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Using a metaphor to handle stubborn emotional issues

Important Note: This article was written prior to 2010 and is now outdated. Please use my newest advancement, Optimal EFT. It is more efficient, more powerful and clearly explained in my free e-book, The Unseen Therapist™.  Best wishes, Gary

Hi Everyone,

Linda Thompson from Canada describes the use of a "de-cording" metaphor to make progress with her client's intense emotional issue. Properly used, metaphors are superb tools to combine with EFT. They are often both fun and efficient.

Hugs, Gary


By Linda Thompson

Hi Gary!

This is Natasha's account of a session we had recently after a very traumatic telephone call she had with her stepmother.  Natasha has experienced things in her life that most of us would be unable to relate to and so after a period of intense depression she has climbed out of the whirlpool and is receiving EFT from Dr. Curtis Steele (psychiatrist in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada). 

The results are nothing short of miraculous as she is now making huge life-changing decisions and thus changing the course of her future.  The telephone call with her stepmother was very close to sabotaging the work she has done and so I offered to try to help her.

After talking for about 1/2 hour, we did a great deal of EFT, working with the specific emotions the call evoked (like anger, sadness, confusion etc.) but there was still something left in her chest.  We tapped for "this emotion" but it didn't budge. 

I, myself, have been working with John Ford and the last session we had included a de-cording technique coupled with light hypnosis.  Of course, I know nothing of hypnosis and wouldn't dare to attempt exactly what he did but asked Natasha if she would like me to try something similar that may detach her from the emotions that seemed to be stuck in her chest.  To my surprise she was more than willing and I am grateful for her co-operation as well as John for giving me the inspiration.

The session was peppered with EFT as it became apparent that it was necessary at the time and the set up phrases were specifically on the emotions that came up except for when the cords appeared to be under her skin (she and I both found this quite alarming) and so the EFT set up phrase I used here was, Even though this cord is under my skin, I ask my body to release it as it does not belong to me and I need to give it back. 

Enjoy Natasha's testimony as I found it quite interesting to be "inside".  I am happy to report that after the session Natasha had nothing in her chest and she felt wonderful!

From Natasha:

Linda just finished doing a multitude of work on me; EFT - lots of tapping.  Then we stopped momentarily as she needed to take a phone call and converse with the contractor(s).  After she was finished, she suggested we attempt to do some 'De-cording' for any remainder emotions I still had that wouldn't move surrounding my stepmother.

I lay down on the bed and she got me in to a state of relaxation by counting backwards from 5 to 1 and by assuring that any noises I heard in her home were simply further reminders of how relaxed I felt - not a disturbance at all.

She asked me to envision my stepmother standing in front of me.  She also asked if I could see her eyes and I said yes.  I was able to see her clearly and she was quite a distance away from me.  She asked me to envision cords that were connected from her directly to me and then asked me to describe what they looked like.

I immediately was able to see cords all over my stepmother’s body from her head, shoulders, arms, torso, legs and feet of various colors all leading into my body.  They looked like electrical wires, colored red, blue, grey and black.  They lead away from her body by approximately a foot or so, and then all twisted into a very thick braid and the braid was what was connected to me.

After describing what the braid looked like, Linda then asked me to envision the largest one.  I was surprised to see that the largest cord was completely different from all the rest and was separate and unattached from the others.  It was a large rope, very thick - just as thick if not thicker than the braid that consisted of the various multicolored cords.  It looked like the kind of rope used commonly on ships.  It was a pale yellow/straw color and it was very coarse to touch and had splinters sticking out of it.

Linda asked me what this particular rope represented to me.  I said that it represented control, pain, all of the negative emotions I felt - everything.  She then advised me to look down to see where this large rope was in my body and to remove it.  When I looked down I saw the rope leading directly in to the center of my chest.  I was alarmed to see that it was LITERALLY in my chest and my skin was growing all around it.

I said, “I can't take it out because it's inside of me.”  I thought in that moment that I would have to cut it out of me which would be extremely painful and I would probably bleed a lot - I envisioned a scalpel.  Then of course my next thought was - this isn't going to work.

Then Linda said, “That's okay, we'll tap for it.”  During the tapping, the cord then moved from my chest to my right hand seamlessly.  I want to point out that I did not see or feel it go.  I only looked down and in my right hand was the cord.  Then she said, “What about all of the others?”  I looked down and saw the large braid of various colored cords growing in my chest in the same spot where the rope had been.

Again I said, “I can't remove it, it's inside of me” … and again, Linda tapped for the removal of the braid.  The braid then seamlessly moved from my chest to my left hand.  I looked down at my chest and saw only smooth, white skin.  What a relief!

Then she asked me if I could simply reach out my arms and give the cords back to my stepmother or if I had to physically take steps towards her.  I had an overwhelming urge to open my hands and drop them on the floor so I asked if I could just do that instead of giving them back.  Linda advised that I could not drop them on the floor as they belonged to my stepmother and that it was very important that I put them in her hands.

At this point, she advised me to hold on to them very tightly.  My first thought or emotion was that my stepmother would not take the cords back.  Linda then prompted me to visualize my stepmother’s arms slowly moving away from her sides and raising outstretched towards me.  To see her hands take shape as if she was about to receive something and Linda said, “She wants them back.”

I did not think that I would see this as I had previously thought that she would not want the cords back.  So, I was amazed to see my stepmother’s arms raising.  As this began to happen I became overcome with emotion and began to laugh hysterically and uncontrollably for at least a full minute (or so it felt).  

Once her arms were fully raised, Linda then prompted me to walk towards her and to see myself placing the cords in her hands.  I did this with surprising ease.  Then she said, “Now I want you to see your mother, cords in hand, turning and walking away from you.”  But because there were so many cords that made up the large multicolored braid that I was holding, when she turned around the cords were all around her feet all over the ground and she could not move forward or she would have tripped and fallen.

I explained this to Linda who then prompted me to visualize my stepmother bending down and picking the cords up off of the ground.  As I began to see this in my mind, I became filled with deep sorrow and sadness because she looked so sad and small picking up all of these cords.  I felt so much sadness for her.

Linda immediately tapped for the sadness I felt and once that was out of the way I then realized my own sadness at no longer being “attached” to my mother.  Even though I was very aware that the attachment was not positive, I still felt sadness and to a large degree, separation anxiety about no longer having them - having her “stuff” inside of me.  Linda tapped me for the separation anxiety and I felt it dissipate as well.

After the experience was over, Linda retrieved a small mirror from the washroom to show me how bright my eyes appeared and she said, “I see peace in your eyes.”  Linda's eyes appeared much brighter to me as well.

I then moved into the living room, as I wanted to record this incredible experience.  For the first five minutes I wrote, I was very aware of the fact that I yawned almost continuously and I know that this was additional energy continuing to be released from my body.  What an incredible experience!!!

Natasha Peach

Cheers, Linda Thomspon

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