Articles about NLP and allied fields

Applying NLP to special education students

ebulletin@ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:08 GMT

Applying NLP to special education students

by Deborah Roundy

IASH member Deborah Roundy is a special education school teacher who has incorporated NLP into her teaching style. Following is a series of short articles introducing NLP, primarily oriented for parents of special education students.

Why NeuroLinguistics?

In 2007 I saw an NLP coach for some health problems. As I was taught new ways of organizing my thought processes I was able to allow both diabetes and liver disease to leave my body. This was a fascinating process.

Although I had gone for my personal health I soon found, as any good teacher does, I was making direct application of my learning to my classroom. My students were gaining new tools for learning and were happier.

This is why teachers are encouraged to continue to take classes. Furthering our education is a part of renewing our teaching certificates. Good teachers charge up their batteries as they learn new things and then discharge those batteries by charging up the learning of their students.

I realized there was a wealth of knowledge in the study of NLP and I had just scratched the surface. I wanted to share that knowledge with my students.

The catalyst for this was the death of a student through natural causes. With administrator and parent permission, I helped the the students to work through the death of their classmate using the NLP well-formed grieving process. I watched them mourn their loss, support each other, then refresh pleasant memories and create a memorial to their friend. When they left my classroom they were grounded and secure. They knew whom they could contact for more help, and many parents reported to me that their child had gone home and asked for parents’ support.

This was a contrast compared to previous experiences around students who passed away. I had been able to give my students a wonderful gift of learning how to grieve, accept loss, create special memories and move on. The children were well grounded and secure in their acceptance of her death and, more importantly, of the value of her life to them. They were secure in the knowledge that their families were there to support them and knew how to request that support. I had a tool I had never been taught in school, a program for an incredible life skill.

I started researching and found that NLP was a fairly new field used primarily in business, management training, executive coaching, sports, health, and therapy to model and create excellence. I found NLP little used in the school setting. Some teachers are using it and are enthusiastic, however it takes a lot of modifying to use it in the classroom setting. The greatest use for most teachers is for their own personal growth and teaching skills. I started looking at NLP programs such as the Disney Model of Creativity, TOTE, and Circle of Excellence and realized that these programs could be broken down into skills to be taught to my students.

Creating Excellence

NLP Presupposition: Choice is Better Than No Choice

Ana has a problem. She has to ride the bus every day and it is a bit of torture. The ride seems very long for a special ed student with ADHD.

Ana came in one morning very upset. Another girl was teasing her and wouldn’t let up. I called the bus garage and the true story emerged. Actually Ana, with her incessant talking at a low cognitive level, is the instigator. Because she does not understand, she does not understand that she is the problem.

I had recently done a 3 Square time line with another student and asked myself, “How can I apply the same type of solution to a very different problem?” Instead of a past-present-future I did one with present-immediate future-farther future.

Ana and I discussed the problem from her perspective, using the presupposition that the “map is not the territory.” We then went to the third block and discussed several options. I told her to be creative and come up with all of the ideas she could. She did, and we then filtered them and wrote out which ones were safe to do. She could entertain the idea of bopping the girl on the head, but she couldn’t actually do it. I have written down such options for normal kids, but special ed kids often cannot filter fantasy from reality. I had to make an accommodation for her disability.

We then discussed the next step and she chose the one she felt best about and put it into her immediate future.

The most interesting thing was how this empowered her. She now felt like she had further options and had control of her life. She reported back several days later that things were much better. After almost a year, I haven’t had another complaint.

Our Maps

Presupposition: The map is not the territory

This week I took my Special Olympics athletes on a school field trip to a museum and a warm spring swimming pool. We were going with other students from the school and there were five buses going. In years past my group had caused a delay for the other groups. This year our district had purchased a couple of small buses that teachers can drive, and we took a small bus so we would not hold things up. I had downloaded several maps to guide me because I knew I would be on my own. I could not follow the other drivers. We had to wait for a late bus to arrive with my students on it, then get a wheel chair on and secured before we left.

When we arrived at the museum we found, to our surprise, that we were the first ones there. I was worried because we had left a half hour later than the rest of the group. We enjoyed our museum visit, and had the entire museum to ourselves to explore. The other buses arrived as we were leaving. They had not taken the time to download the maps and information, had driven to the wrong museum, found it closed and taken the disappointed students to the swimming hole.

The maps I had downloaded served me well in several functions.

They were created for a purpose.
They use codes, pictures, symbols and words to create a mental picture, giving it meaning.
Each map has a specific point of view: highway, topographical, and so on.
The map creates a world in map form.
The map highlights some things and hides others, making it easy to use.
Details unnecessary for the purpose of the map are left out.
The map gave me a tool to reach my destination

One of the fundamental presuppositions of NLP is that the map is not the territory. We mean by this that each person sees the world by a different map. The map describes the territory as he sees it, not as it really is. Each map is created by the experiences we have had previously and by our family, our culture and even our history. Many believe that our maps are even in our genes.

Dennis Wood, in “The Power of Maps,” wrote, “this, essentially is what maps give us, reality, a reality that exceeds our vision, our reach, the span of our days, a reality we achieve no other way. We are always mapping the invisible, or the unattainable or the erasable, the future or the past, whatever-is-not-here-presence-to-our-senses-now and, through the gift that the map gives us, transmuting it into everything it is not…into the real.”

My students also use maps of their world and each has his or her own map, distinctly different from any other. We can use the same functions of paper maps to compare and contrast with maps of reality belonging to each student.

Their reality map is created with a purpose. As my map helped me make sense of the roads to get to my destination, so their reality maps help them make sense of the experiences of life and travel to their destination.
The maps use pictures, symbols and words to give the reality map meaning. Reality maps have symbols, too. They may be a loving or angry teacher that begins to symbolize all teachers. Or they could be words. If the student has always had a good experience in art and the teacher says it is time for art, the reality map will say that this, too, will be good. But what of the student who has had others make fun of his art work? The teacher says “time for art” and wonders why the student rebels, not knowing that the student’s map of reality contains symbols she is not aware of.
Each student is the creator of his own reality map. But he has a lot of help along the way. His parents, teachers, friends and enemies all play a role advising the student on what to put on the map and where.
The reality map creates a world in map form, but the map is not the territory. Using the art experience from item 2 above, let’s say the student did not understand the assignment and the children in the class laughed at him, but in our reality, the student is a talented artist. Still the student’s reality map denies his talent as it has “I can’t do art” drawn on in indelible ink.
As I drove I looked out at the beautiful winter landscape and was aware that my map left out the incredible beauty that I was feasting on. Likewise student’s reality maps leave out the beauty of life. The student may know it is there but cannot get it on the map. The student may understand that for others art is a favorite class, but cannot seem to draw that onto his own personal map.
The student’s reality map does have a purpose. It is a tool to lead the student somewhere. It gives the student’s life order and certainty. I don’t have to worry about art. I know I don’t like it. I no longer have to worry whether I like art or not.

As teachers we realize that each student has his or her own reality map. That map serves a purpose. It gives structure, order and certainty to the world for the student. We also understand that the map may not be an accurate representation of the world for that student, but is merely a tool. One of our purposes of teaching is to give our students a more accurate and functional map of reality and help our students create the maps they will need to be successful in their future.

(The idea for this article was gleaned from a slide show by Charles Faulkner found at www.nlpco.com Charles is an author and developer of NLP books, seminars and programs.)

Presupposition: If what you are doing isn’t working, do anything else

I have a darling little girl in my class named Ana May. I have worked a bit with Ana May. She comes in to school in the morning with no meds down her system and the worst case of ADHD one can imagine. Her brain is totally not in gear.

One day a boy came in sporting proudly his newly dyed blue hair. Ana May told him that it was ugly. He was hurt, and he is the type who blows up. I have chipped plaster in the walls to prove it.

Could I do it? Could I effect a change?

I escorted them back into our private room and let them talk. Talk they did. I could see and feel the anger. He had a right to his anger, she had attacked him personally.

My mentor had told me, if you remove something you will leave a void. I did not want to leave a void. These kids feel and react to voids or emptiness. They have no social restraints and no idea how to fill their voids so they hit out or cause problems trying to find a way to fill the void.

I got an idea. I had them imagine the anger they felt and give it a color. Hers was brown, his blue. I stood behind and had them place the color out in front of them with their imagination and asked if they wanted to get rid of it.

I then had them both imagine themselves as happy and in a positive state. We then together swished and superimposed the happy, positive image over the angry color, pushing the angry color away and replacing it, or filling the void it had left, with a positive image of self. We did this several times to make certain it would stick.

I then sent the blue-headed boy off to class. As he walked through the class room the aides overheard him say, “That was cool!” The anger was gone and he was calm. What was more important to me is that it seemed to hold. For the rest of the year this boy did not have another blow-up, though he had had them frequently before. I had provided an alternative way to behave and he then applied it himself to other situations.

I kept Ana May a bit longer and had her work on impulse control. She also is making progress and I am happy to say is doing better.

This program is a loosely applied NLP pattern called the SWISH. It accepts that there are things we no longer want, but leaving them will leave a vacuum in us somewhere. We therefore replace the thing we no longer want with a well-formed outcome. In this situation we replaced anger with a well-formed outcome of a happy, positive self image.

Presupposition: The Map is not the Territory

This story came to me off the Internet on a joke page. It is a story of “the map is not the territory.”

An elementary school got a new librarian. She prided herself in teaching the children responsibility. She decided that instead of checking out children's books by writing the names of borrowers on the book cards herself, she would have the youngsters sign their own names. She would then tell them they were signing a "Contract" for returning the books on time.

Her first little customer was a second grader. He looked surprised to see a new librarian. He brought his allotted four books to the desk and shoved them across to the librarian, giving her his name as he did so.

The librarian pushed the books back and told him that he was supposed to sign them out himself now. The boy laboriously printed his name on each book card in neat print, and then handed them to her with a look of utter disgust.

Before the librarian could even start her speech he said, scornfully, "That other librarian we had could write."

I laughed and thought how often we see the world from our adult eyes and forget that our students see the world in an entirely different and sometimes utterly delightful way.

This can lead to challenges. We expect the children to know the reason they are going to school. We expect them to know that they will need a job someday to support themselves and be contributing members of society.

We forget that the reason they go may be because they are “supposed to.” School may have no meaning to them. If we can create that meaning and let them have a bit of our map to enlarge their map with it will help them focus with greater depth and enthusiasm on the real reason they go to school. Part of the job is to create larger, more detailed maps for our students to carry into their future.

The Science Behind the Secret

ebulletin@ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:08 GMT

The Science Behind the Secret

Dr. Diane Kramer
President, PeakSkills Learning Systems
Founder, Extraordinary Self® Development Programs

What is the claim of The Secret?

The Secret is all the buzz about how to attract what you want most in life. The concept, as well as the book and film detailing The Secret, became overnight phenomena when Oprah featured it on her show. What makes The Secret so attractive to people? What does The Secret claim? It claims that if you focus on something you really want, visualize it and then talk to yourself as if you already have it, feeling the feelings that go along with getting it, you will attract and get it…so long as you align your thoughts behind this goal. And that is an attractive concept in itself.

