We are pleased to be part of an expanding group of caring and competent professionalsaround the world who are identified as a Time Line Therapy Institute. Over the past three years, we have had the opportunityto witness the power of Time Line Therapy, asdeveloped by Dr. Tad James, and the resulting miracles that this ‘theater of themind” allows for, in the lives of those who open themselves to the experience.
As with many who both use and teach Time Line Therapy (TLT), we are trained in a variety of other methodologies that supportpersonal growth. We have enjoyed reading about your work, the signatures you leaveand the contributions that you make to the greater body of knowledge with your ownpersonal “take” on the what’s and how’s of TLT. (Witness the recent articles byDr. Eric Robins which relate to TLT and Pranic Healing.) And, after all, is that notwhat NLP and TLT are about – creating a platform on which to stand and from which to moveforward; learning from each other, making it up and creating new processes as we go along! It is this willingness to play with and expand into our own experience that haskept NLP and TLT so powerfully present in changing people’s lives – including our own. This allows for an iterative process – like activating neural fields – with eachexperience leaving us more available for and open to the next. We, like many of you,have easily integrated TLT with these other processes, building on the high-level processof TLT and creating a whole that has become greater than the sum of its parts. Wewould like to share some thoughts about this experience with all of you.
Our areas of interest and expertise include personal and professional/businessdevelopment, creating the need for us to work with our methodologies in a way that is safeand acceptable to a broad client base, and one that is fairly conservative in nature. In addition to NLP and TLT, we have developed a range of programs that include thelatest information available on quantum biology, bioelectromagnetics and brain research. We offer our clients opportunities for change that are rapid, respectful,comfortable and effective.
For purposes of this article, we will focus our attention on the process of using TLTin groups. Although we also use the following distinctions when working withindividuals, the power of the process is readily evident when working with a group sincebehavior is highly contagious. As such, we prefer to create a ‘thought virus’ thatworks with us instead of against us!
We have, over time, become aware of how powerful TLT is when tied to an awareness ofmovement of energy in the body. We have created a context within which we offer TLTthat has proven to be very effective not only in the clearing process itself but inengendering a joyful willingness in our participants to continue to use the process whenon their own. When delivering a TLT certification training or when offering ourversion of the two-day introduction to TLT, we take time at the front end of the processto provide information that structures a context that will support our participants inletting go of culturally conditioned preferences tied to associations to nominalizations. In plain English, that means:
We start by exploring the nature of human beings as individual living systems formingpart of larger living systems, constantly seeking ways and means of self-expression asdistinct individuals yet remaining part of a larger whole. We look at: what is anemotion? What goes on in the body when we are experiencing an emotion? What isthe purpose of an emotion? What are our rules about emotions? What are theemotions attached to the rules themselves about the emotions?
Using readily available information from quantum biology, bioelectromagnetics and brainresearch (some of our personal favorites include and are not limited to Deepak Chopra,Candace Pert and Valerie Hunt), we explore the function of the central nervous system andhow information is transmitted through the living system that we call the body. Wealso discuss the role of the unconscious mind (body/mind) in the processing of emotion(energy), and the natural ability of the body to metabolize energy without needing theinvolvement of the conscious mind (content/linguistically structured thought.)
We explore the notion of nominalizations and how we experience the effects ofnominalizations through our judgments, which produce an effect in the body. We moveour clients away from the nominalization of ’emotions’ and towards the nominalization of’energy’. Although both of these are nominalizations, that of emotions hasassociated to it powerful, conditioned societal preferences that in and of themselvescreate emotional responses in the body. As a nominalization, energy has either noparticular associations or has positive ones, i.e. flick the switch and energy turns onthe lights.
We create a metaphor for the movement of energy in the body as being akin to theblinking green light on your computer. When the green light is blinking, thecomputer is ‘processing information’. When energy is moving through your body (i.e., anemotion), your body is processing information. Making judgments about the movementand attempting to shut it down is like determining the green blinking light on thecomputer to be an indication that something is wrong, and unplugging the computer. When you plug it back in, you have to repeat the process, only now with trepidation.
Our clients come to relate to the following: emotions are an indication of movement ofenergy in the body. Energy is the Life Force: low energy equals low Life Force,therefore energy (emotion) is a good thing! The energy is moving in order to processinformation. The information is neither good nor bad, it is information that, ifallowed to be dumped into the larger system, will integrate into that system and supportexpansion of the system.
We also help our clients understand that, like your body knows how to metabolize yourlunch and turn it into the appropriate body tissue to support and sustain life without anydirection from the conscious mind, it also knows how to ‘metabolize’ the information ofwhat we call an emotion and turn it into something appropriate that will support andsustain life – also without the involvement of the conscious mind. To resist themovement of the energy (emotion) in the body is to resist the transfer of the veryinformation that is required to sustain wellness in the body.
With this as a context, we then introduce the notion and procedures of Time LineTherapy, as developed by Dr. Tad James, andprovide information to attest to the power of and success of this process. Becauseof the culturally conditioned associations to the nominalization ‘therapy’, we continue torefer to the Time Line process as a powerful tool to support growth and change, and beginto leave off the reference to ‘therapy’. Our intention is to create a context thatsupports each person as being intrinsically powerful and competent; and as having arrivedas magnificent, whole and integrated, with an innate ability to return to that naturalstate. For many people, the nominalization of ‘therapy’ has come to be associatedwith notions of being broken and needing to be fixed; of one up, one down; less than;needing someone outside of us in order to heal; not to mention the sense of shame andsecrecy often attached to the need for therapy. We have found that theseinterpretations only serve to impede the change process. It is not that they are good orbad; right or wrong; they are simply not useful in the change context we create.
When working with TLT, we do not talk about clearing negative emotions but of releasingstored residual energy into the larger system, for integration and wholeness, recognizingthat all information has a purpose. The natural state of the body is to move towardshealth and wellness (wholeness and integration). We describe these stored residualcharges to our clients as being like flags. For every experience where the learningopportunity has gone unprocessed, the learnings continue to be held, awaiting theopportune moment to become part of the larger whole. Given that the unconscious mindrecognizes that most of the time we can’t remember where we were yesterday at 2:00 p.m.without effort, the body attaches a signal to these particular events to make sure thatthey are not lost. The signal is the energetic charge, which acts as a flag to drawour attention to that particular event. Our clients will often have an image of eachclearing resulting in their collecting yet another flag, as an indication of growth andsuccess. The only purpose that the energetic charge carries (i.e. the emotion) is toact as a marker – an indicator of the treasure that awaits. The treasure is in theinformation; the energetic charge is the X that marks the spot. In this way, thefear that is often associated to the idea of releasing emotions that likely have judgmentsattached to them, is diminished if not completely eliminated.
When using the nominalization of energy rather than emotions, there is neitherrequirement for nor value in the notion of positive or negative. It simply is. It ismuch easier for our clients to open themselves to information than it is for many to opento their emotions.
As we all know, Time Line Therapy works. Whatwe have discovered is that Time Line Therapy,supported by nominalizations and linguistic structures that trigger a more neutralexperience for our clients, allows the entire process to be embraced as play and becomestheir invitation to….
Come to the edge, he said.
They said, we are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came, he pushed them…..
and they flew!Guillaume Apollinaire
This article originally appeared in theJournal of the Time Line Therapy Association.
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