A
Theory and Treatment of Your Personality:
a manual for change
by Garry A. Flint, Ph.D.
Home
Table
of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter
1 (191KB PDF download)
Chapter
2 (316KB PDF download)
Chapter
3 (992KB PDF download)
Book through Chapter 3 (1.6KB PDF)
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Preface
Part I – For the Self-help Reader
Chapter 1. The
Discovery of the Process Healing Method
Chapter 2. An
Introduction to the Process Healing Method
Chapter 3. Teaching
the Process Healing Method
Chapter 4. General
Information and Basic Treatment
Chapter 5. How
the Memory and the Brain Work
Chapter 6. Problem-solving
Chapter 7. Interventions
with Parts
Chapter 8. Memory
and Structures
Part II – For the Therapist
Chapter 9. Treating
Personality Issues
Chapter 10. Treating
the Symptoms of Complex Issues
Summary
Appendices
I. Patient and
Therapist Treatment Aids
II. The Personality
and Parts Phenomena
III. Glossary – Alphabetical
IV. Glossary of
New Concepts
V. Emotional Freedom
Techniques – a useful resource
VI. Tapas Acupressure
Technique for Obsessions
References
Index
About the Author
Preface
by
Joaquin Andrade, M.D.
The
reason of being and purpose of a clinician is to reduce human
suffering and, in that ongoing battle, to look continually for
innovative tools and new tactics. All dogmas, theories, schools,
styles, lines of thought, beliefs, systems and their assumptions
collapse in the face of an alternative intervention when the
patient relaxes and says with a smile, “I feel much better!
I can do things now that I couldn't´t do before!”
Because
none of the available therapeutic tools is perfect, the clinician
is a perpetual seeker. Attention must be divided between the practice
of healing and the non-stop search for tools that may have the possibility
of producing results which were not possible before. The clinician
wants tools that work faster, simpler, and are longer lasting, less
complicated, and free of side effects.
This
was the sense of mission that led me, as a young doctor, some thirty
plus years ago, to take my first trip to China. I studied acupuncture
at its original and most genuine source. Since that time, Traditional
Chinese Medicine has been one of the tools that has helped my colleagues
and me to achieve some of the goals mentioned above.
Throughout
my extended career, I was never satisfied with the results I was
getting in the treatment of anxiety disorders. The usual combination
of drugs that are often prescribed with Cognitive Behavior Therapy
(CBT) was not as effective for my patients as it was claimed to be
in the literature. Most notably, it didn't’t produce the results
we sought when treating panic disorders, agoraphobia's, performance
anxieties, and other phobias. Treatment with CBT required many sessions,
and often psychoactive drugs had to be taken constantly to avoid
relapses.
Then,
in 1989, a dear colleague whose sister-in-law had been recently treated
for her phobia with what was then called ”Callahan Techniques,” was
very impressed by the results. He said few treatments were necessary
and the results were quick and complete.
It
was then that he taught me his version of a phobia tapping protocol.
At the time, we mistakenly assumed that the phobia protocol was the
complete system! I started using the protocol on patients with a
range of disorders: phobic's, panic disorders, Generalized Anxiety
Disorder, test anxieties, and so forth. The results were overwhelming!
We were so impressed with getting fast treatment responses that we
decided to study, learn, and verify the treatment in depth with all
our medical resources.
For
fourteen years, with slightly fewer than 50,000 patients, we conducted
clinical trials in several centers in two countries. We had a distinguished
team of MD's, clinical psychologists, neuroscientists, RN's, and
professional researchers. We wanted to measure, within the boundaries
of our clinical practice, the efficacy of those brief techniques
which required activating traumatic memories while at the same time
causing simultaneous multisensory overload of subcortical structures.
Our
work resulted in what has been called the first large-scale clinical
trials that compared the new Brief MultiSensory Activation techniques
(BMSA) to the conventional “CBT with drugs.” For reasons
that we elaborate in our book on BMSA (Andrade, Aalberse, Sutherland & Ruden,
2006), we prefer to describe this work as BMSA rather than “tapping” or “energy
psychology.”