As an example, lets say that I want two new corporate clients this quarter. Following the suggestions of The Secret, based on the Law of Attraction, I tell myself that I have two new corporate clients. I visualize myself in possession of the checks from those clients and feel the feeling of satisfaction. I also pretend as if I have training dates to meet with those clients and imagine going there and performing my services. I imagine the responses I get as feedback from the training afterwards.

Next, my job is to keep my thoughts aligned with this goal, again maintaining the idea that I have already gotten it. So I am saying to myself: “I got the corporate gig with x company. Soon I am going there to conduct a training. They bought into my eight-session program. This is great!

Does The Secret Really Work? What are the two problems with the claim of The Secret?

Almost all of us would love The Secret to be true. Just visualize it, feel it, and make the achieving of your goal real, as if you have already gotten it. Sounds great, but for those skeptics in the world, it raises a question. How often does following this method work? Does everyone get exactly what they want when they follow the method? What are the limitations to this wish fulfillment?

There is no real answer to this question. While the claim of The Secret is compelling, it has not been systematically measured. We do not know how often it comes true and how often, even when people are following its methods, it does not come true.

We hear about the people for whom it has worked. We do not hear about the people for whom it has not worked. What about them? When the method doesn’t work, it is easy for the leaders in The Secret movement to claim that it is because the individuals did not apply the method enough. They did not get their thoughts into alignment enough.

The truth is that those people for whom The Secret works share some unique characteristics. Most are very aware of themselves and have been on the path of personal growth and self-development for many years. Perhaps it is something about their self-development that allows the Law of Attraction to work for them.
The second problem with The Secret is the method itself. The method for attracting what we want is not spelled out in detail. There is no one telling us how we get all our thoughts in alignment with our goal that we are pretending has already happened. How do we train our brain not to think negatively? What do we do with the skeptical parts of ourselves? Our Doubting Thomases? Do we have to have total control over our thoughts to make The Secret useable? We know that thinking the thoughts we want and not thinking the thoughts we do not want is one of the most difficult of human enterprises. How do we do this so that we can make The Secret come true for each of us?

Alternate explanations for The Secret

Whether or not The Secret methods work reliably is a key question that has not been answered. Another key question is how we can apply our brains so that we make The Secret work for us, since it works at least some of the time.

I don’t know about you but I have been writing out and visualizing my goals for a long time. I looked and looked for a handy-man special on the Long Island Sound to fix up. I did not reach my goal for two years. Finally I got inspired and wrote out the details of the house I wanted. I faxed the description to local real estate agents. The next day, one called me and took me to the house I wanted. Did I get the house because of The Secret or because I set down my goal very specifically and then sent it out to those who could find me the opportunity?

In a similar vein, I found my husband by writing out the specific goal of the kind of man I wanted. I held onto that goal for seven years. In that time I met many ‘almosts’. During that period I kept refining my goal so that I got clearer and clearer about three issues: what I wanted, what I did not want, and what I had to change inside myself to attract what I wanted. When I was extremely clear and when I had worked on myself sufficiently, the man of my dreams appeared. Was it the magic of The Secret or all the hard work I had put into changing old patterns?

For those for whom it works, how does it work, in terms of a science? What is the research behind this?

Let's look at The Secret from another perspective. Let's assume that when we define a goal clearly and align our thinking behind it, we get what we want much of the time. Is that magic? Or is there some other explanation that can account for the result.

Yes, there is another explanation. All we need do is consider the work of Albert Bandura, world-famous psychologist. His work on Self-efficacy Beliefs has spurred thousands of research projects in psychology, all with similar results. And those results explain the success of The Secret when it works.

What does the term, self-efficacy, mean? It refers to our belief in our ability to reach a specific goal. High self-efficacy refers to a high-level (strong) belief that we will reach a specific goal. Low self-efficacy refers to a low-level (weak) belief that we will reach a specific goal. Research demonstrates that the level of our belief predicts how likely we are to reach that goal. So, a strong self-efficacy belief predicts that we will most likely reach the goal, and a weak self-efficacy belief predicts that we probably will not reach the goal. Why? Because when we keep our belief strong about reaching the goal, even when we do not know how to proceed or what to do when we fail, we stay open to the possibility of learning what we need to learn in order to succeed. When our belief is weak about reaching the goal, when we get confused or we make some mistakes, we give up.

So when The Secret works for the leaders of the Law of Attraction, it may be that they are maintaining strong self-efficacy beliefs, thus leaving themselves open for learning and, for new possibilities and opportunities that will lead them to their goal. For those for whom The Secret does not work, it may be because they give up too soon and close off the possibility of learning and of following up on opportunities so they do not reach their goal.

Why does The Secret not work for everyone? Are there other reasons beyond the issue of self-efficacy?

So far we have questioned how often The Secret actually works to get people what they want. And we have looked at a possible scientific explanation for why it works when it works. There is yet another issue to consider in terms of why it works or doesn’t work for specific individuals. That issue revolves around our complexity as human beings. Our physical body is composed of organs that interact to keep us going – heart, lungs, kidneys, etc. Just so, our mind is composed of different parts that interact to keep us going. There is the part that evaluates us, the part that keeps us safe, the part that motivates us, the part that holds our memories, the part that creates our future, etc. These parts often contradict and conflict with each other. Have you ever been in internal conflict, gotten stuck and could not move forward, heard negative voices in your head or felt judged? These situations are all examples of our different parts in conflict.

According to the Law of Attraction, we are supposed to set our goal and then align our thoughts. Well, because of our complexities, unless you are an expert in sorting out your parts, their underlying beliefs and differences, it will be hard to align your thoughts around a specific goal. Most of the opposition and self-sabotage is automatic and comes from unconscious processes. Only when we deal with those underlying parts and align them will we be able to align our thoughts all in the same direction.

How can we get it to work for us?

So now we are coming up with a recipe for making The Secret or the Law of Attraction work for us. We need to get specific about our goal and pretend as if we are already reaching it. We need to maintain a strong self-efficacy belief in our ability to reach the goal in order to take advantage of the learning we need to do and opportunities we need to find in order to reach our goal. (The Secret calls this strong self-efficacy belief “trusting the Universe.”

We also need to align our Parts and get them all working together toward the goal. That is a big challenge and often takes a lot of work with a professional.

How can we train ourselves to make the principles of The Secret work for us?

The program that my company offers, The Extraordinary Self Development Program, brings a research-based scientific foundation and cultivates skills needed to make The Secret work for you

Participants learn how to set a specific goal and pretend that it is happening while also learning how to maintain a strong self-efficacy belief about it. Participants also learn how to discover the different Parts of the Self that need to be brought into alignment for success and to get those Inner Parts to work together to produce aligned thoughts, capable of transforming thinking and behavior, and shifting their world.

Please contact Dr. Diane Kramer, President of PeakSkills Learning Systems and founder of the Extraordinary Self Development Programs to learn more. dkramer@peakskillslearning.com or 631-630-0570 x20.

Dealing with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

ebulletin@ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:08 GMT

by Don A. Blackerby, Ph.D.

Introduction

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity (ADHD) is a learning disability of much interest to parents, schools and now even in the adult oriented workplace. It creates much havoc in classroom settings, in family gatherings, in the corporate boardroom, in many different kinds of social settings and in relationships (both personal and business). Opinions regarding its origin, cause of the behavioral symptoms and method of treatment vary widely creating much confusion among parents, educators and mental and health care providers.

The result, in my opinion, is that there is a lot of misdiagnosis and over-diagnosis. The following treatise is yet another proposal as to how to deal with those individuals with the ADD symptoms. In this treatise, is a report on how ADD was examined with Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) in an attempt to discover the internal or subjective experiences that might be producing the external behavioral symptoms. Some of the solutions using NLP are also revealed. In addition, the use of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) was also described in some of the treatments, particularly those involving the ADD symptoms, emotions and limiting beliefs.

The Behavioral Symptoms of ADD

Hyperactivity -- They can't stay still. They are constantly moving and fidgeting. They are under chairs or tables or climbing over furniture. These individuals usually have the label of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity or ADHD.

Impulsiveness -- They move or change directions very quickly. They will be doing one thing and then suddenly start doing something else. They "act before they think!"

Distractibility -- They can't stay focused on one thought or task. They will be doing a task and the smallest noise interrupts them and throws them off task.

Lack of organization -- They cannot do the more complex tasks which require them to organize the larger task into a series of prioritized steps. Somebody has to tell or show them how to do each step.

Forgetfulness -- They forget instructions. They forget to do things or tasks they have been told to do. They will start to do something and forget what they were supposed to do.

Procrastination -- They have trouble starting and completing tasks or assignments. They are constantly putting off doing things. They can't seem to "get started."

An Experience of ADD

Imagine you are watching a multiple slide show, you know the kind; where you are sitting in a large auditorium and 4 to 6 slide projectors are set up each projecting different images or subjects on a giant screen. Now imagine that you are asked to report by a person of authority, either verbally or written, on what you are seeing while you are watching it. Frustrating? That's an understatement. And that's exactly how the ADD child feels. Now, to make it even more challenging, imagine the pace of the slide presentation begins to increase, faster and faster. Yet you're still trying to report on what you're seeing. And for the final blow to your sanity, imagine the slides start to flash simultaneously (remember each projector is of a different subject matter) AND the person of authority tells you that you are not doing your report very well and that your well being depends upon the accuracy of your report.

What kind of emotions or feelings do you think you might experience? Anger? Stressed? Overwhelmed? Tense? Uptight? Disoriented? Confused? Depressed? Rage? Rebellion? Withdrawal? Failure? Anxious?

Welcome to the world of the Attention Deficit Disorder. ADD is a condition that some children and adults experience which manifests itself through numerous behavioral symptoms as described previously.

The Subjective Experience of the
Person with ADD Symptoms

First, let's look at what we have found as to the internal or subjective experience of a person with ADD symptoms. Some of the most important internal experiences that interact to influence the behavior of the individual with ADD symptoms are:

They perceive multiple internal images of different subject matter.
These images sometimes are moving rapidly and sometimes mysteriously disappear and reappear. The images are often occurring simultaneously.
There is a strong kinesthetic (body and/or emotional) response to the images. The kinesthetic response can be one of curiosity, alarm, fear, intense interest, desire to relieve boredom, etc.
They can't control any of these internal experiences.

Some of the common responses of individuals with ADD symptoms to this internal chaos seem to be:

They either try to physically respond to everything in their internal images or they get frustrated and simply give up even trying. The final result is a person that is either hyperactive or apathetic and passive. (As an example: Many times the extreme opposite of hyperactivity is passive/apathetic and/or withdrawal. This may show up any place on the continuum between hyperactivity and passive. The passive person has trouble communicating because they have trouble finding the words to stay up with the fast moving images—so they don’t talk much at all and sometimes seem to grope for words. They are not a behavior problem in school, so they don’t get reported as much. The hyperactive person, on the other hand, talks rapidly and jumps from topic to topic because HE IS TRYING TO STAY UP WITH THE IMAGES, making him very difficult to understand.)
If they are hyperactive, they feel they are losing control and will go to great lengths to control their internal experience. The result is they spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to slow things down internally.

