GoE UK July 1999

In Brief

Meridian Therapists are getting organised! In the US, the ACEP has been formed and talks for a European Umbrella organisation are under way. If you are active in Meridian Therapies in the UK, we would like to hear from you now so we can be sure of United Kingdom specific representation.

amt@meridiantherapies.org.uk See also the article on "How ACEP came to be" in this newsletter.

AMT Group Membership There is now an option for groups of practitioners to become part of the AMT UK. For details, please mail Chris Hardisty chris@hardisty.force9.co.uk

Organise your own regional seminar! AMT members are available to give one day trainings on request for your practise group or in your workplace. E-mail us at amt@meridiantherapies.org.uk for details and to discuss your requirements.

Psychological Reversal (or, how to heave a deep, great sigh of relief at not having to struggle along on will power any more!)

For me, one of the most wonderful ideas in the meridian therapies is the concept of psychological reversal. There's much debate amongst the experts as to what's going on, but it seems that shock, trauma, or repeated learnings and teachings can cause the energy flow relating to a particular subject to become reversed; ie it does the opposite of what you want it to do.

For example, most people have one or more, or a single massive reversal on health related issues. If they were muscle tested, they would test weak on "I want to be healthy" which means they don't believe it, and for them, that isn't actually true at all.

These are the people who struggle endlessly with substance addictions, weight - and fitness problems and the like. These are the people who are trying to fight themselves using "will power" to overcome their own internal programming that runs to the reverse of what everyone - including parts of themselves - are telling them they "should" or "should not" be doing.

The problem with using will power when there is psychological reversal is this: will power was never meant for long term use. It was designed originally to allow the mind to override the body, briefly, in moments of emergency and necessity, such as being able to run into a burning house to save a child, or to override fear in order to face fighting a lion.

Using will power, therefore, to try and overcome problems and force oneself to be doing certain things on a long term basis has two possible outcomes, both of which are problematic to say the least.

One outcome would be to succeed, and to continuously override the parts that are reversed. This continuous exertion of will power drains the system and the body of energy, creates rigidity in mind and body, and can have serious repercussions for long term health - the conflict doesn't go away, it may just go underground and express in all kinds of dis-eases instead.

The other outcome is that the one who is trying to override a psychological reversal with will power simply can't keep it up. As we've mentioned above, "running on will power" drains enormous amounts of energy from the system, and if there are other demands on this energy, or low energy states such as feeling down or depressed one day, feeling a little ill, picking up a bug, that's all that's needed for the will power to collapse and the reversed parts to take over once more - that's the "recovering alcoholic" in a moment of crisis who turns to the bottle, or the fat lady who's had some bad news and makes straight for the fridge.

The long term effects of this are a terrible toll on the person's self esteem. Every time this happens, they berate themselves for being weak, useless, hopeless and for "having no will power".

Many therapists too, spoken or unspoken, tend to share society's view that people who can't control themselves are somehow weak, less worthy, that they're not trying hard enough, or that they want to suffer.

Energy reversal takes all that emotional blackmail out of the process. And treating for energy reversal is easy and profoundly effective - there are two specific points that correct a reversal within minutes.

Together with all the meridian therapies' excellence at uncovering root causes, and helping to build true self esteem, no matter what presenting problems there are in a person's life, here now there is a whole world of techniques available to take pain and suffering out of long standing problems that have caused intense pain and terrible internal battles for so many.

Even long standing psychological reversals can be re-reversed and habitual patterns undone; and best of all, as Gary Craig says, "It's not a character fault, it's just something that happened", finally taking the burden of guilt and shame from those afflicted by nothing more, or nothing less, than a simple psychological reversal.

Healing Blocks (Or: "When the SUDS won't budge")

Whether you're working with clients, or using energy therapies on yourself, there's always the odd occasion when there appears to be no noticeable change. More often than not this happens when the SUDS have already come down to a more comfortable level, but it can happen at any time, and even with people who usually find relieving their symptoms a breeze.

With energy therapies, it's often possible that clients think immediately, "Oh it doesn't work", but what has usually happened is that the process has become "stuck" in some way. Knowing strategies to "unstick stuck states" makes the difference between a "8 out of 10" success rate, and a near perfect one.

Here are some suggestions sent to the meridiantherapy@egroups.com discussion group recently:

Thanks to Susan Courtney (UK), Chrissie Hardisty (UK), Silvia Hartmann- Kent (UK), Christine Vincer (AUS)

- Address Deep Level Reversal - Tap GV-27, UN, while repeating 'I deeply and completely accept myself even if I NEVER get over this problem' Another powerful wording is, "Even if I loose my identity if I get over this problem, I deeply & profoundly accept myself".