My
good friend, David Feinstein, Ph.D., former researcher on psychotherapeutic
innovations at the Department of Psychiatry of the Johns Hopkins
University Medical School, author of the Energy Psychology Interactive
CD (Feinstein, 2004), which was favorably reviewed recently
by the American Psychological Association, has co-authored the
resulting report of these trials, comparing BMSA and CBT with medication
(Andrade & Feinstein, 2003). The findings show that BMSA works
better in fewer sessions and lasts longer than other types of therapy.
But,
as good as those techniques were, we still had our share of failures,
even though our techniques dramatically improved the percentage of
positive clinical outcomes. Dissociation, in particular, Dissociative
Identity Disorder (DID), was one of the disorders that we found difficult
to treat with tapping alone.
Then,
one day while searching an internet list for persons who treated
by tapping, we read a post from Dr Flint about dissociation. He mentioned
The Process Healing Method (PH). I was curious and went to his web
site, downloaded his instructions and immediately began to apply
a basic version of Process Healing in our clinical work.
In
just a few weeks, after having treated about three dozen patients,
we found Process Healing extremely effective. We began applying it
on patients for whom BMSA had failed. To our delight, a huge percentage
of those resistant patients started to show results. So, following
a previous pattern which had been used successfully for other disciplines,
we decided that PH could be similarly tested on a larger patient
population.
At
the moment of this writing, I have applied Process Healing to 600
patients. I am amazed at this incredible tool. I wrote to Dr Flint,
telling him that I thought he had discovered something very powerful
and that its full potential was still to be developed.
Bear
in mind that I learned Process Healing by reading Dr Flint’s
instructions and that I practice what could be considered a beginner’s
version of Process Healing. However, the results I am getting with
PH on all kinds of PTSD, DID, anxiety disorders and every sort of
somatization resistant to BMSA are very impressive! To our astonishment,
even some kinds of purely physical disorders and complaints respond
to Process Healing far better than can be expected from other therapies.
If we are able to get such excellent results after studying only
basic written instructions, just imagine what the reader of this
complete text can expect!
I
taught my simple version of Process Healing to about a dozen certified
therapists in our group. We are all getting similar results. Namely,
Process Healing yields positive clinical responses with 60% of the
cases that failed to respond to every other therapy available to
us!
Our
present strategy is to continue using BMSA techniques with simple
cases, and to apply Process Healing to BMSA-resistant patients. At
the same time, we are beginning to explore Process Healing in other
pathologies such as somatizations, headaches, sexual disorders, other
primarily somatic disorders, and so forth.
From
a theoretical point of view, the learning model that Dr Flint uses
to explain the Process Healing mechanism makes much sense to me.
The process by which parts are invited to join the ”Treatment
Team” is full of analogies to the teaching process in which
parts of the personality with self-limiting information are offered
self-empowering information. No doubt all parts change during the
process, and a new and healthier context results.
This text is the founder’s handbook of The Process Healing
Method. The book is by no means exhaustive and my guess is that future
books will complete and expand it. Dr Flint has so much to teach
that it is impossible to reduce it to a single book
Based
on my experience with Process Healing, I suggest the reader digest
this book with curiosity and immediately begin to practice and apply
PH with a passion. As my own experience and that of my colleagues
has documented, PH produces extraordinary results which are impossible
to achieve by any other means of psychotherapeutic treatment. I invite
the reader to thoroughly investigate this most fascinating therapeutic
technique in the pages ahead.
Joaquín
Andrade, MD
Medical
Director, JA&A
Argentina,
South America
Top
This
book is intended as a guide for individuals who want to make
changes in their personalities and for professionals who may
want to use it in their practice. The purpose of this book is
to provide you, the reader, with the understanding I have gained
by developing, refining, and working with this treatment method
over the past 12 years. Reports from Internet users, colleagues
who are using it, and my own experience confirm the Process Healing
Method as a respectful, effective, and safe way to treat self-destructive
behaviors, beliefs, painful emotions and memories.