If they are passive they spend an inordinate amount of time and energy organizing their external experience so that it is manageable. They will engage in physical activities that do not require verbal exchanges with others.
They are often terrified at their lack of control and its consequences. They get a tremendous amount of feedback (sometimes in the form of punishment) as to HOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT and to their lack of control. Much of the time they have a feeling of being totally overwhelmed and out of control. This helps to explain the previous comment in response 2 of their overwhelming fear of and concern for control.
They suffer from fear of rejection and abandonment because they believe they are "different" or "weird" or maybe “crazy” or at least “not sociable.” The feedback they receive from peers, parents and teachers often supports these fears.
Their level of hyperactivity or passiveness and the intensity of their emotional responses seem to be dependent on the standards significant others (such as family) use to judge and enforce their behavior. In other words, the stricter the parents and the more severe the punishment (or, to the degree the child perceives it is severe) the more hyperactive or passive the child. Later on, in their life, they transfer this reaction to teachers, other authority figures, and peers as well.
They often have tremendous suppressed rage because of the perceived injustices in the way they have been treated by others. This shows up in the severity of the symptoms of ADD/ADHD as well as anti-social behaviors such a rebellion of authority figures, arguing, temper tantrums, and/or complete withdrawal. Many times they turn to drugs or alcohol or gangs to feel better and worthwhile and to have a sense of belonging.

An Exercise for Experiencing ADD/ADHD

In workshops, I sometimes try to get the audience to find out how an ADD “student” feels. A shortened description of the exercise is: I ask three people to stand behind the student, tapping him/her on the back while they (all together) demanded an internal image: run! draw! horse! sport! print! sing! shout! man!, etc for a minute or two. That was a lot of demands! A fifth person stands in front of the student at the same time and pretended to be either a kind or a critical parent, saying phrases to him/her that were appropriate to the chosen parental role: “Of course you can do it”, “Try harder”, “Hurry up”, “You’re lazy”, “I’ll help you” etc. The question was: “How many of the words or orders could the “student” remember? And, what were their feelings for being told to do all of these things and their strategies for coping?”

Why Do They Act That Way?

What about some of the typical behaviors or symptoms, if you will, that result from this condition? Can we explain how they manifest themselves in a student with ADD symptoms? Let's consider some of them. Hyperactivity -- If you had multiple images flashing simultaneously in your head and you had a demand from a parent or teacher to "act right" or "behave" or “do better,” what do you think you would do? Many students with ADD symptoms respond by focusing on the internal pictures and trying to control them. And since they are typically very physical in nature, these fast-moving internal pictures generate an abundance of nervous physical energy. If they have suppressed rage, the fast moving pictures just add to the nervous energy and rage, which then speeds up the pictures. So they act to relieve the body tension in the best way they know how –

THEY MOVE THEIR BODIES!!!

This hyperactivity is on a continuum with passiveness, as follows:

Passiveness -- Sometimes the individual decides that the task is impossible and they literally give up and decide to withdraw and not do anything. The result is that they are passive and inactive and very inadequate in communication. They cannot find the words to stay up with the fast moving images and decide to not even try. The obvious prolonged silence and groping for words is the result. Socially, they feel they cannot cope. If you confront them, they withdraw even more, because the confrontation speeds up the internal images.

Impulsiveness -- This goes hand-in-hand with the hyperactive behavior. Because the students with ADD symptoms are trying to physically react to their internal experience as quickly as possible, they often respond by "moving" before they consciously realize that the degree of their response isn't necessary. In other words, they don’t have the time (or take the time) to think about what they are about to do. This phenomenon is similar to a compulsive behavior in the rest of us. The students with the ADD symptom of compulsion simply move faster and change quicker. Again, suppressed rage only adds to the problem. This shows up in relationships because of the suppressed rage about the injustices that have been meted out to them in their past. This makes them especially sensitive to how others treat them and they are sometimes very argumentative and rebellious.

Distractibility -- Often the impulsive children described above are also labeled as distractible because they can't stay focused on one task. Their mind is often pulled off the task at hand by an idea that carries more kinesthetic weight to them. A prime example of this might be when they hear an unexpected noise (such as a police or fire siren or another student doing something unusual). They will immediately make an internal image of the possible cause and have to check it out by looking (because of the excess energy they have). Depending upon the nature of the distraction and the importance it carries internally for them, it may be extremely difficult for them to get re-focused. This is particularly true when compared to a school lesson or assignment which may seem boring to them.

Keep in mind that the students with ADD symptoms are experiencing a multitude of pictures moving quickly through their heads. Trying to keep up with 10 to 15 different images and trying to select appropriate responses to each would make most of us oversensitive to extra stimuli. The more angry and/or enraged they are, the worse it is.

Lack of Organization -- To be organized, a person must be able to visualize a total project and prioritize the specific steps needed to accomplish the finished project. This requires an ability to stabilize and adjust several internal pictures simultaneously. Students with ADD symptoms have trouble doing this because the pictures are moving too rapidly or are disappearing.

Most students with ADD symptoms have not learned yet how to take a general idea and break it down into its component parts while still retaining the general idea. Nor can they take many specific points and generalize the pattern they are observing. In a given moment, they are either general or specific or the ideas in their mind are unfocused, scrambled and/or jumping all over.

For example, if a typical student has a science project, he knows the overall purpose of the project, and the steps it will take to accomplish the project. He will be able to sequence the steps in order to efficiently accomplish the task. He will also be able to track the steps and the amount of time it will take to accomplish all of this in order to project a timetable for the project. A student with ADD symptoms experiences great difficulty in doing this because he cannot stabilize the pictures.

Forgetfulness -- Remembering requires a clean, logical connection between the external cue which tells you when it is time to do something and the internal experience which tells you what to do. Since students with ADD symptoms are experiencing rapidly moving and changing internal images, it is difficult for them to establish that clean connection. Also, the thing to be remembered must carry significant kinesthetic weight for them or it will be overwhelmed by all the other images and forgotten. Besides, if they have suppressed anger, forgetting to do things that others want them to do is a good way to battle with authority figures.

Procrastination -- Often what is labeled procrastination is simply inaction. The inaction results from an inability to make a definite and final decision that they can act on comfortably. This inaction is a natural result of being unable to process the rapidly changing, excess of information in their mind. They do not know when they have all the information they need to make a decision. Also, like in forgetfulness, not doing things at the proper time is a way to rebel and fight those authority figures with which they are already angry.

Potential causes of the ADD Symptoms

That causes these behavioral symptoms? Why is it that some people have them temporarily and in others they persist over time? Is it possible that the symptoms are caused by different life events which need to be treated differently? My attempt to answer these questions follows.

My belief, is that the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) are caused by the perception that the mind is out of control which generates behavioral symptoms that they also cannot control. This out of control mind can be initially caused by any one or any combination of the following:

High stress and anxiety.
Emotional trauma – Unresolved past trauma or current trauma.
Candida Albicans.
Attitude – A bad attitude can be caused by boredom, or not being turned on to or forced to do certain activities such as chores or school work. Also, not knowing HOW to do the required tasks makes the tasks very distasteful and makes them angry because they see no sense for it. For most students, this traumatizes them every day in school. This increases the stress and anxiety and makes them even more angry and rebellious. The buildup of this stress leads to the ADD Symptoms and other anti-social behaviors.
Communication gaps between the child and parents/teachers, which again increases the stress and the resultant anger and rebellion. For example, most with ADD Symptoms have a rather tight Visual/Kinesthetic connection. In other words, what they see, they physically react to and/or what they feel, they try to visualize. If a parent/teacher, tries to talk to them, they do NOT process the auditory information very well since their primary world is either visual or kinesthetic. It is a simple instruction to the communication sender or receiver to overlap the auditory to visual or kinesthetic. Since this does not normally happen, many persons with ADD symptoms view their parents and teachers as repetitive, boring, and unwanted advice givers and not to be listened to.
Physical reaction -- to large amounts of sugar or junk food or allergies (usually food) or food additives and environmental toxins to which they have a negative physical reaction. For many with the ADD Symptoms, sugar and simple carbohydrates create a high which shows up as hyperactivity and other ADD symptoms followed by an energy slump. Listlessness and apathy occur when the sugar is depleted from the body. Much of this sugar and simple carbohydrates comes from their intake of junk food. The intake of toxic environmental substances also contributes to this physical reaction.

Factor 3 can be helped by going to a good health food store or to a physician or dietician who is knowledgeable about Candida. Books such as "The Yeast Syndrome" or "The Yeast Connection" can also help. Professionals such as Allergists, Dieticians, Physicians, Psychologists and Therapists are equipped to handle factors 1, 2 and 6. Factors 4 and 5 as well as the perception or belief that the mind is out of control can be dealt with by psychologists and therapists and is covered in the book “Rediscover the Joy of Learning” written by this author.

A New Definition of ADD

I have found that many students are misdiagnosed with the label of ADD. The behavioral symptoms fit many persons (child and adult) who are highly stressed, suffer from trauma or burnout, are bored in school or work or who are acting out other problems. Many times, teaching students how to control and use their mind as in: how to learn in school, how to focus, how to organize, how to communicate, how to remember, how to set priorities and/or how to have a better attitude causes the symptoms to go away.

Teaching parents, teachers, and students how to communicate better seems to help a great deal. I have also found that it is important to initially check for allergies, particularly food, and to check out the intake of sugar or junk food and environmental toxins.

***But the most dominating feature that I have found is the inability to control their mindand the accompanying belief that their mind controls them or that they cannot control their mind. The result of this causes major ramifications throughout the life of the individual and creates far greater problems then previously thought. Because of this I've adjusted my definition of ADD.

My new definition is as follows: The symptoms of ADD seem to be caused by a loss of control of the processing of the mind which results in symptoms at ALL “Logical Levels."

According to common knowledge, Attention Deficit Disorder is a set of behavioral symptoms. When we look at ADD through the perceptual template of the “Logical Levels” we can get a sense of why the treatment of ADD is so difficult.

ADD Through the Template of the Logical Levels

When I first started using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to model the subjective experience of those with the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), I used the Logical Levels extensively. What I found were symptoms at all the Logical Levels instead of just at the Behavioral Level. So, when I work with somebody with ADD, I systematically work with them through all the Logical Levels. I have found that using EFT to do this greatly speeds up the process (see Box).

Environment Level--The person with ADD symptoms can do just fine in some environments and not in others. If they are by their self and without outside distractions, they can usually stay focused and accomplish tasks. Put them in a busy school, business, social or family setting, however, and they will start displaying many of the behavioral symptoms. In fact, in many instances, the environment is the triggering cue for the behavioral symptoms.

Having them do the EFT tapping on what they sense around them when the ADD symptoms kick in is one of the easiest interventions to do. Examples are: seeing or hearing a particular teacher, a brother or sister, a classroom, or being compelled to do a boring school lesson are just a few of the possibilities. So, ask the client the following question and listen and notice those responses that are emotion laden “When you start to experience the ADD symptom of ______, what or who do you see or hear around you?” Get them to elaborate, so you can read the emotional response. Then lead them through EFT tapping on the environmental triggers.

Behavior Level--This level is also where most of the treatments or interventions are undertaken. Taking drugs is a behavior although the purpose for taking drugs is to deal with the next level--to be able to focus or control the mind. Many behavior modification techniques are attempted and are at this level. Tapping with EFT on the ADD Symptoms will sometimes eliminate the behavior or at least reduce the emotional baggage attached to the symptom.

