumphantly, she does. She reports that she is fully present in her body. This proves to be a most satisfactory way of introducing the participants to the "energy" component of the workshop. Three days later, the group is driven out into the bush and returns on foot, about a 60-minute nature walk. When they are back, another class member asks the woman if her fear of snakes made the walk difficult. A surprised look comes over her face. She realizes, "I never even thought about it." Her lifelong fear had evaporated, and on follow-up, has not returned.

In this case, with a highly specific symptom that readily responded to tapping within a half-hour session, there was no need for elaborate measures to complete the treatment. More often, a number of steps are advisable to help insure that a positive clinical response will be maintained. When the SUD drops to 0 or close to 0 while a problem state is locked in, additional steps for completing the treatment include:

This module addresses each of these steps.

Two opposing principles influence whether an energy correction will be effective, and if it is, how long it will hold. They are:

Triple warmer is continually scanning for danger. Whenever a threat or potential threat is identified, it mobilizes the body’s energies to respond to the threat, building upon inherited defense strategies such as the immune response or the fight-or-flight mechanism.

Triple warmer’s basic "decision" involves only two possibilities: mobilize for threat or don’t mobilize. The decision is made instantly based on whether previous decisions in similar circumstances were or were not reinforced. After each new experience, the underlying strategy can be updated in either direction (mobilize, don’t mobilize).

If the mobilization for danger is provoked by a stimulus but no danger follows, and this cycle is repeated, the mobilization eventually ceases even in the presence of the original stimulus, a process known as "extinction." Brief electrical stimulation of the prefrontal cortex in rats in the presence of a stimulus that mobilizes a fear response also extinguishes the fear response. This mechanism may be highly significant for energy psychology. It is possible that the stimulation of certain acupoints while a stress-evoking stimulus is mentally accessed sends signals to the prefrontal cortex that extinguish the conditioned emergency response to that stimulus.

In many psychological problems, the emergency response is set into motion by a single event involving danger or perceived danger, and from then on is reflexively evoked in all similar situations. The emergency response—costly in terms of the diversion of attention, the generation of intense affect, the distortion of perception, and the expenditure of biological resources—is regularly triggered by circumstances that do not constitute actual physical or psychological danger. When a conditioned emergency response of this nature is interrupted by an energy intervention, and the perceived threat proves to have been innocuous (nothing bad happens), triple warmer can quickly update its emergency strategy. This is how the principle of rapid adaptability helps explain the unexpectedly rapid treatment responses, such as instant phobia cures, that are so frequently reported within energy psychology.

1. The survival strategy may not be sufficiently attuned to the present danger.
    

2. The survival strategy may become deeply embedded and then triggered in circumstances where it is not needed, the "false alarm" factor that is at the root of many psychological problems.

Whether or not the situation that triggers that survival response is an actual threat, the disruption to the meridian system, the rush of chemicals, and the accompanying threat-related emotions are still just as physiologically and psychologically costly, and restabilizing after the crisis has passed requires just as many resources. More to the heart of psychological problems, because the threat response overpowers reason, the resulting perceptions, thoughts, and actions are often blindly reactive, non-adaptive, and sometimes self-destructive.

In cases such as an uncomplicated phobia, the principle of rapid adaptability usually prevails. The threat response is interrupted, nothing bad happens, the strategy is updated. In cases where a problem has many aspects, where the threat response is connected to a complex of experiences and issues, the deep-seated survival strategy can be enormously resistant to change. The same basic energy interventions are still used, but numerous aspects of the problem need to be identified and energetically neutralized. Once this has occurred, the steps presented in this chapter can support the positive internal changes within the client’s back-home setting.

1. Slowly and steadily roll the eyes upward from the floor to the ceiling. During this "sweep," send the energy from the eyes outward
    

2. Hold the eyes in the raised position for a few seconds

The Third Eye Tap is used when a person is already feeling good. It takes the vibration of a joyous feeling and patterns the nervous system to more easily support that vibration. The first acupuncture point on the meridian that governs the nervous system (bladder) is also at the spot that yogis refer to as the "third eye," between the eyebrows, above the bridge of the nose. When you are feeling happy, deeply satisfied, spiritually connected, in love, or any other joyful feeling, you can, by tapping at your third eye, direct this energy to leave an imprint on your entire nervous system.

At a moment a client is feeling joy or hope or enthusiasm about a future that is untainted by the target problem, he or she may "tap" this feeling into the third eye point. The tapping is firm yet gentle, for about 10 to 20 seconds; the breathing is deliberate.

The human biofield is an electromagnetic field that is detectable using established measuring instruments. It comes several inches out from the skin and surrounds the entire body. The concept of the aura has its basis in the biofield. The aura has been described as an envelope that contains a person’s own energies, protects against harmful energies in the environment, and at the same time connects the person with harmonious energies, including those of other people. Energy healers report that the "health" of the biofield or aura reflects the health of the body along with its vulnerability to taking on diseases and other outside intrusions.