This
book is both a step-by-step tutorial for how to use the Process Healing
Method and a presentation of the theory behind the method. The first
three chapters have been available on the Internet since 1998 and
have been downloaded or read by several thousand people. These chapters
describe the Process Healing Method in enough detail so that many
readers have experienced the intervention just by reading the chapters.
Many have gained a deeper understanding of themselves and realized
positive changes in their lives by using this method.
Throughout
this book, the aim is to provide you with enough information, in
a “tutorial” style, to guide you in the process of speaking
and responding to any barrier blocking treatment. This is an effort
to make the book as easy to use as possible for both the nonprofessional
and for the mental health professional willing to explore a new treatment
approach. This approach is a useful adjunct not only in the mental
health profession, but in the medical profession as well.
Some
of the constructs in the theory are different from those in common
use. It may be helpful to the mental health professional if I point
out some of the underlying assumptions of this model of personality
development and treatment.
1.
The subconscious is a language process independent of conscious and
unconscious activity and of all memories. It has capacities far beyond
our expectations, such as being able to work independently of our
personality to treat negative beliefs, memories and experiences.
The subconscious will understand and learn as you read the book.
2.
The conscious and unconscious constructs represent active memories
and related neural activity. Memories are either dormant or active
in the conscious or unconscious Active Experience. Dormant memories
do not take part in creating behavior. Only memories in the conscious
and unconscious Active Experience take part in creating behavior.
Memories are not stored in the unconscious or subconscious.
3.
Internal and external stimulation (including our behavior) triggers
relevant dormant memories into Active Experience while other no longer
relevant active memories become and remain dormant.
4.
Dissociation is a natural process and is present in our everyday
behavior in addition to helping us deal with traumatic or painful
experiences. I further assume that amnesia caused by the dissociation
process, namely dissociative parts and memories, is different from
the amnesia caused by severe, novel trauma, which causes amnesic
parts and memories. While any individual may have both amnesic and
dissociative parts, two different processes cause them. Amnesic parts
and memories naturally include dissociative parts and memories when
adaptive.
5.
Internal and external stimulation and active memories determine everyone’s
behavior. There are two kinds of memories: Content Memories, which
involve sensory experiences, and Emotion Memories. There are three
state-dependent content-memory structures that contribute to running
our behavior.
6.
Memories have unique structures that associate with a collage of
previously learned memories and emotions to create our behavior.
The most helpful or fitting active content and Emotion Memories assemble
in a collage that associates with a unique memory structure. This
memory structure represents our reaction to the current experience,
i.e. it causes our current behavior. Memories are recycled repeatedly
in different combinations to create new memories for new behaviors.
7.
All brain and body activity is run and managed by memories. This
means that it is possible to change memories in order to treat learned
mental and physical issues.
I
use many constructs in this model of the personality. The constructs,
of course, are not real. They are metaphors for what is “real” in
our minds and bodies. However, once the constructs and theory are
absorbed, they provide a language with which to communicate with
the subconscious in such a way as to cause change in a problematic
issue. You may find the theory complex until you learn and become
familiar with the concepts and the entire model. However, it is not
necessary to understand the theory in order to begin your treatment
process. The theory comes in handy for treating more complex structures.
However, by communicating with the subconscious, you can simply work
with it to identify the next appropriate intervention and the solutions
to barriers. The more you use the Process Healing Method, the more
skillful you will become and the more you will trust the model to
simplify and treat complex problems or issues.
The
constructs or metaphors used are powerful tools for communication.