Capability Level-- At the Capability Level, I have found two phenomena in students with ADD that I work with. The first is the sense that their mind is out of control. One of the ways I test for this is to give them a mental assignment which forces them to stabilize an image in their mind. Most of the time, I give them a word that they already know how to spell and have them spell it backwards or from right to left. If their mind is out of control, they will exclaim “I can’t hold the picture, it keeps going away!” or “My mind won’t let me do it, it takes it away!” I then lead them through EFT tapping on their feeling of being out of control until they regain control.

Secondly, once they can control their mind, then usually I have to teach them HOW TO LEARN in the classroom. Our schools presuppose that children know how to learn in the classroom and do not accept the responsibility of teaching them effective learning strategies. Most teachers focus on giving them LEARNING ACTIVITIES (which are at the Behavior Logical Level) and leave it to chance that learning actually occurs (e.g., the learning activity of writing a spelling word down 10 times or doing countless “timed math fact sheets”). This is a major void that occurs in our schools that creates much trauma in many students. This trauma occurs in “normal” underachieving students as well as those with “learning disabilities.” Many if not all of those who have been diagnosed with ADD and in particular ADHD have been traumatized repeatedly in school. And much of this trauma comes from the fact that they cannot control their minds and therefore cannot effectively learn in the classroom. I tap on these traumas while I am assuring them that things will change since I am also going to teach them HOW TO LEARN and how to use their mind in school. These learning strategies are covered extensively in my book “Rediscover the Joy of Learning.”

Beliefs/Values-- At the next Logical Level of Beliefs/Values, I find that many students have either a void of positive and empowering beliefs and values regarding school and learning or they have already picked up “limiting” beliefs and values. For example, some ADD students who have the sense that their mind is out of control will adopt an unconscious belief “I can’t control my mind!” or “My mind controls me!” or “My mind makes me do things and I get in trouble!” They will also have limiting beliefs about the value of school like ”School sucks!” or “School is boring!” or “Why do I have to got to school—it doesn’t help me!!!” They will also adopt beliefs about their capability like “I can’t learn ____!” or “I can’t do math!” In fact, they can have beliefs about any and all of the Logical Levels.

Eliciting these limiting beliefs and changing them to more empowering beliefs at all logical levels can and is a truly transforming experience for the students I work with. Coupling the learning of new and effective learning strategies with the elimination of limiting beliefs and the addition of empowering beliefs through the Logical Levels pretty well completes the transformation. (After this coverage of the Logical Levels, I will share with you a way to change limiting beliefs using EFT.)

Identity level-- Many ADD and ADHD students have limiting beliefs at the identity level because so much of the feedback they get from parents, teachers and peers is about how different they are as a person. So, many times they will have “Identity Level” beliefs like “I am weird.” or “I’m different than everybody else.” or “I’m dumb.” or “I’m learning disabled.” or “I’m an ADDer.” Changing these limiting beliefs to empowering beliefs sends reverberations through all the lower logical levels and has quite a positive impact on the student.

Spiritual/Greater System-- When I am working with a teenager who has been diagnosed with ADD, I look pretty hard for limiting beliefs at the highest Logical Level of Spiritual/Greater System. By the time they hit teenage years they have been traumatized by the system to such a degree that they can become anti-social in many ways. You will hear them say things like “Why did God do this to me, I didn’t deserve this” or “Why don’t the schools help me—nobody cares about me!” They feel so much like social outcasts that they sometimes turn to gangs or other like-minded groups (many of these groups turn out to be anti-social) so that they can feel like they have a group identity and a sense of belonging

Tips and Strategies for Dealing With ADD

I find that I most often use EFT on three major areas in students with ADD—Emotions, ADD Behavioral Symptoms, and Limiting Beliefs.

Before I get to a specific example, let’s review the EFT Tapping Procedure and sequence. It is simple and easy to do. (However, as with NLP, doing it with style and mastery requires training. If you are interested in being trained in EFT or in reading more about it, check out Gary Craig’s web site www.emofree.com) Identify the issue to be dealt with and have the client assign it a code word or “reminder phrase.” Then assess the strength of the issue. Some EFT practitioners asses the strength by doing muscle testing and others ask the client to assess on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is no strength and 10 is maximum strength. Then, while the client attends to the issue with the reminder phrase, you lead them through the EFT tapping steps as follows:

THE EFT PROCEDURE
The Short Cut

1. The Setup...Repeat this affirmation 3 times:

Even though I have this _____, I deeply and completely accept myself.”

or...

Even though I still have some of this remaining _____, I deeply and completely accept myself.”

while continuously rubbing the PR spot.

2. The Sequence ...Tap about 7 times on each of the following energy points while repeating the Reminder Phrase at each point.

EB = Beginning of the EyeBrow
SE = Side of the Eye
UE = Under the Eye
UN = Under the Nose
Ch = Above Chin
CB = Beginning of the CollarBone
UA = Under the Arm

3. Assess the strength of the issue again. It usually has been diminished. If there is any strength left, do the EFT Tapping on the “remaining” problem. The Setup affirmation and the Reminder Phrase are adjusted to reflect that you are addressing the remaining problem. Repeat this tapping sequence until it has gone away completely or down to 1-2 strength. Sometimes a new aspect or issue of the problem will emerge when the first problem is gone. When this happens, repeat EFT on the new aspect.

Using EFT with Emotions

One of the debilitating characteristics of ADD is the severe emotions that the ADD symptoms generate in the individual with ADD and in others. Many of the emotions common to the person with ADD symptoms are: anger, rage, confusion, fear, helplessness, hopelessness, being overwhelmed, frustration, anxiety and stress (to name just a few). This is the normal world the person with ADD lives in almost constantly. The constant onslaught of these emotions (with no relief) is one of the key drivers for the anxiety and stress that drives the ADD symptoms and the feeling of being out of control. Even when you use EFT on Limiting Beliefs or the ADD Behavioral Symptoms, there are underlying emotions that hold the Limiting Beliefs in place or that drive the symptoms. So, using EFT first to relieve the strength of the emotions sometimes has a softening or weakening effect on beliefs and symptoms.

The use of EFT on emotions is fairly straight forward. After identifying an emotion and assessing the strength of it, the general formula for the set up phrase is “Even though I have this (name the emotion), I totally and completely accept myself.” After one or more applications of EFT, the strength of the emotion starts to come down. When it gets to 0-2 in strength (on a scale of 0-10 with 10 being the strongest), I start to ask if any other underlying issue or emotion is coming to the surface. If and when it does, I assess the strength of that issue and do the EFT tapping all over again on the new issue or emotion.

When no other emotion or issue comes to the surface, I future pace the client by asking him or her to imagine the original setting that caused the emotional upheaval to see if the emotions come up again. If they do not, then that problem area or issue is free to be supplanted by new desirable emotions.

To do this, I ask the client what emotions he or she would like to experience at that moment. When they choose an emotion, I have them fully access a former incident or moment when they have experienced that emotion. While they are in that emotion, I have them anchor it by naming the emotion. I then have them go through the tapping again (with the setup of “When (name the situation or context) happens again, and to help me totally and completely accept myself even more , I choose to feel (name the new desirable emotion) and then tap each of the energy points while naming the new emotion. After doing this tapping on the new, desirable emotions and IF I THINK IT IS NECESSARY, I may have the client walk a future time line with the new emotions, or sometimes, I will have them do a Logical Level Integration with the new emotions.

An example of the above happened one time when a father asked if I could help them with the nightly arguments he and his wife were having with their son over homework. It seemed that every time the parents would remind their son of his homework, he would get angry, which would then make the parents angry, and then the anger would escalate into free wheeling arguments and the whole night would be ruined.

I did a group EFT on all three of them. The way to do this is to ask each and all of them for their issues regarding doing the homework. When any one of them would come up with an issue, ALL THREE WOULD TAP on that issue. For example, if the mother were to say, “I hate the arguing! I just want peace in my family.” All three would say the set up of “Even though, I hate the arguing, I totally and completely accept, love and appreciate myself and (name the other two participants).” Then go through the tapping protocol while saying the reminder phrase of “hate the arguing”.

I would then ask the other two for one of their issues or emotions and we would repeat the process, over an over, until they could not come up with any other negative emotion or issue. Some examples were:

“Even though I get angry when my parents remind me to do my homework, …”

“Even though I get angry when I have to remind John to do his homework, ..”

“Even though I get frustrated when John says he doesn’t know how to do his homework, ...”

“Even though I feel overwhelmed at the constant, every night, on-slaught of the arguing, …

“Even though I feel helpless when my parents have to help me do my homework ….”

I got each and all of them to suggest a positive replacement emotion for the homework event, and all three would tap on it as suggested above. For example, “I choose peace at homework time.”; I choose to feel confident I can do my homework.”, etc.

They came back in about two weeks and had NOT had any arguments at all over homework and in fact the son was cheerfully doing his homework without being asked or reminded.

Using EFT with ADD Behavioral Symptoms

It is my belief, that the ADD Behavioral Symptoms are driven by the high level of negative emotions, stress and anxiety. Much of the time when the emotions are relieved with EFT (as in the case above), the ADD Behavioral Symptoms go away. If they do not go away after tapping on the emotions supporting them, I may tap on the actual ADD Behavioral Symptom that is presenting itself to see if any more emotions arise. The most common ADD Behavioral Symptoms usually are: hyperactivity, impulsiveness, distractibility, disorganization, forgetfulness, and/or procrastination. Other behaviors may come up, such as talking too fast or not talking at all. (Remember: Many times the extreme opposite of hyperactivity is passive/apathetic and/or withdrawal. This behavior typically does not get the student into trouble. In fact, they are sometimes labeled as very cooperative in the classroom. Yet the internal turmoil of these students is still destructive to their self esteem. They may show up anyplace on the continuum between hyperactivity and passive. The passive person has trouble communicating because they have trouble finding the words to stay up with the fast moving images—so they don’t talk much. The hyperactive person talks rapidly and jumps from topic to topic because HE IS TRYING TO STAY UP WITH THE IMAGES, making him very difficult to understand.)

So, if the person is hyperactive at the moment, I first do the strength assessment and then the set up phrase would be “Even though I am hyperactive right now, I totally and completely accept and love myself for who I truly am deep down inside of me.” Continue to tap on this until it goes down to 0-2 in strength and then start asking for other issues. Many times emotions or beliefs (beliefs are covered below) will come up. After the strength assessment, tap on them until they are down to 0-2 on the strength scale. Continue this process until you have cleared all issues that have come up from the beginning “hyperactive” issue.

Using EFT with Limiting Beliefs

The structure of how to change limiting beliefs starts with creating doubt in the old limiting belief and then introducing the new belief and energizing it. Beliefs are held in place by their emotional investment. When you have a limiting belief that has been brought about by traumas and you use EFT on the limiting belief it, in effect, drains the negative emotion away from the limiting belief. This weakens the strength of the belief, which opens the way for doubt to creep in. If you immediately have them choose a new, empowering belief and repeat it while they go through the EFT protocol again, you are connecting new and positive emotions to the new belief—effectively installing it in them. To then have them future pace the new emotions into their future time line or to integrate it throughout their Logical Levels, further reinforces the new belief.

The strategy for changing Limiting Beliefs regarding ADD is the same as listed before with Emotions and ADD Behavioral Symptoms. Elicit the limiting belief, assess the strength on a scale of 0-10, do the set up, and then tap on the limiting belief until the strength is down to a 0-2 level. Then check to see if any new limiting beliefs, negative emotions or issues have bubbled to the surface. If so, repeat the process for the new issue. When you cannot find any more limiting beliefs at the moment, ask them for some “Empowering Beliefs they had rather have and tap on those.