Because your hands carry an electromagnetic charge, you can use them to smooth, trace, and strengthen your aura or biofield—this is almost like giving it a massage. The aura seems to have the best response when "massaged" in figure-8 patterns. When your energies are in a positive state, you can use your hands to "weave your aura" so it constitutes itself around this positive state. Hold the image that initially triggered the problem, with the distress level now at 0 or close enough to 0 that you would like to lock it in, and you can energetically reinforce this internal state by weaving your aura as follows:

First, access a positive internal state and do the Eye Roll, the Third Eye Tap, and the Auric Weave in sequence, keeping the positive state active. Teach your partner the three techniques.

Then, with your partner, review your work in Practice Session 5 of the previous module (a complete treatment sequence that brings the SUD of a target problem down to 0 or near 0). Continue experimenting with the three anchoring techniques in relationship to the problem that has now been neutralized. Switch with your partner between the client and therapist roles.

While cognitive and behavioral techniques for translating therapeutic gains into back-home settings are part of most clinical approaches, the energy-based psychotherapies also use procedures to get specific images of positive outcomes to resonate with the client’s energy system. A series of steps called the Outcome Projection Procedure can help anchor the positive internal changes into the client’s daily life. You will see that the internal logic is similar to sequences you have already learned. Each step is presented in the language you might use in guiding a client through the technique, followed by a description which elaborates upon the dog bite example presented in the Basic Basics module.

If the belief level will not move up to 8, the same basic strategy for lowering a SUD level can be employed: Check and resolve neurological disorganization and psychological reversals, employ general balancing procedures while thinking about the desired state, and stimulate treatment points while thinking about the desired state.

Checks for psychological reversals focus on the belief that the desired state can be obtained and are worded along the lines of:

General balancing procedures may be as simple as tapping the gamut point (just below the knuckles of the ring and little fingers, slightly toward the wrist) or the points in the hollows at the side of each eye while thinking about being able to achieve the desired outcome. Any of the other bridging techniques (9 Gamut, Blow-Out/Zip-Up/Hook-In, Elaborated Cross Crawl, Connecting Heaven and Earth) can also be paired with the thoughts about the desired outcome. These will often elevate the belief level to the desired range.

The alarm points may also be checked while the client thinks about being able to achieve the desired outcome. Since a problem state is not being locked in, corrections in this case should be made when the indicator muscle loses its firmness. If touching the alarm point for liver meridian weakens the indicator muscle, for instance, a liver meridian point is stimulated while the client thinks about the desired outcome.

These procedures are repeated in various combinations until the client is able to create a strong internal representation of the desired outcome (seeing, hearing, feeling) without experiencing any indications of stress or a drop in the belief level.

To further affirm the treatment outcome, points that had needed attention in the earlier phases of treatment can be re-checked using the alarm points while the client thinks about the original problem.

Working again with the original problem, whose SUD level is now down to 0 or near 0, and having anchored in that SUD level in Practice Session 1, go through the steps of the Outcome Projection Procedure with your partner. Switch roles.

According to Gary Craig, many practitioners would increase their effectiveness if they were more specific in their formulations about the issues they target. Rather than to focus on a global condition, such as "anxiety," he recommends identifying specific experiences, often from childhood, that involve the condition, or current situations that trigger it, and neutralizing the emotional charge to them, one by one, until this eventually generalizes to all related situations.

A man entered treatment for anxiety attacks following an automobile accident. He understands his psychological symptoms as being a direct result of the trauma sustained in the accident. He feels substantial relief within three sessions, his treatment appears to have been successful, and he is glad the incident is behind him.

But at the end of what might have been the 3^rd and final session, he is challenged to think of anything that might make the SUD level rise again. This time, his focus goes to the moment he realized the crash was inevitable. The disturbing thought is about his helplessness in that moment rather than the actual trauma of the crash. Another round of treatment focuses on the feeling of helplessness.

His SUD is lowered to 0 when thinking of the helplessness caused by the car accident, but when asked to see if he can make himself upset about being helpless in the situation, he becomes aware of how helpless he felt when his parents divorced when he was eight. This becomes the focus of the next round of treatment.

While energy psychology interventions can appear relatively mechanical and are often effective without focusing on the history of the problem or insight into its etiology, this case suggests how they can also be used as a powerful adjunct to a psychodynamic therapeutic approach. In debriefing someone immediately following a trauma, the aspects of the incident are usually primary and visceral.  Patricia Carrington, Ph.D., a member of the EPI Advisory Board, advises focusing on the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic aspects of the event.  As she puts it:  "It could be a great help if the person didn't have to figure out what to tap on but simply remembered to ask themselves what visual aspects of the scene are particularly distressing, and then what sounds seem shocking to them to recall, and then what physical sensations were distressing." Using this approach immediately following a trauma can, simply put, circumvent a tremendous amount of difficulty at a later point, as is illustrated in the case presented in "Trauma Debriefing."