- Switch modalities and go for a metaphor on the problem first;

- Address Parts Problems;

- With Clients: Take over the tapping and tap them yourself; if you're stuck, have someone else tap you instead;

- Have a drink of water (and/or get client/self up to drink);

- Rub sore spot or both K27's while tapping EB to UA;

- Slap points below wrists (inner gate?) and above ankles;

- Cross crawl;

- Ground;

- Change location or face another direction;

- Change set-up statement;

- Physically "re-align" clients energy flow or have someone re-align yours;

- Break state after each round, perhaps having the client/self stand up and move around a little or even look out of the window.

- Use collar bone breathing or variations on 9 gamut;

- Use Larry Nimm's BSFF with the statement: "I am now elimanating all the roots and the deepest belief system for this problem."

- Create "personal algorithm" by feeling all the points and concentrating on those that appear tender or feel unusual;

- Combine with deep relaxation/hypnosis;

- Talk/think about why it's important to keep the problem from getting any better, first, or tap for "Even though I don't know why I'm stuck on this, I deeply and profoundly accept myself".

HOW THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY PSYCHOLOGY WAS BORN

The time had come. We all knew that our rapidly expanding field of Energy Psychology has needed to establish credibility among health care and mental health professionals. And we all knew that a crucial ingredient for this success was to unify the Energy Psychology field. Knowing time was of the essence, and with all this in mind, three psychologists joined together to become catalysts of the next step in the maturation of the Energy Psychology field. In the Fall of 1998, Dorothea Hover-Kramer, Ed.D., R.N., Rebecca Grudermeyer, Psy.D. and David Grudermeyer, Ph.D., started to create the structure for The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP). The three believed that it was time for the Energy Psychology field to move toward mainstreaming, and that, to do this, splintering and parochialism within the field needed to be avoided. They knew they had the administrative backgrounds to be able to facilitate the birth of a professional organization. And they hoped that their differences in training would set a tone of collaboration rather than factionalism. Dorothea, one of the developers of Healing Touch and the author of two books on psychoenergetic healing approaches, was an expert in biofield and chakra (energy center) diagnosis and treatment. The Grudermeyers were highly skilled in diagnosis and treatment of the meridians (energy pathways) and their related acupoints. All three were Continuing Education providers approved to teach Energy Psychology courses to mental and physical health professionals. Dorothea, Rebecca and David brought their organizational know-how to bear in developing the policies and structures necessary to file in the USA to have the Association awarded non-profit status. They developed a marketing plan and lent their skills in acquiring Continuing Education Credits approval to this fledgling organization. And they brought the ACEP Internet web site online (http://ww.energypsych.org ) ACEP was born in December, 1998, when non-profit status was legally applied for. Approval arrived in early 1999, in time for ACEP to be publicly unveiled at the first international Energy Psychology Conference, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, in April 1999. The instant and enthusiastic response brought ACEP to critical mass, as though its birth was being awaited. People came forward to chair and participate on a number of committees, including the all-important Research Committee, the Publications Committee (beginning to develop the Collected Papers of ACEP), the Conference Committee, and the Humanitarian Services Committee. (There are six more committees being developed as this is written, to round out the Association's functions.) Before the conference ended, requests were being made to develop ACEP Regional Chapters. These are now being developed as well. ACEP has received enthusiastic endorsements from leading figures in the field, who have also agreed to sit on its Advisory Council: Nahoma Clinton, Gary Craig, Tapas Fleming, Fred Gallo, Greg Nicosia and others. The daily continuing rush of requests and membership applications from around the world that have been received since the Las Vegas conference, has re-confirmed to Dorothea, Rebecca and David that, as they believed, the time has indeed come for an international association whose purpose is to help congeal the Energy Psychology profession into a respected and sought-after area of expertise. On behalf of the steadily growing membership of ACEP, we hope you will learn more about this organization, and that what you find will encourage you, too, to join in this effort to bring much-deserved credibility to Energy Psychology treatment approaches. Sincerely, David Grudermeyer, Ph.D., Rebecca Grudermeyer, Psy.D. and Dorothea Hover-Kramer, Ed.D., R.N., co-founders of ACEP ACEP Web Site: http://www.energypsych.org ACEP E-mail: acep@energypsych.org

Any personal, general of technical questions about using meridian therapies?

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Do you need to find a therapist, telephone counsellor or help with your practise?

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Copyright GoE UK July 1999