Some examples of limiting beliefs I have found in persons with the ADD Symptoms are: “I can’t control my mind.”

“My mind won’t let me do that (e.g., hold a image steady).

“I am stupid!”

“I am learning disabled.” (e.g. “I have ADHD.”)

“I am weird and different from everybody else.”

“Nobody likes me!”

“I can’t learn anything.”

“I hate school!”

Some examples of Empowering Beliefs are: (this is usually after I have taught them how to control their mind and to use my learning strategies)

“I know I can learn anything.”

“I am learning how to ________.”

“I can be the top student in my class.”

“Now that I know how to learn, I can learn anything in school.”

“Now that I know how to learn, school is fun and easy.”

“My teachers are wanting to help me.”

Accessing Limiting Beliefs

Limiting beliefs can be elicited from the following steps in the coaching process.

The student shares a problem or something they have trouble doing.
Ask “What does that mean about you (or others) that you have this issue?” Get them to elaborate and listen for any limiting beliefs that might be embedded in their description or discussion that has to do with their identity (or others). At this point, some good NLP Meta Modeling is very useful.
When you think you have spotted a limiting belief, ask “So, do you really believe that (state the belief very succinctly) is true? Do you really believe that deep down?”
If the answer is no, repeat step 2 and ask for clarification or for what they think they might believe. If the answer is yes, and they seem congruent, do the belief change process with EFT with them.

SUMMARY

If we could teach parents and teachers appropriate strategies to implement on the spot, then we could head off these powerful escalating feelings of being separated and alienated. We could also teach parents and teachers how to help students find the more empowering meanings to assign to certain events. We could even teach the students how to find different and more empowering meanings for the events that occur in their everyday life. Then their self-esteem would be elevated and boosted rather than torn down. In fact, wouldn’t it be nice if we taught the students how to do this for their classmates.

I personally think EVERYBODY wants and can make a difference in the world--don’t you? In my opinion, transforming children’s lives makes a big difference in helping to make the world a better place. Come join me….

About the Author

Don A. Blackerby, Ph.D. is a former math teacher and college dean and founded SUCCESS SKILLS in 1981 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA in order to focus on using NLP in helping struggling students in school. In 1996, he wrote a book “Rediscover the Joy of Learning” in which he describes his NLP based strategies and processes on how he helps struggling students including those who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Don is not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or medical doctor, he is an educator who is certified in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and practices as a Personal Development and Academic Coach. On a spiritual path he is an ordained minister and registered in the State of Oklahoma. He may be contacted in various ways. His address and phone numbers are: SUCCESS SKILLS, 1517 Walnut Cove Road, Edmond, OK 73013, USA. His phone number is 1-405-330-0164. His fax is 1-405-330-016

Dynamic Spin Release and the Energy of Your Mind

ebulletin@ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:08 GMT

with Tim & Kris Hallbom

Dynamic Spin Release (DSR) is a practical way to quickly help someone clear out their negative thoughts patterns and emotions, physical pain, limiting beliefs and imprints.

My husband, Tim and I, have found that most of our thoughts, feelings and emotions have a certain unconscious spin to them–in which they either turn clockwise or counterclockwise. Over time, we have noticed that most problem states or negative emotions seem to be spinning one direction, while positive states and emotions spin another direction. If you take a negative emotion, and reverse the direction of the spin, the negativity of the emotion will disappear. If you take a positive feeling and spin it faster and faster in the same direction, it will intensify the positive nature of the feeling.

It makes sense from a quantum perspective that spin is so deeply woven into our consciousness and culture. According to quantum physics, the entire nature of our universe is based on spin. Hence, spin is an intrinsic property of all elementary particles such as quarks, leptons and bosons (which are the basic building blocks of our universe). ⁽¹⁾

Just as the earth rotates around the sun, and the moon circles around the earth, our thoughts feelings, and actions have a certain spin quality to them as well. The idea of "spin" or "circular movement" is deeply rooted into our consciousness and how we process information. For example, you can hear how people represent spin in their language patterns. How many times have you heard someone say...

I have this idea that has been going round and round in my head
I keep talking in circles about this problem.
Let's put a new spin on that idea.
I keep looping around on what I should do next.
I'm all wound up.
I keep spinning this idea in my head.
I need to go unwind, and have a glass of wine.
This is a terrible cycle that we've been in.
The economy is spiraling downward.

Moreover, you can hear a lot of talk about spin in the media and with politics. How many times have you heard a news commentator talking about the "spin machine", or the most recent spin of the day, or how some poor politician is in need of a spin-doctor.

Not only can you hear spin metaphors in people's language patterns, you can also see the "spin" in their non-verbal behavior and gestures. All you have to do is watch someone for a while, and you'll begin to notice how often they make circular movements with their hands and fingers while they are talking. You will also see them making micro-circular movements with their heads, their eyes and their bodies.

Mine and Tim's fascination with spin began in the spring of 2008. It all started with a simple little headache. It was a sunny morning, and I had a headache on the right side of my head. I asked Tim if he could do something to make it better. So Tim reached over to the right side of my head and mimicked the motion of pulling the headache from the outside of my head. He then asked me to represent the headache in a holographic 3-dimensional image about two feet away from me, and to explain what it looked like.

The very first thing I noticed was that it looked like a light reddish-pinkish brain, and it was turning clockwise in a sideways motion. So Tim casually said to me, "Why don't you just spin the headache counterclockwise until it disappears!"

It was kind of funny because he twirled his fingers around in circles as he was saying this. And then he disappeared into the other room. I think he must have gone to check email or something like that.

Anyway, I went ahead and did what he said and spun the image counterclockwise, and my headache disappeared. I must admit, I was pretty surprised at how quickly it went away. So I immediately began doing this process with all of my clients, and got some incredible results. Tim started doing it with all of his clients, and he was also getting good results. It seemed that the more we did this with our clients, the more we were able to fine-tune the process. And before I knew it, we had developed several different processes and techniques involving the concepts of quantum spin networks, holographic consciousness, submodality shifts in awareness, and the energy of our mind.

When working with someone, one of the several techniques that we have been doing is to have the client identify an unpleasant feeling, image, or voice and place it several feet outside of them in the form of a 3-dimensional holographic image. We then ask the client which way is the image turning. Whenever we ask someone this, they almost always say clockwise or counterclockwise. Rarely does anyone say that the image has "no spin" to it all.

We then ask the client to spin the image in the opposite direction of how they originally saw the image, and to spin the image so fast and hard that it explodes and disappears back into the universe. It's as if a big giant vacuum comes in and sucks it up. And then a special "gift" will appear inside of the newly created empty space. The gift often serves as a powerful healing resource for the client, and has profound meaning for them. Once the client gets the gift, we then have them bring the healing essence of it back into their heart or somewhere in their body.

Over time, we have noticed a pattern to the types of metaphorical gifts the client's receive, the color of the gifts, the shape of the gifts and the overall quality of the gifts. Usually the gift appears to be some kind of an archetypical metaphor that has special meaning to the client such as a diamond, a treasure box or a rose.

We have developed several new techniques and/or variations of the above process. We've been having a lot of fun with this, and our clients seem to love doing it. Just yesterday, I had a client ask me if it was all right to spin a bad feeling that she was having, "counter clockwise".

My "inner scientist" became curious as to why this process works so well. So I started reading about quantum spin and the biophysics of the brain. Through my research, I discovered there are some well-published scientists (Hameroff and Penrose, 1996) who believe that every thought, feeling, and emotion we have consists of different quantum states that are mediated through quantum spin and space time geometry. ^{(2) (3)}

I became excited when I read this because it offers an explanation as to why we've been getting such positive results with the Dynamic Spin Release process from a theoretical physics perspective. Whether or not these theories are 100% accurate, they support the fact that DSR is a practical way for "releasing" one's negative energy, feelings, emotions and beliefs. It is also a nice and easy way to work with the energy of the mind, and the holographic nature of our consciousness. ⁽⁴⁾

Interestingly, the whole idea of "spinning one's problems away" is an ancient one that dates back to the 12th century Sufi tradition of "Sufi Spinning" (which is a trance like dance ritual that is still practiced today by the Whirling Dervishes.) The Whirling Dervish is a mystical dancer who twirls and spins in a precise rhythm, which is representative of the earth revolving on its axis while orbiting the sun. The purpose of the spinning dance ritual is for the dervish to be emptied of all negative thoughts, and to move into spiritual ecstasy thorough this sacred form of spinning. ^{(5) (6)}

Tim and I later discovered that Richard Bandler, the co-developer of NLP, also created a hypnotic spinning process, which he calls the "Spin Technique" or the "Reverse Spin Process". Apparently, Bandler has been spinning negative feelings into positive feelings for several years, and has been getting good results too. ⁽⁷⁾

In essence, I guess you could say that spin has been around for a long time, and is probably here to stay… given how electrons spin around the nucleus of an atom, the planets in our solar system revolve around the sun, the earth twirls on its axis, and the dervishes spin in ecstasy. Dynamic spin release seems to be a good thing too.

References

(1) Introduction to Quantum Mechanics - 2nd ed. by David J. Griffiths. (Prentice Hall Publishing, 2004.)

(2) Conscious Events as Orchestrated Spacetime-Selections by Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose. (Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3:36-53, published in 1996)

(3) Consciousness, the Brain, and Spacetime Geometry by Stuart Hameroff. (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 929:74-104, published in 2001)

(4) The Holographic Principle Theory of Mind by Mark Germine (World Futures -Journal of General Evolution, Volume 64, Issue 3 April 2008, pages 151 – 178).

(5) Sufism and Dervishes–The Fundamental Meaning of Sema (The Whirling Dervishes of Rumi webpage at: www.whirlingdervishes.org/whirlingdervishes.htm)

(6) Definition of the Ancient Whirling Dervish Ritual (Gregangelo & Velocity Arts webpage at: www.gregangelo.com/define.htm).

(7) Interview with Richard Bandler "Treating Nonsense with Nonsense: Strategies for a Better Life" by Ronnie Amsler (NLP Institut Zuerich PDF down load, 1999).

(8) The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot (Harper Collins Publishers, 1991)

(9) Positive Energy by Judith Orloff, M.D. (Three Rivers Press, 2005)

Kristine Hallbom is the co-founder of the NLP and Coaching Institute of California and the co-creator of the WealthyMind™ program. She is a life coach, trainer and author, and has studied NLP and Systems Theory since 1987. She is a contributing author of "Your Mind Power: Strategies for Behaviour Change" and the best-selling book, "Alternative Medicine-The Definitive Guide".

Tim Hallbom is an internationally known NLP trainer, developer, author and coach. He directs training at the NLP and Coaching Institute of California in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the President of IASH, and is also a founding board member of the organization. He is co-author of the best-selling books, "Beliefs-Pathways to Health and Well-Being" and "NLP: The New Technology of Achievement".

The Infinite Aspects of Natural Healing

ebulletin@ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:08 GMT

by Carla Woody
Published in April/May 2008 Perspective Magazine
By the Association for Humanistic Psychology

Click here for a complete reprint with photos.

