The New Approach

| Reasons | Treatments |

Emotional Transformation Therapy

In the treatment of winter depression or S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder), it is well known that exposure to certain types of lights changes unpleasant moods to better moods. There are now numerous scientific studies that verify that light affects moods. However, in S.A.D. treatment it is usually necessary to acquire appropriately timed bright light exposure every day in order to keep the moods changed. In addition, none of the scientific studies on S.A.D. took into account what the subjects were actually thinking and feeling during the light exposure. A major discovery took place when I recognized that moods can be more profoundly transformed when subjects were verbally processing their problems during light exposure. It was found in my experience that using light of a low brightness when coupled with "talking through problems" had a much greater effect on emotions than either talk therapy alone or the bright lights used in S.A.D. treatment. When interactive expression takes place through guided interaction, it was discovered how to transform emotional states so that they are usually changed on a long-term basis. This approach is called Emotional Transformation Therapy.

Another aspect of the approach that makes it both precise and powerful is the sophisticated use of color. After observing hundreds of people in several countries, a systematic way to use colors to access emotional states that has the greatest effects on each person was developed. An assessment procedure was devised that evaluates the impact of each color for each person. This assessment results in a unique color profile for each person so that the method is most efficient for each individual. Each color acts as a means to open a specific "file" of information that allows people to become aware of thoughts/memories, emotions or bodily experiences that he/she is typically unaware of through talk therapy alone. This approach also helps to direct brainwave patterns with light which becomes a rapid way to get to the core of problems in optimal fashion. The process appears to raise awareness beyond the intellect and bring forth emotional information more quickly.

Being able to uncover underlying emotion is often not enough unless the emotional states can be properly improved. New state-of-the-art procedures used with color rapidly transforms unresolved emotional states. Among the procedures is a powerful new eye movement system. Depression is often the result of numerous unresolved emotions that one has detached from mentally. The cumulative effect of these emotions is a form of depression that often seems to come out of nowhere and dominates one's experience. Since the strength of this method is transforming emotional states, a series of these sessions usually unravels depression. However, it does it in such a way that people begin to understand what went wrong, so that they become informed about how to prevent contributing to a repeat of the problem.

Mary's Story....
One example of how ETT can help resolve depression can be seen in a client who we shall call "Mary". Mary was a 51-year old woman who had been married for 30 years. Her father had been hospitalized for depression years ago. She reports that when she is depressed she gets agitated. Mary reported great difficulty when trying to concentrate. She reported that she had trouble sleeping and would wake up at all hours. She had suicidal thoughts at times. Mary reported having gained weight during the last six months. She felt sad or "empty" most of the time almost every day. Mary felt agitated and restless often. She said, "I really don't care about anything." Mary had tried Prozac three years earlier, but it did not help. Mary described her life as "total unhappiness; life is just not worth it; financial stresses bother me a lot." Mary had just gotten over chronic migraine headaches.

After a photosensitivity assessment, Mary began the daily light therapy and talk treatment. She gradually became aware that when she was a child and her father's union went on strike, she felt terror. When her husband changed jobs, a similar terror was triggered. She also recalled that around the time her depression began, her daughter had gone through a painful divorce and all she could do was listen to her daughter's pain over the telephone. She began to see why she was depressed.

Mary gradually began to report that she had become less impatient and agitated. For the first time in years, she could get up in the morning feeling motivated and accomplished a lot. She reported sleeping through the night every night. She reported no longer feeling overwhelmed about finances. She said, "It's amazing...It's like I have been in a coma and now I woke up... My hope is way up!"

By the end of the third week, Mary described herself as "a different person." After two contacts by phone or letter, Mary continued to report feeling free of depression. As of this writing, it has been eighteen months since the end of treatment and there is still no sign of depression.

How Counseling Helps You Benefit from Depression

It is legally necessary to inform potential clients that the standard of care in the field of counseling and psychology is the combined use of cognitive therapy and antidepressants. Now that you have been informed, let me share with you that a huge federal study of the treatment of depression (mostly antidepressants) reviewed 238 studies done from 1980 to 1998. The basic results were that counseling, in general, worked better than either antidepressants or antidepressants plus counseling. My own experience is that when counseling is coupled with specific uses of light, color and advanced eye movement, emotional states are transformed profoundly.

The basic principles of this approach have now been taught to hundreds of professionals across the United States and in at least six different countries including Japan, Canada, Germany, and Norway. Published, in part, in the book Light Years Ahead, my techniques have been cited in numerous professional journals.

Sometimes the pain of depression is so bad that people just want to get rid of it regardless of the consequences. Another approach to consider is that depression may be a signal to the sufferer that a deeper change is needed. If that signal is simply turned off, stopping depression without insight could serve to support the denial of the "real' problem. Sometimes, unfulfilling relationships, occupations or lifestyles need to be re-evaluated. At other times an unresolved grief or trauma in a person's life continues to beckon from within so that a resolution can finally be sought. While you cannot change the past, you can change the emotions that linger from the past, and these unresolved emotions are the only part of the past that continues to affect your present mood.

Truly understanding one's mistakes can result in a wisdom that prevents relapses. Resolution of grief allows people to let go of the past and become more fully involved in the moment. Relief of trauma often ends recurrent nightmares, body tension and emotional guardedness. Correcting poor relationship patterns allows the possibility to love and be loved like never before. These types of changes often provide the impetus for spiritual awakening as well. To avoid these potential opportunities by blocking instead of working through the depression might be to get momentary relief while forfeiting these life-changing benefits.