What do you do when your client bumps into more emotional intensity than they can handle? Stay calm. Do. Not. Freak. Out. Realize this is exactly why this client has come to see you. Their Subconscious Mind is showing you exactly where the problem lies.
Remain calm, take charge, and manage the energy of the event. Even the most horrific circumstances can be faced, processed safely, and brought to resolution simply because it’s over. It’s in the past. It’s just that the Subconscious Mind doesn’t know this, yet.
You can change that using four tools you already have.
Think of the Mind as a DVD player. It records events and stores them as memories. These are not factual accounts but an autobiographical record of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and responses. Subsequent events in daily life then act to trigger those memories and feelings from the past, reinforcing the need to vigilant in avoiding potential sources of threat.
When a client lands in an event that holds a significant emotional charge place both hands together and thank your lucky stars. Their Subconscious Mind has just delivered you to an event that has everything to do with their problem.
The Subconscious Mind has some useful buttons. You can use them to control what’s happening in a regression session to ensure the client doesn’t feel overwhelmed. Those buttons are:
- Stop Button
- Pause Button
- Rewind Button
- Fast Forward Button
These four “buttons” can help you to provide the safety the client needs to face whatever is happening in the event so that you can guide your client to resolution.
1. The Stop Button
Like a DVD player the Subconscious Mind has a Play button.
Events in daily life can act to trigger that button automatically. This causes the memories and feelings from the past to flood into the person’s experience in the present moment.
The problem with traumatic memory is that there was too much happening too fast. Too much intensity. The client wasn’t ready for it. What happened took them by surprise. They didn’t have the resources they needed to handle what was happening. Most importantly, there was no one there to support them and help them make sense of what was happening. So, they didn’t know that they were going to be okay.
If a client gets flooded with too much energy/information you don’t have to get them out of the event. Just use the STOP button. Remember, the Subconscious Mind’s Prime Directive is to protect. So, your first priority needs to the client’s safety. If it’s too much for them “Everything stops.”
2. The Pause Button
Sometimes the client will try to race through an event in an attempt to avoid facing what’s happening in the moment. So, they’ll skip over all the details that are actually holding onto the trapped energy. You need to those details to get to the healing. These aspects are what’s calling for resolution – thoughts, feelings, perceptions. Especially feelings. That’s what’s holding onto the “charge.”
You can prevent this avoidance strategy by PAUSING the event. Then move through the event frame by frame. Slowing things down in this way will make it safer for the client to process those things and will allow you to uncover more information regarding the cause of the problem. It also allows you to deal with with one thing at a time.
Addressing one thought, one feeling, one perception at a time will make the energy of the event more manageable for the client, making your job much easier.
3. The Rewind Button
You can REWIND any time in an event to get more detail or test results. For example, you can rewind and replay the event.
You can also use it as a way to provide safety. For example, when a client lands in pocket of intensity that’s overwhelming their senses, you can move them to immediately BEFORE any of the intensity comes on.
Take the client to a point prior to the overwhelm where it’s safe. You can then prepare them for what’s going to happen. Rewind to where they’re still feeling okay because nothing has happened yet, gets the client out of the overwhelm while keeping them in the event.
4. The Fast Forward Button
If you land in a highly charged event you can always use the FAST FORWARD button to go to immediately after all the drama.
This is a great tool for working with trauma because it’s possible to clear everything in retrospect. Just fast forward to the end of the story. Then process “what just happened”. Resolve the after-effects of the event by using past tense language.
Research shows that when support is available immediately a traumatic event there doesn’t have to be any lasting effects. If the person has a chance to process their thoughts and feelings immediately following a traumatic experience, they can release the energetic charge. That’s what keeps the client stuck in the event.
Once they realize it’s over, they can relax. Because it’s in The Past, they don’t have to keep reliving it, consciously or unconsciously. Release the charge and it’s over.
The objective of processing the event immediately after it happens is to neutralize the negative impact. This allows the mind to process the event as finished, over and done. It then integrates the memory as the past.
So, that’s it. When the client bumps into a lot of emotional intensity, you need to take charge. Make it safe for the client to face the “truth” as their Subconscious Mind has it. This will give you the information you need to resolve the underlying problem. These 4 simple but powerful tools can support you in doing just that. Best of all, they don’t require any set up or imagination.
Unless your client grew up in the Stone Age they already know what Stop, Pause, Rewind, and Fast Forward means! Cool, huh?