One of the travelers in our Maya Mysteries program eperienced a natural healing during our trip in January 2008 that has been scientifically documented. I’ll call the traveler Hope to protect her privacy, even though she’s given permission to use her story.

Scientific Documentation

Hope had been seeing nutritionist Jane Kohner and receiving monthly testing since October 2007 using the Asyra technology. This computerized system has been thoroughly researched and shown highly effective in clinical studies to uncover patients’ conditions and is being used by a variety of allopathic and complementary health professionals from the Mayo Clinic to Dr. Norm Shealy.

The Asyra machine shows a range of red, yellow and green levels for physical conditions. Hope was in the red (dangerous) for blood sugar levels and cardiac stress. She was adhering to the diet/supplement program Jane prescribed. But the reading levels hadn't budged from red. Jane tested her right before she went on our Spiritual Travel Program to Mexico and immediately afterward - about a three week lapse.
The timing just happened that way and hadn’t been specifically intended, nor was I aware of Hope’s health challenge or this process at the time.

In the post-trip test, Hope showed in the green (normal) for both conditions! Jane indicated that Hope had improved on everything and was now at the green level in almost all areas, with no significant conditions showing. She has maintained those levels as of this writing in April 2008. Jane said to me, “I consider it to be a dramatic healing. These things just don’t resolve that quickly! I know what to do to support the body nutritionally. But I know from work at the Gershon Cancer Center, if the emotional healing doesn’t happen then it doesn’t work.”

I expressed my excitement to Jane about this news. Finally, here’s a way to study and show scientifically what I’ve witnessed happening for years in the work I’ve undertaken – consistent emotional healings with visible physical results periodically. Now here’s also a way of showing the physical healing that doesn’t necessarily present to the casual eye, but does happen quietly, like a return of normal blood sugar
levels. We’ve agreed to collaborate on documenting case studies with people who are engaged with the programs I sponsor, at least those living in the Prescott, Arizona area.

While I don’t think in scientific terms, I most definitely appreciate the validation that research can bring, especially when I can only describe the occurrences in esoteric ways that are absolutely real, but may not make sense to the general population.

. . .

This article is available in its entirety, with images, here . . .

Reprinted from April/May Perspective Magazine

Carla Woody, MA, CHT...author of “Calling Our Spirits Home” and “Standing Stark”…is the founder of Kenosis LLC, an organization based in Prescott, Arizona, supporting human potential through workshops and spiritual travel opportunities. In 2007, she formed Kenosis Spirit Keepers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving indigenous wisdom. She leads retreats internationally sharing an integration of NLP, subtle energy work and world spiritual traditions. Carla is the developer of “The Re-Membering Process”, a model for spiritual growth, and works with individuals and groups in areas of transition, relationships, spirituality and whole health. She sponsors Spiritual Travel Programs to Peru, Mexico and France. See a magazine article giving an overview of her work at PW Article (PDF). Carla may be reached via telephone at 928-778-1058 or email cwoody@kenosis.net. Visit www.kenosis.net and www.kenosisspiritkeepers.org.

Using NLP to Support Healing

ebulletin@ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:08 GMT

by Steve Andreas

First there was psychoanalysis, analyzing the mind. Then there was psychotherapy, in which one person treats or “therapizes” another. NLP can also be used in this way, but primarily NLP is about psychoeducation, teaching someone how to use their mind, so that people can use it with themselves, as more of a personal practice, rather than a therapy, and in this piece I’ll offer you an example.

We have a private well, with a pressure tank to maintain pressure. Our water pressure had been somewhat low, so on the last day of November I adjusted the pressure switch, turned on the pump, and happily watched the pressure climb up past the 30# or so it had been. As it climbed past 50#, suddenly the back of the tank exploded--BLAM!!--and by Newton's second law, the tank flew (no exaggeration) into me, giving me a number of bruises and a nasty Y-shaped gash just over my left eye. If I were an inch taller--or the trajectory of the tank had been an inch lower--I might have lost an eye.

On my way to the house and then to the doctor, whenever I thought of the explosion I re-experienced a bright white flash, and the impact and the pain. The rusty scale from the inside of the corroded tank had a very unique oily smell that had gotten on my clothes, and each time I smelled it, that also triggered the white flash and impact. My immediate concern was to get medical help, but as soon as I was in the clinic getting the gash pulled together and stitched up (two dozen stitches, both cutaneous and sub-), I did several processes to promote healing.

The first thing I did is something I learned from Tim Hallbom, called the “physical trauma process.” I imagined that I was a stunt man hired for a movie of my explosion. Well prepared with padded clothing and other tricks of the trade, I re-experienced all the events of the explosion without injury, and repeated this sequence from before the explosion to after it ten times. This added ten movies of being unhurt to the one of being hurt, and the result was an internal experience of going through the explosion and coming out fine--just as when you sometimes stumble or bump into something without any injury. I have no proof that this process works, but I have several examples where it certainly seemed to make a difference. In one case, a woman in a seminar turned her ankle when she stood up and lost her balance, and she was absolutely sure that she would be limping for some time. I had her do this process immediately, and about 15 minutes later she stood up and walked completely normally, without any pain. The process takes only a few minutes to do, and could only be harmful if someone had such a loose grasp on reality that they then did things that made a real injury worse.

The next thing I did was to separate myself from the event by watching a movie of the exact same sequence of events from about 20 feet away. From that distance I saw myself watching the pressure switch, the tank exploding and hitting me, and then me walking to the house and calling the medical clinic. From this perspective, I could see him feeling the impact and pain, but I was only a detached observer of those events. After this, whenever I smelled the smell of that peculiar rusty scale or thought of the explosion, it triggered this detached movie of seeing myself (instead of the white flash and blow to my head). This is an example of the NLP “visual/kinesthetic dissociation” process that can be used to resolve most phobias quickly, as well as most traumas and PTSD. (Heart of the Mind, Chapter 7)

Then I used a process to support healing developed by my wife, Connirae. I compared my image of the gash in my forehead to an image of something that I know will heal quickly, like an ordinary cut that I might get while cutting vegetables. When I did this, the gash was black and bright red, while my image of an ordinary cut was surrounded by a bright white light (Different people will have very different color codings). Then I transformed the bright red and black of the gash to the white light. This gave my new injury the same coding, indicating nonverbally that it would heal quickly. This is far more impactful than any verbal message or affirmation, because any time I thought of the gash I automatically saw this white light that indicated healing.

Finally, I added an additional piece that I thought of some time ago. One of the first and most dependable signs of healing is itching, as the nerve endings regenerate into the healing tissue. The experience of itching is also one of easiest things to induce hypnotically simply by focusing your attention. So I attended to the gash waiting for the first itches to occur, which happened almost right away (probably far too soon to actually be the result of healing). Besides being another nonverbal indication of healing, this did something else very important. Focusing on the itching implied not attending to other sensations like heat, soreness, or pain that could indicate that the wound was not healing.

Another example of this kind of redirection of attention is what nurses are trained to do when patients begin to come out of general anesthetic after an operation, something that we learned from Sandra Aspromonte. The nurse needs to know if the patient is nauseous, in order to be prepared if they vomit, because in their semi-conscious state they might aspirate the vomit into their lungs, which would be very serious. However, in their semi-conscious state, the patient is extremely suggestible. If the nurse asks, “Are you nauseous?” they may create the very response that they don’t want--vomiting. So instead, at the first sign of consciousness in the patient, the nurse asks, “Are you hungry?” This question is also very hypnotic, and since hunger is incompatible with vomiting, directing the patient’s attention in this way tends to preclude vomiting—without ever mentioning it.

In one of Milton Erickson’s cases, a woman would gasp uncontrollably just before bedtime, which interfered with her sex life. Erickson instructed her to do something that naturally elicited giggling, which prevented her gasping.

A more general example of this principle of eliciting an incompatible response is useful in dealing with fear. Curiosity is a state that is incompatible with fear. In fear, you run away from something, while in curiosity, you go toward something in order to learn more about it. If you can elicit a strong state of curiosity about something that someone has been avoiding, that will preclude fear. Typically after curing a phobia, clients will be very interested and curious about what they had previously been avoiding, indicating that the curiosity was already present, but the fear was so strong that the curiosity was overwhelmed, and wasn’t noticed.

Back to my gash. The doctor wanted to schedule my stitch removal 7 days later. However, I had to get on an early airplane 6 days later to go present at a conference, so I had the stitches out the previous day (less than 5 days after the injury). I had wondered if I would look a bit like Frankenstein, but when the stitches were removed, there wasn’t even a thin pink line where the skin had healed. I looked up common times for stitch removal and found 3-5 days for face, and 7-10 days for scalp (Is forehead included in face or more like scalp?) so maybe it wasn’t so miraculous. However, it certainly did heal up very nicely, and no one at the conference noticed the scar unless I pointed it out. A couple of months later, it blended in completely with my other wrinkles--one of the advantages of getting older.

Integrating Both Sides of the Brain

ebulletin@ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:08 GMT

Integrating Both Sides of the Brain

by Al Sargent, Marilyn Sargent, Kevin L. Humphrey

We’ve all heard the phrase, “I have half a mind to ...” which may be true! If this describes what is happening cognitively for a person, he or she may literally be using only half of the information that is coded in their brain to deal with a particular situation or event. Missing is an integration of thinking; an amalgamation of right and left brain perspectives. Hemispheric Integration™ opens up new possibilities by teaching us how to access our “other mind’s eye,” or that half of the brain which “sees” things other than what we may consciously be aware. Research demonstrates that the brain codes “reality” differently in each of hemisphere of the brain. . .

This article is available in PDF format here.

The Pedestal Exercise

ebulletin@ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:08 GMT

Activating your spontaneous healing or getting your very own innate healing system working fully again, requires you to understand your innate healing system language.

Learning this highly specialised language is challenging because invariably it is beyond conscious thinking or any form of education. Read Activating Spontaneous Healing 1st edition Sept 2008. ISBN 978-2-8399-0326-4 available at info@asr-key.ch $35 US.

In a nutshell, the things that block this innate healer are the emotionally challenging events in our lives. Those emotional challenges have become emotional blockages because they were not handled properly at the time of happening.

Because those things were not handled the way the inner intelligence or internal management systems wants us to do, other connected internal systems cannot function properly. That causes a chain reaction, which eventually manifests itself as an ailment or disease. That could be described as a final warning in order to get our full conscious attention.

There is no space here to explain how the whole process works however; I will explain how to do one challenging yet vitally important exercise. That is; managing ‘emotionally challenging ideas, feelings, thoughts, visions or other events.

’This exercise called ‘The Pedestal Exercise’ is important because it helps you to master, accept, acknowledge, take ownership of, or take responsibility for the event and that triggers the internal process, which frees the blockage.

Induce a limiting emotion or when one shows itself naturally, act immediately. Take the challenging emotion in your hands as if it is a solid object. Place it on an imaginary pedestal in front of you. Now walk around the challenging emotion. Observe everything you can about it. What it looks like? How big is it? How wide and what colour? Now observe the emotion, pick it up and turn it over looking at the top and underneath until you know everything there is to know about it.

When the above iscomplete, ask these 2 questions. What are you frightened of? When you have found the answer ask; Who is responsible for this?