They effectively guide the subconscious to make changes in memory,
i.e. to remove negative emotions from memories, which, in turn, will
cause changes in behavior. For many mental health professionals the
constructs and terms used in this book are outside the box of common
definitions. Therefore I have included both an alphabetical glossary
(see Appendix III) and a glossary of concepts (see Appendix IV) to
help you organize and understand the definitions and constructs as
useful tools. I encourage the you to refer to the glossary whenever
confusion arises with the concepts of Process Healing.
The
memory structure is a key construct in this model. All memories have
a unique memory structure and a collage of memories that associate
with, or to, the memory structure. After using Process Healing for
several years, I discovered that memory structures could form complex
structures that could stop the treatment process. I had to treat
these complex structures differently than the basic structures in
order to successfully resolve an issue. The basic memory structure
is a building block that explains most problematic memories that
form under conditions ranging from mild to severe traumatic experiences
such as systematic torture.
After
using Process Healing for several years, I faced a barrier of even
greater complexity. This was one that I could not treat with the
subconscious and the usual treatment method. Now when I have identified
this new barrier in a patient, it is usually easy to treat. I call
these barriers “fields,” which I talk about briefly in
chapter 6. Flint (n.a.) presents a more detailed presentation of
the theory and treatment of fields.
When
the you run into a barrier to treatment not addressed in this book,
it is time to problem-solve. I give many examples of problem-solving
throughout the book. But remember, the power of the treatment process
is in the metaphor or construct used, so feel free to create as many
metaphors or constructs as you need to be successful. I have often
found that even if you suggest an inaccurate metaphor, the subconscious
may use it correctly to resolve the barrier. The point is, don¹t
be afraid to be creative with metaphors. The worst that can happen
is that it will not work. When it doesn’t, just reassemble
the constructs and create a new metaphor. Keep trying until you get
the result you are looking for.
The
definitions presented here of the conscious, unconscious, subconscious
and dormant memories, may also be new to the mental health professional.
Rather than lump dormant memories in the unconscious or subconscious,
I separate them. I consider the unconscious an active process because
it influences our behavior, and the conscious mind is obviously an
active process. Only active memories in the conscious and unconscious
experience, not the dormant memories, are used to create our behavior.
I call the active memories and associated neural activity in the
conscious and unconscious the Active Experience.
Dormant
memories are not active, and therefore not available for creating
behavior. However, dormant memories may become active when triggered
into the Active Experience. What separates the active conscious experience
from active unconscious experience?
Well,
since dissociation is a process that is generally believed to be
used to hide memories, I decided a dissociation process would be
an excellent adaptive process that would serve to move active conscious
experience into active unconscious experience. Hypnotic suggestions,
deliberate repression, and skills such as composing speech, are examples
of the use of dissociation to move a conscious active memory to an
unconscious active memory.
In
this model, the problematic memories and behavior take place as active
memories in the conscious and unconscious experience. Consistent
with other models, I use the subconscious as an inner-self helper
and have discovered that it has an enormous capacity to make changes
in memories and behavior. Almost all of my patients have easily accepted
this model using conscious, unconscious, subconscious and dormant
memories as the basic constructs in the model.
Process
Healing is an effective treatment method that people without training
can use to treat many issues. Many people have had success working
on their own without professional help. I recommend that lay people
using the Process Healing Method have a therapist with whom they
can consult. Anyone with a history of mental illness or severe symptoms
should be in therapy before using the Process Healing Method. Lay
persons should not try to use it with anyone who has a history of
mental illness, who are taking medication, or who have diagnosed
mental issues. The more professional training and experience that
a therapist or lay person has, the more the Process Healing Method
will be useful to treat complex personality and mental health problems.
This
book is written to free you to be creative when using the constructs
to solve a barrier that stops treatment. I have tried to teach the
Process Healing Method by showing the way I use it in my successes
and in some of my failures. With practice, you may become skillful
in using the Process Healing Method to quickly eliminate and gain
freedom from problematic issues. Without further introduction, I
leave you, the reader, to explore the Process Healing Method and
to determine its usefulness in the treatment of your own painful
memories, beliefs, or behaviors.