EXTREME PHOBIASMatrix Reimprinting For Extreme Phobic Responses

What we’ll cover today• Mainstream definitions of phobia• Basic client profile• Basic continuous assessment• Client safety during session• Tips & tangents• Morphic fields• Mechanistic thinking and how to eradicate it

What we won’t have time for today• The three main styles of EFT and Matrix Reimprinting practice

(cottage, coaching and clinical), which roughly predict:

• Client types• Client expectations of you/your service• Client expectations of their own input…

…and therefore:• What professionalism looks like in your arena

Who are you?• Established EFT and Matrix Reimprinting Practitioners

This means that you know:

• What happens to the brain under stress• What happens to the body in shock• How to spot the tiny signals

• That every problem was once a solution• That the client has the answers

Who am I?The prettier version:

• Published author (Amazon bestseller)• EFT trainer• Matrix Reimprinting Practitioner• Mensa member, Town Councillor, grandmother, all-round goddess

Phobia – Dictionary definition“ A persistent, abnormal, or irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid the feared stimulus. A strong fear, dislike, or aversion.”

Phobia – DSM-V definition #1• Marked and out of proportion fear within an environmental or

situational context to the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation

• Exposure to the phobic stimulus provokes an immediate anxiety response, which may take the form of a situationally bound or situationally predisposed panic attack.

• The person recognizes that the fear is out of proportion.• The phobic situation(s) is avoided or else is endured with intense

anxiety or distress.

Phobia – DSM-V definition #2• The avoidance, anxious anticipation or distress in the feared

situation(s) interferes significantly with the person's normal routine, occupational (or academic) functioning, or social activities or relationships, or there is marked distress about having the phobia.

So why isn’t this OCD?• Marked and out of proportion fear due to the anticipation of

something can appear obsessive.• Exposure to the phobic stimulus provokes an immediate anxiety

response which could be described as a compulsion.• This can all combine into an obtrusive, invasive process, however:• Phobic reactions are responsive – ‘because’. • OCD compulsions are pre-emptive – ‘if’.

Basic client profile Whether at their wits end or still rationalising, your client will:• Have layered coping strategies, many normalised• Have the world rearranged around their needs • Have loads of energy invested• Be identified with and by the phobia• Be well rehearsed in explaining their situation – externalising, used

to defending• May value being truly heard in a safe, supportive, non-judgmental

environment, so factor in extra time to simply listen until the client is ready to start work

Basic continuous assessment :Strong and overt reliance on physical records is a plus.• Highly detailed ‘booking in’ – perhaps well in advance – SMART or

similar• Pleases client – valued (for the struggle), heard• Reinforces clarity on depth and duration of issue – for client as well as

you• Underlines extent of coping strategies• Important questions: What, how long, how will you know (detail)

• Continuous written SUDs levels• Post-its – let the client keep score?• Story – Sue and the Apex problem

Client safety• Overwhelm vs. Abreaction• What it means to this client to ‘freak out’

• And what they normally do to regain calm• Pre-testing and/or pre-framing levels of breaking state and

breaking rapportSuch as:• Asking silly questions• Singing a song• Getting the client to look at the ceiling• Adding in grounding exercises*• Interjecting with technical info

Client safety• Have equipment you might need ready at hand

Such as:• Clean, lined waste paper basket (for being sick)• Water• Tissues• Soft blanket or shawl

• Test materials• Keep separate and hidden – no sneak peek of technicolour poisonous

frogs when you’re reaching for the black & white cartoon one, - no turning a folder into a threat.

Client safety on Skype• Take it much slower – pre-frame this.

• However you established the client contract, start each session with a gentle verbal reminder that they are responsible for their own safety and care. The subconscious hears.

• Use the camera if possible – silence can be hard to judge• Be prepared to be:

louder, sillier, or more pushy if a client risks tipping into overwhelm – pre-frame this

• Honour client preference• They / their dominant echo may prefer to be spoken to softly – see how

they normally cope.

*Grounding(All needs teaching / pre-framing ahead of session)Such as:• Getting up and moving around, patting legs and arms• Head up to the ceiling and sing a pre-agreed silly line “I’m a little

teapot”• The tree, the bubble, echo-proof spacesuit• Chakra protecting, sensation counting, meridian connecting

(Donna Eden etc)• The NLP box (energy storage)• Other variations (energy disposal)

Tips and tangents• Transference – when the phobia is not the core issue• All those layered rationalisations and coping strategies can mean

that getting suddenly stuck is progress – like combing long hair and finding another knot.Like a knot, sometimes its best not to push through, but to back up and take smaller sections.

• Expect to go echo hopping• Keep a minimal list: echo 1 age 27, London, feels red. Echo 2 age 6,

Bulgaria, slap• Have your best ears on

• Ask for the learnings, celebrate the wins• Doesn’t have to be plus 10 and worth a reimprint in an echo stream –

any sideline visit with a positive result can be injected into the timeline.

Tips and tangentsWork with their learning style / self talk / VAKOG (NLP & Meta-H)• Introduce an antidote colour?• “Ask it”?

• Separate from a sensation and communicate (eliminate/educate/echo)?• Anthropomorphise a phobic representation that won’t budge?

– careful - (spider story)

• Challenge the misery?• Add chances at restorative humour?• Be silly? Don’t be afraid to suggest.• Don’t get caught up in the drama (boundaries; wait and see etc)

Morphic fields‘Popular’ phobias, e.g. spiders, heights• In groups of friends

• Transference, as before• Metaphor, tangential coping strategy (something to worry about)

• In families• As above plus element of inheritance

Story – frog, frog’s teeth

Mechanistic thinking“A viewpoint that states that the behaviour of complex systems, such as individuals, societies, and economies, are determined strictly by the interactions of the parts or factors of which they are composed.”

~ BusinessDictionary.com

I have a phobia. It is an external thing. It is an illness, not me. It is me and I am defective. It is a wrong part to my personality. It is separate. It can/cannot be removed. It is an it.

Defining a ‘problem’ in this way* locks it down. (*As ‘a problem’).

Mechanistic thinking - practitioner Breaking the world/society/personality up into finite situations, conditions, problems. We don’t do this! (Right?)Can be evidenced in a desire to, for example:• Get all the work done in one session• Feel that things are complete, finished, done, closed

• (Booking in – Measurements of future success are subjective)• See the connection with a client as complete, as soon as they are

satisfied

Related to practitioner’s other boundary/safety issues

Mechanistic thinking - clientWe need to change this!Introduce client to:• Positive self regard • All problems once solutions• Everything is connected – infinite cause and effect• So many limitations are in the mind / in the energy field• No such thing as ‘all done’• Pick a journey!