There is only one right answer. When you have successfully observed the emotional challenge and given the right answer, the mental image of the pedestal and the emotional challenge will instantly disappear forever in an extraordinary way. Following this you will experience an amazing feeling of lightness and freedom. If the emotional challenge was really powerful you may also experience a surge of adrenalin.

How NLP Was Saved From Regulation in Colorado

ebulletin@ — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:24:08 GMT

This story is published by IASH in response to a discussion at the 2006 IASH biennial conference, at which several members expressed concern about the limitations imposed by professional licensure. Note: The paper by Steve Andreas, which is copied below, contains references to attached documents, which are not copied.

The paper is reprinted with the kind permission of Steve Andreas.

How NLP Was Saved From Regulation

Introduction by Merilee Dannemann-Kamerman

In 1991, NLP in the state of Colorado was saved from being prohibited by law.

The Colorado Mental Health Licensing Statute would have prohibited unlicensed psychotherapy of any kind.

Steve Andreas and a number of colleagues stopped this law from being enacted. They did it using sound logic, good research and NLP.

The real goal of the legislation may have been to protect licensed psychotherapists from competition. But the legislation was promoted as a protection for the public. At that period, information was coming to public attention about inappropriate behaviors by therapists, especially those involving sex with clients.

Based on unexamined assumptions, it appeared to legislators that licensed professions with state licensing boards and organizations for professional oversight would be effective in policing their own professions.

Steve was able to show, from professional journals and similar credible sources, that professional licensure was not effective in preventing abuse; that the degree of abuse actually seemed to increase as professional requirements increased (psychiatrists were worse than psychologists, based on available statistics), and just as importantly, that these professions had no standards or measures for quality of treatment.

As Steve recalled recently, the chairperson of the committee said, “We alI thought this bill was going to be a no brainer, and this would be a slam dunk, but the points that have been raised have really made me think.”

Gathering the data was one part of the process. It helped that the American Psychological Association had run an in-depth series of articles on the ethical challenges to that profession just a few years earlier. It also helped that the Colorado regulatory agency had its own statistics corroborating the abuse problem.

The other part of the process was rapport. It was necessary to present the information to legislators in a forum comfortable for them, a legislative committee hearing, to behave appropriately for the setting and to pace their concerns. It was important to show up in large numbers, to demonstrate to legislators that there was a real interest group of citizens who cared about this issue, and to have a coordinated presentation with agreed-upon spokespersons. This had required advance organizating of Colorado NLPers and other professionals whose work was affected by the proposed law.

It was important to have a witness who could speak about the experience of being abused by a licensed professional. In this case, there was a woman who had been sexually exploited by her psychologist and was willing to share her sense of outrage. Finally, as the spokesperson, Steve wore a coat and tie (which is remarkable only for those who know Steve).

Steve recalls a famous quotation from psychologist Carl Rogers, which was helpful in the presentation:

“When I ask myself whether the training programs which I know, in guidance, in clinical psychology, in psychiatry, approach this goal, I come up with a strong negative. It seems to me that most of our professional training programs make it more difficult for the individual to be himself, and more likely that he will play a professional role. Often he becomes so burdened with theoretical and diagnostic baggage that be becomes less able to understand the inner world of another person as it seems to that person. Also, as his professional training continues, it all too often occurs that his initial warm liking for other persons is submerged in a sea of diagnostic and psychological evaluation...”

The end product was a law very different from the one that had initially been intended to put NLPers out of business in Colorado.

Steve recently recalled the outcome of this legislative process. He writes:

Besides the explicit recognition of the unlicensed practice of psychotherapy, one result, in response to each licensed group's clear lack of zeal in prosecuting its own members, was the creation of a joint Grievance board composed of two members from each of the 4 licensed groups: psychologists, social workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and licensed Professional counselors, . . . And 2 unlicensed people. And I was one of the unlicensed people on the first year of the board's existence.

The only requirement for being an unlicensed psychotherapist in Colorado is to register with the Department of Regulatory Agencies, take a one-day course in Jurisprudence and pass a test.

Following is the full text of the presentation Steve Andreas gave to the legislative committee in 1991.

COMMENTARY BY
STEVE ANDREAS
REGARDING THE COLORADO MENTAL HEALTH LICENSING STATUTE
BEFORE THE SUNSET REVIEW COMMITTEE
DENVER, CO
JULY 9 & 10, 1991

Personal Background

I have a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and a master's degree in psychology from Brandeis University (see attached curriculum vitae).

I am the author of two books on psychotherapy. I am co-author—with my wife Connirae--of two other books about therapy and training. We have edited seven other books about personal change, including books by such well-known therapy innovators as Virginia Satir, who pioneered Conjoint Family Therapy; Carl Rogers, who developed client-centered therapy; Fritz Perls, who developed Gestalt Therapy; and Richard Bandler and John Grinder, developers of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).

My wife and I have produced thirteen NLP training videotapes and seven videotapes of family therapy pioneer Virginia Satir. I have written a dozen articles for professional publications and have made presentations at national conferences such as the Family Therapy Network Symposium and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.

My wife and I are co-directors of NLP Comprehensive, an organization devoted to training excellence in Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I speak not only for myself, but also for the over 400 people we have trained and certified as Neuro-Linguistic Programmers in the state of Colorado, as well as many thousands of others we have trained in shorter workshops. I am an unlicensed teacher of psychotherapeutic methods.

First, I want to commend Brad Mallon, Susan Warren, and the DORA staff for doing an excellent job at the near-impossible task they have been given. I think they have been exceptionally fair and even-handed. At the same time there are still very serious problems with the DORA recommendations. (Editor: DORA was the Department of Regulatory Agencies, which had jurisdiction over professional licensure for various licensed professions and occupations.)

Protecting the Public

The Mental Health Licensing Statute was enacted to protect the public from two different categories of harm:

1. Unethical conduct: the therapist's misuse of the therapeutic relationship to exploit the client through fraud, sexual abuse, substance abuse, etc.

2. Incompetence: the therapist's inability to providethe psychotherapy services paid for.

There is some overlap between these two issues. To charge a person for a service when one is unable to provide the service is clearly unethical, and to take advantage of a professional relationship for personal gain can also be described as incompetence.

Nevertheless, I think it is useful to distinguish between incompetence and unethical conduct. It is possible for a therapist to provide the service contracted for, yet also exploit a client. Likewise, someone who is exquisitely ethical could be incompetent to provide the contracted service.

Unethical Conduct

Unethical conduct is deplorable, but it can be dealt with by specifying prohibited activities in the statutes and reporting violations to the Attorney General's office for investigation and prosecution—with no need for a grievance board.

Professional Incompetence

Professional incompetence is a much more difficult matter to deal with, and this is what has made DORA's job so difficult. In the field of psychotherapy there are literally hundreds of different kinds of treatment methods and modalities even in the mainstream. There is strenuous—and often acrimonious -- disagreement among practitioners about which—if any of them—are effective. Because of this, the phrase "generally accepted standards of practice," which appears in the Colorado Mental Health statute, is almost completely meaningless.

For instance, in the "Ethical Principles of Psychologists" (copy attached), published by the American Psychological Association (1989), principle 2 (of 10) is titled "competence":

"The maintenance of high standards of competence is a responsibility shared by all psychologists in the interest of the public and the profession as a whole...."

Although that sounds noble and wonderful, the word "competence" is not specified in a practical way so that an impartial observer could make any distinction between competent and incompetent practice.

Ultimately, competence can only be determined by observing the behavioral ability to accomplish a specified task. Licensing in medicine, truck driving, and many other fields is based on testing specific behavioral tasks. These tests are determined by clearly-defined standards of practice.

However, since there are no generally accepted standards of practice in the field of psychotherapy, it is impossible to agree on behavioral tests that would demonstrate competence.

The State of Psychotherapy

The Sunset Review report acknowledges the existing state of psychotherapy as follows:

"There is also disagreement about whether or not psychotherapy in general is truly helpful to most people, or whether or not they would have improved on their own over time anyway. Between those who agree that it is helpful, there is disagreement about what methodology is the most effective.

"The field is truly dynamic. While the professions of psychology and social work have been around awhile and exhibit the traits of more well-developed professions, psychotherapy is a newly emerging profession. Its members include practitioners of the four licensed groups but also a wide variety of other individuals and groups of practitioners with differing backgrounds in their levels of education and community and client orientation. New practices and methodologies come and go within the profession. There is no one commonly accepted professional code of ethics for this group, nor a consistent belief among all group members that licensure of the profession is necessary to protect the public." (p.12)

The Professional Literature

If the Sunset Review's own conclusions in this regard are not convincing, more detail can be found in the enclosed article "Animals at the Crossroads: A Perspective on Credentialing in the Mental Health Field" (Counseling Psychologist, Vol. 12 #4, 1984.)

A few pertinent quotations from pp. 177-178 of this article (copy enclosed) follow:

"Since research abounds in the professional literature upon which claims of efficacy can be based, it is helpful to look to the conclusions of these studies to provide empirical justification needed to adequately determine who should and who should not practice behavioral change methodologies, or when and where they should be allowed to practice. Below is a summary of research findings in key areas related to the practice and process of counseling, psychotherapy and behavior changes."

"Given the difficulty with interpretation of data, on the average, psychotherapy is better than no therapy, above average therapy often yields excellent results, and below average therapy may be harmful."

"Given methodological shortcomings and ambiguities in the data, ample evidence exists that psychotherapy can and does cause harm to a portion of people it is intended to help."

"Valid measurement of the changes in therapy is rare, and psychometric advances are needed to provide answers to basic questions that are otherwise unanswerable."

"The study of the interaction of patient and therapist variables in relation to specific outcome criteria is a rarity; considering there are over 100 forms of therapy, this becomes increasingly difficult to clarify."

"Existence of serious research problems in studies that have attempted to relate patient change to selected therapist characteristics or qualities; specified therapist variables were confounded with other uncontrolled therapist characteristics, with unspecified client characteristics and with therapists' idiosyncratic treatment approach."

"Evidence that the level of therapist experience is a determinant of outcome is surprisingly weak and not adequately tested."

"Conclusions drawn from well over 600 studies examining the process and outcome of therapy and behavior change speak dramatically to methodological weaknesses in research. Corroborative evidence regarding the difficulty with available research and literature in the area of effectiveness of psychotherapy (Office of Technology Assessment, 1980) has led to the conclusion that the many factors identified as important to the outcome of therapy have not been assessed in a definitive way. Sufficient numbers of unanswered questions exist as to what constitutes effective practice—therapist offered conditions to client gain, the interaction of therapist, client, and situational variables, the level at which one becomes proficient to act independently--to be drawing firm conclusions about who should be given a license to practice, and how this should be accomplished."

A book review "The Current Status of Psychotherapy" (copy enclosed) provides parallel conclusions and references. Among them are the following:

"The battle for acceptance of the scientific method that has been won in the physical sciences and in many areas of medicine has not yet been won in psychotherapy."

"Experts do not necessarily perform better than novices in unstructured problem areas such as psychology and psychiatry."

"Some clinicians carry out their practice with little or no effort to take advantage of new data concerning what seems to be effective with different kinds of problems with different kinds of clients."

"Many people who entered a mental hospital in the fifties and spent the rest of their lives there should not have been hospitalized in the first place."

Another glimpse into the field of psychotherapy is provided by the lead editorial in the May/June 1991 Family Therapy Networker (copy attached) which begins with the following statement:

"It is no secret that therapists are rarely swayed by research findings."

