Many times after a sudden emotional change we may feel a loss, or worse, depression which leaves us with a lot of anxiety and hurt but with little understanding of how to deal with the emotions of change. For years counseling and modern psychological therapies have been assisting individuals in dealing with emotional change and healing. Today these fields are in a creative growth cycle. Because of the public's demand for more efficient ways of helping individuals cope with emotional stress many new techniques have been developed to accelerate healing. One of these exciting new techniques is known as "Emotional Body Balancing" or EBB.
Emotional Body Balancing incorporates some of the traditional counseling methods with new techniques of relaxation to help the individual more quickly contact their feelings and the reason behind their emotional reactions.
Emotional Body Balancing is geared towards the client's comfort ease of expression and feeling of security. The treatment room is designed to have an atmosphere which is safe and emotionally comforting. Soft colors decorate the room with serene artwork which create a feeling of home. The lights are dimmed and usually the sounds of some relaxing music fills the room. The client lays down on a soft table and is covered with a warm blanket to help provide a sense of security. The EBB practitioner gently guides the individual into a relaxed state of mind, depending on the practitioner, the individual's relaxation can be enhanced with breathing exercises, guided imagery or with a Reiki energy treatment.
An EBB client is lying down, relaxed, eyes closed and focused inward in a warm nurturing environment. This atmosphere creates an easier "space" for someone to confront deep or strong emotions. This is opposed to the usual counseling session (with a therapist and client "eye to eye" in a bright lit room) which can sometimes leave the client feeling exposed and judged.
The relaxed state of mind eliminates a lot of the mind chatter we experience during our daily activities. With the mental chatter reduced, the client is able to quickly sift through their feelings and thoughts and recognize just what is troubling them or in most cases the feelings that have not been recognized.
This "lay down counseling" is a much faster way of uncovering exactly what is bothering someone emotionally. Once the client is relaxed the practitioner assists the person to talk through the issues coming up within their own mind. The wonderful thing about the EBB technique is the client identifies the issues or problems most pressing at the time of their session. This is a radical departure from traditional counseling practice where the counselor diagnoses the individual's problem.
This new approach allows the individual to discover their own feelings which are real to them rather than STRUGGLING TO FIND OUT WHAT TO FEEL! This is the power of this healing technique! To heal emotional wounds the individual must be ABLE TO RECOGNIZE THEIR FEELINGS and acknowledge them before they can understand their meaning. This relaxed and safe space that the EBB practitioner creates allows a person to realize their emotinal feelings much more quickly and gently than having a friend say, "You are feeling this so you must do this in your life." The simple process of assisting the client to discover their own feelings and helping them to develop their own answers leaves the client with an EMPOWERED feeling. The person leaves the session with an idea of what to do next. Because of this fact EBB is very effective in emotional crisis situations.
HEALING NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR PATTERNS
Emotional Body Balancing is also highly effective in examining and healing self-destructive behavior patterns. Do you ever wonder why you do things you regret later? When you get close to accomplishing a goal you've worked for, for a long time, do you find yourself doing something "strange" to prevent that success form happening? Maybe you stop trying or even worse run from success because you're not sure if you can handle it. Where do these behaviors come from?
EBB sessions can reveal why you behave the way you do during certain situations. Many of our emotional reactions are controlled by our subconscious mind! In other words, we may do something we really don't want to just because our subconscious mind automatically responds to a situation.
Our subconscious mind holds many pre-programmed emotional responses which were programmed from earlier situations in our life. Say, for example, when you were eight years old a close friend said to you, "You are a big baby and you cry too much!" You believed what your friend said and decided from that day forward you wouldn't cry anymore because you didn't want people to think you were a big cry baby! In that moment you placed a command in your subconscious mind that it should stop you from crying anytime you begin to feel the emotion of tears. It's important to realize the response stays in force until the individual decides to change it. Most individuals do not realize that old decisions are held in the subconscious and they are operating without our needing to consciously start them. This particular decision from the example continues to prevent you from crying from childhood right through your adult life. What happens to all the emotional energy that isn't released? It remains held within the physical body building up more and more pressure on our emotions. Suddenly something happens in you life which causes you some very real emotional pain. You can not seem to find a way to release or express your pain. For some reason you find you cannot cry and yet you feel instinctually you should. You may become confused and irritated.
You decide to come in for an EBB session to see if you can get to the bottom of why you are feeling irritated. First the practitioner gently relaxes you and assists you in releasing some of the emotional energy held from your current situation. Then the practitioner asks you to remember when you made a decision about how you should express your emotions. Through the process of recall, in the relaxed state, you find the memory of when you decided you would no longer allow yourself to cry because it made you look like a "big baby." Once that decision is found and acknowledged you can then decide to release the programmed response from the subconscious and replace it with a healthier decision. "From now on I will cry when I feel the need to!"
The example is a simple one but it gives you an essence of how the healing takes place. Many of our emtotional patterns are more complex than the one given and may take several sessions before the client can put togther a total understanding of why they decided to respond in the fashion that they do.
Personally, I've experienced many of the traditional emotional therapies at certain difficult times in my life. Recently, I've experienced several Emotional Body Balancing sessions and from my personal opinion they are remarkably effective. The speed at which I was able to recognize my self-destructive patterns was amazing!
As I went through the process of learning more and more about how and why I react emotionally. I noticed a growing sense of self-confidence within me. I truly began to feel that I could take charge of my life and fashion it the way I would like. If you feel the desire to change some limiting behavior, I highly recommend this healing treatment. In fact I was so impressed with my own results that I decided to become certified as an EBB practitioner myself so I could help others heal themselves.
MICHAEL STRELCHECK is the former publisher of New Avenues Magazine, co-owner of Earthsong Books and Gifts, and director of Life Visions Healing Center. He is a nationally known writer and teacher in the self-improvement field. His 19 years of study in philosophy and metaphysics has given him a deep understanding of the personal healing process. Over the last 10 years Michael has delivered over 200 lectures and workshops on self-growth emotional healing and developing personal creativity.
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