Most longstanding psychological problems have, among other aspects such as intruding sensations or images, correlates in the person’s history. These early experiences are often revealed in the course of treatment, but can also be uncovered through standard techniques such as the clinical interview, dream analysis, or examining transference and counter-transference. While this could be the topic of another program, the basic strategy is to:

1. Identify critical decision points in the client’s past,
    

2. Create conditions, using energy interventions, in which the client is able to recall these circumstances with no subjective distress,
    

3. In this stress-free context review the deep decisions made as a result of those early circumstances and identify a core life decision that is proving dysfunctional,
    

4. Formulate a new decision, and
    

5. Project this new decision into the future using methods such as the outcome projection procedure.

Challenging the apparently successful outcome of an energy treatment sequence is a standard procedure within energy-based psychotherapy that may reveal aspects of the problem still requiring attention. The Energy Psychology Desktop Companion suggests that the treatment is not complete until "the last distress about the last aspect of the issue is cleared away" and the desired effects "have proven durable in relevant real life conditions."

Aspects of the problem that have not been addressed are often identified by challenging an apparently successful outcome, as you saw in the case of the man being treated for the trauma sustained in an automobile accident, and this technique is also a way of confirming and, to a reasonable degree, insuring results. Typically, the client is asked, in one way or another, to "try to get upset" about the presenting problem, e.g., "Try to feel your grief [rage, withdrawal, etc.]." If the disturbed energy pattern has been corrected—that is if the presenting problem is now paired to a stable response in the energy system—the client will not be able to activate the earlier feelings.

A difficult situation will still be recognized for its inherent injuries, dangers, or injustices, but the triple warmer’s emergency response (with the corresponding perceptual distortions and emotional overwhelm or shut-down) that had been part of the response to that situation will no longer be evoked. If the client is unable to reproduce the initial emotional response, the probability is strong that the issue has been deactivated and the client can expect to meet the original provocative back-home situation without initiating the stress response sequence or being pulled into other dysfunctional habits of thought or behavior that were the focus of the treatment.

If imagining the situation still triggers unwanted emotions, thoughts, or impulses to act in undesired ways, further treatment of the issue is indicated. This may involve another round of the earlier treatment, with careful assessments for psychological reversals, or it may involve focusing on a different aspect of the problem.

It is not always necessary to challenge the apparent results of the treatment, but the interchanges that may result can increase the reliability of the treatment results in the back-home setting. Whether or not you challenge the results, life will, and ample opportunity is always there to revisit related issues if the treatment does not hold.

For the purposes of our practice sessions, we will skip this step because challenging the results can lead to a more complex treatment sequence. However, if you are working within a context that is appropriate for going deeper and addressing multiple aspects of the original problem, this would be a good point to experiment with challenging the results.

As in any other approach to psychotherapy or personal development, "setbacks" such as these become grist in a deepening process of evaluation and evolution.

1. Discuss with your partner the possibility of setbacks.
    

2. Formulate back-home assignments and clearly agree about how they will be implemented.
    

3. Experiment with the Temporal Tap.
    

4. Work out with your partner the ways you will be available to one another to support each other's ongoing progress.

This would also be a good point to read the paper entitled, Five Keys to Successful Energy Psychology Treatment, written for Energy Psychology Interactive by psychologists David Grudermeyer and Rebecca Grudermeyer. They are two of the founders of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, and the paper is based on their involvement with the leaders and innovators within energy psychology as well as their years of clinical experience.

1. Begin by rating the problem on the amount of distress you feel when you think about it, using the 0 to 10 scale you have already learned.
    

2. Fold your arms, rest your fingers on your bicep muscles, and pat your right and left biceps alternatively with your hands, about a second for each tap (the "butterfly hug").
    

3. Continuing the butterfly hug and tapping, state aloud an affirmation in the form: "Even though I [have this problem], I deeply love and accept myself" [or end with a different strong, positive, affirming statement].
    

4. Take a deep breath or two, hugging and supporting yourself.
    

5. Reassess the amount of distress that thinking about the problem causes you on the 0 to 10 scale.
    

6. Repeat until the rating has gone down as low as you can get it.
    

7. If you have been able to get the rating down to 2 or less, you can finish by repeating the procedure with a positive affirmation. Use steps 2, 3, and 4 as above, but this time the affirmation describes what you would consider an ideal response in a situation that might have triggered the troubling emotion, such as "I can speak in front of any audience with confidence and comfort, and the universe supports me in every way" (or "and God loves me," or another closing phrase that evokes a positive, assuring feeling).

The following seven units, however, will broaden your knowledge and skill base, expand the scope of possible applications of an energy-based approach, and increase the resilience of therapeutic gains by addressing:

	Core Beliefs
	Protocols for Specific Emotional Problems
	The Chakras
	The Radiant Energy System
	Clinical Illustrations
	Other Energy Approaches
	Energy Interventions and Other Forms of Psychotherapy