This is in stark contrast to the psychologist's code of ethics:

"They maintain knowledge of current scientific and professional information related to the services they render." (p.2, first paragraph)

Training in Psychotherapy

The irrelevance of most training in psychotherapy is highlighted by the "Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology" (EPPP), a test developed by the American Psychological Association. This test is used in all states for licensing of psychologists. Although the test is intended to evaluate professional competence, "research indicates that this type of test does not discriminate between trained and untrained individuals."

In addition, a consumer affairs group noted that "55% of the items on this test dealt with research procedures and methodology; only 6% on treatment interventions, planning and implementation, and evaluation." Although research is an important function for an academician, it is of little value to troubled clients.

One may question the value of a written test to evaluate a therapist's competence in the first place. However, the fact that only 6% of test items are devoted to treatment is a stunning testimony to the test's irrelevance for the practice of psychotherapy. Nevertheless, the Sunset Review report states (p.11):

"Although there may not be numerous empirical studies demonstrating the link between education, training and competent practice, common sense dictates that a person without background knowledge...may have difficulty assessing the patient's specific problems."

For many decades "common sense" dictated that diabetics could safely eat moderate amounts of carbohydrates such as bread. Recently a controlled experiment showed no difference between the consumption of bread and sugar in raising blood sugar levels.

Dr. Carl R. Rogers, who developed "client-centered therapy," is featured in every textbook on psychotherapy. Almost thirty years ago, Dr. Rogers discussed his views on the elements of a positive therapeutic relationship, and then commented:

"When I ask myself whether the training programs which I know, in guidance, in clinical psychology, in psychiatry, approach this goal, I come up with a strong negative. It seems to me that most of our professional training programs make it more difficult for the individual to be himself, and more likely that he will play a professional role. Often he becomes so burdened with theoretical and diagnostic baggage that he becomes Jess able to understand the inner world of another person as it seems to that person. Also, as his professional training continues, it all too often occurs that his initial warm liking for other persons is submerged in a sea of diagnostic and psychological evaluation. Thus to take the findings of these studies seriously would mean some sharp changes in the very nature of professional training, as well as in its curriculum." ["The Interpersonal Relationship: the Core of Guidance," Harvard Educational Review (Vol. 32, No. 4, Fall 1962)]

Thus the training required for professional licensure as a therapist may be worse than irrelevant; it may actually hinder a well-meaning therapist's ability to be useful to troubled clients. There is evidence from DORA's own data that .tends to confirm this.

Complaints Against Therapists

The DORA Sunset Review reports that a total of 391 complaints were received by the Mental Health Grievance Board over a 30-month period (p.8). Of these, 38% (149) were against unlicensed practitioners while 61% (239) were against licensed practitioners (p.13). DORA estimates the number of licensed therapists as "approximately 3,000" and unlicensed therapists "at 4,000 to 6,000" (p.10). Using these figures, the number of complaints per thousand therapists is: licensed, 80; unlicensed, 25-37.

According to these figures, a licensed therapist is two or three times as likely to receive a complaint as an unlicensed therapist.

DORA Sexual Abuse Survey

A 1986 confidential survey conducted by DORA contacted 600 professional psychotherapists, asking them about their knowledge of sexual abuse; 347 therapists responded. The following table summarizes the numbers and percentages of each group who reported that they were aware of sexual abuse of clients by therapists in Colorado:

	Sexual Abuse
Group	N	%
Psychiatrists	26	53.1
Psychologists	32	45.7
LSW IIs	27	43.5
Marriage and Family Therapists	30	42.3
Psychiatric Nurses	16	39.0
Professional Counselors	19	35.8
Cumulative Total	150	43.4

The professional categories in the table are listed approximately in order of their length of training, with psychiatrists (having the longest training) at the top. It becomes apparent that length of training is positively correlated with knowledge of sexual abuse of clients. Those with the longest training reported the greatest knowledge of sexual abuse. The fact that the correlation is almost perfectly linear indicates that there is a strong statistical relationship. As far as I know, this questionnaire did not ask for information about which category of therapist actually committed the abuse. However, we can assume that members of each group have more contact with their own colleagues than with others. Without additional qualifying information, the data strongly suggest that the additional years of professional training required for licensure correlates positively with increased incidence of sexual abuse of clients. Perhaps DORA's survey is flawed, but taken at face value it clearly suggests that a client is more likely to be sexually abused by a psychiatrist or psychologist than by a therapist with less training. This is consistent with a statement in the Sunset Review report (p.26, paragraph 3):

"Surveys have revealed that psychiatrists have a high incidence of sexual involvement with clients, when compared with other psychotherapy practitioners."

Influence of the Therapist

There is no question that a therapist can harm clients by poor judgement and inappropriate counseling. Under the title "A. The Need for Continued Regulation" (p.8) the Sunset Review Report points out the vulnerability of the client in a therapeutic relationship: "This constitutes a situation where a client may be especially vulnerable to abuse by a trusted advisor." A client is thus much more likely to accept harmful advice from someone who appears to have the status and expertise that many people associate with professional titles and licensure.

At the October 1990 annual meeting of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, Jay Haley was interviewed publicly as one of the founders of the field of Family Therapy. The following is a verbatim transcript of a tape recording of Haley's response to a questioner from the audience.

Questioner: "I'm interested in hearing what you have to say about the move to certify or license family therapists, and if you approve of that, how you think it would be best done."

Jay Haley: "Certify them by the state you mean, and that sort of thing? (Questioner: "Yes.") Some years ago in California the Association of Marriage Counseling—or whatever it was in those days—was trying to get a license passed to be certified, and I gave a nice talk that they shouldn't.

"Because the certification implies to the public that the person is competent because they're licensed. And the licensing never requires a measure of competency. It requires a measure of how long you went to school. And therefore I think it's a deception, really.

"You always take the risk that without certification there are incompetent people out there calling themselves marriage therapists or whatever. But you have to be pretty sure that the licensing is based on competence or you're sending out incompetent people anyhow. I don't think licensing protects people; let's put it that way. It's a union, really."

Jay Haley is widely-recognized as a founder, teacher, and continuing innovator in the field of Family Therapy, particularly the area of Strategic and Systems-oriented Family Therapy. He is currently co-director of the Family Therapy Institute of Washington D.C.

Haley is the author of a large number of articles and books including the following books:

Strategies of Psychotherapy
Family Therapy and Research
Advanced Techniques of Hypnosis and Therapy;
Selected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
Techniques of Family Therapy
Changing Families
Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques of
Milton H.Erickson, M.D.
Leaving Home
Ordeal Therapy
Reflections on Therapy and other essays

It would be hard to find a more respected, experienced and thoughtful spokesperson for the field of Family Therapy.

Licensing Creates a Special-Interest Group

I think Jay Haley's closing comment "It's a union, really" needs to be underscored. It is common for groups of people with similar interests to form associations for their own benefit and to influence legislation, etc. Often these activities also benefit the public as a whole. However, we should recognize that when the group's self-interest is in conflict with the public's it is extremely rare that the group promotes the public's interest at the expense of its own.

The Sunset Review Report points out (p.8, paragraph 3,4; p.9, paragraph 1):

"The previous independent boards (Psychology and Social Work) were determined by the legislature to be less than agressive in pursuing disciplinary actions against their peers."

At the present time, an overwhelming majority of the members of the grievance board are also licensed psychotherapists. All four licensed groups have gone on record recommending the prohibition of the unlicensed practice of psychotherapy.

"Licensed groups have advocated complete licensure as the best way to ensure competent practice and prevent consumer harm." (Sunset Review Report, p.10, first paragraph)

It seems likely that the grievance board is biased against unlicensed psychotherapists. This bias is evident in the Sunset Review report recommendation (p.14, last paragraph):

"4. Over the next five years, the department should gather statistics about the number, types and outcomes of complaints about both licensed and unlicensed practitioners so that a determination can be made from that data concerning the need for a higher level of protection for the public, i.e. total licensure."

Several points need to be made about this recommendation:

1. It demonstrates an assumption that licensure of therapists protects the public. As discussed above, there is no support for this assumption, while there is considerable evidence to the contrary.

2. It demonstrates a bias against unlicensed practitioners. In all fairness, the report should also recommend that licensure be abandoned if the statistics show more and/or more serious complaints against licensed psychotherapists.

3. Since half of the members of the grievance board (and one of the “public” members, Robert Smith) are licensed, there is considerable danger that compilation of this data may become biased. To be unbiased, scientific, and conclusive, this research should be conducted as a double-blind study by an outside agency or consultant with no vested interest in the outcome.

The Questionable Value of Licensing

Although recommending data collection in support of licensing, the Sunset Review Report also questions the value of licensing. The report states (p.11):

"A review of the pertinent professional literature would ordinarily assist in determining the effectiveness of licensure as a preventive measure—a protection against incompetent practice. The literature in the field of psychotherapy, however, is so broad and diverse, few concrete conclusions can be drawn from it.

"For every report that concludes that experience and credentials are related to competence (measured by successful therapy outcomes), there is a conclusion in another that they are not. There is substantial disagreement about how to measure competence—through outcome reviews (was the therapy successful / did the patient improve) or skill and ability reviews (what types of skills should assure prevention of harm). Traditional licensing theory assumes that competent practice is derived from the educational base, the skills development and the supervised experience that licensees must demonstrate prior to licensure. There is not, however, a lot of empirical data that supports this assumption as accurate."

The Ethics of Licensure

DORA is charged with the responsibility of devising ways to protect the public from harm caused by the unethical and incompetent practice of psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy is expensive, yet many hundreds of studies have failed to show that it is significantly more effective than no treatment at all.

Is it ethical to charge large amounts of money for treatment that may or may not work? More to the point, is it ethical for the state of Colorado to establish and require elaborate and expensive licensing procedures that give the appearance of legitimacy and efficacy to this questionable treatment?

Here is what the Sunset Review Report states in regard to this (p.12):

“In the four licensed disciplines, there is some agreement about professional standards, practices and acceptable methodologies. The same cannot be said about the unlicensed therapists practicing non-traditional methodologies. In an atmosphere such as this, with a public harm already defined, the legislature is hard put to define, limit and categorize what the disciplines themselves cannot agree on. Supreme Court Justice Burger summarized this situation well in Blocker v. United States, 288 F.2d 853,860 (1961):

"No rule of law can possibly be sound or workable which is dependent upon the terms of another discipline whose members are in profound disagreement about what those terms mean.... This is not simply a matter of experts disagreeing on opinions or on diagnosis, which often occurs, but disagreement at the threshold on what their own critical terms mean."

SUMMARY

In the field of psychotherapy there are no "generally-accepted standards of practice."
Without generally-accepted standards of practice it is impossible to determine competence.
Without a way to determine competence, licensure not only does not protect the public, it is a farce and a fraud that misleads the public, and only benefits the licensee.
There is evidence that suggests that a licensed therapist is twice as likely to receive a complaint and more likely to sexually abuse a client.
Since the evidence available indicates that licensed psychotherapists are a greater danger to the public than unlicensed psychotherapists, the legislature should immediately repeal all laws relating to licensure of psychotherapists.
To truly protect the public, the legislature should specify prohibited acts by psychotherapists, and enact these into statutes to be enforced by the appropriate authorities.

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