EmotionalBuzz
the resource for meridian energy therapy
Using Matrix Reimprinting on yourself
I am a huge advocate of EFT. Although I originally trained as a person-centred counsellor, the potential of energy psychology to radically change the way we help others fills me with excitement. What is still more exciting is the way in which techniques such as Matrix Reimprinting utilise the EFT tapping/talking combination – and then take it to a whole new level with the addition of the powerful visualisation of a new picture when the trauma has been released from a memory. Please note: you will need to be familiar with Matrix Reimprinting to fully understand some of the concepts mentioned in this article.
by Deborah Shakespeare
One of EFT’s many benefits is that it can be self-administered by the client, thus supporting them in between practitioner sessions. The same benefit holds true for Matrix Reimprinting. In fact, I find that I prefer to do Matrix Reimprinting myself rather than with a practitioner, because I find that the other person may direct me to move at their pace rather than mine, or that their voice can intrude and distract me, thus interrupting the delicate process of communicating with the ECHOs (’nergy Consciousness Holograms) and imprinting the new picture.
However, I have not always found self-administered Matrix Reimprinting easy. This is because, in part, I am not very visual, and also because I want the new picture that I imprint to feel like a very real experience (I understand that Matrix Reimprinting can be used by those who are not able to visualise through working with the sub-modalities, but it’s my personal preference to do it this way). Therefore I have experimented over the past few months to find ways of enhancing the Matrix Reimprinting experience for myself. I find the following steps very effective. I make no claims that these ideas are original, as I am sure that I have unwittingly cherry-picked from various modalities. I hope that you may find these steps helpful or add to them yourself.
- When working with an ECHO, I like to imagine bringing them out of the original picture and into the room where I am. I often use an empty chair positioned in front of me when working with an adult ECHO, and I imagine they are sat in it across from me. For a child ECHO, I imagine the child is sitting on my lap.
- When tapping on the ECHO, I use one hand to tap on myself and the other to tap the empty air where I imagine the ECHO is sitting. Often this feels very real – as though the ECHO is indeed right in front of me. Sometimes I use an object, such as a big teddy bear, to be the ECHO. I appreciate that this sounds odd, but for me it's all about making the experience feel real.
- When I’ve finished tapping on the ECHO, I always imagine that they hug me or I hug them before they create their new picture, thus building up an important sense of bonding and community.
- When imprinting the new picture, I physically tap the points where the picture is being visualised – for example, the top of my head, eyebrow and side of eye when building up the picture in the mind and on the collarbone point, left side when taking the picture into the heart. This helps me to get a sense of really feeling the picture in those places in my body.
- I spend a lot of time working on the five senses when building up the new picture. Matrix Reimprinting includes this step anyway, but I find for myself that it’s very important in making the image feel and look real.
- When I send the new picture into the matrix from my heart, I make sure that I imagine I am now looking at a life-sized version – “really big, as though it’s a cinema screen that you’re standing close to” is what I say to my clients. I make sure that I focus again on all the details in the big picture.
- If the old picture has no negative emotion attached but is still visible, I turn it to black and white, shrink it to the size of a postcard, the size of a match-box, the size of an ant…and then let it disappear. I then immediately bring the new, big picture into place instead. When working on myself, I generally find that I can’t picture the old memory at all after this.
- I sometimes find it appropriate to associate myself with the ECHO when the new picture has been created. I allow myself to see out through the ECHO’s eyes and share in all the wonderful new feelings being experienced. In addition, this helps the new picture to feel more realistic, especially if I was originally associated in the negative memory. NB: I only do this if all the negative feelings have been released and when the new picture has been created.
- I re-visit my new pictures time and again and enhance them further, sometimes adding new details or just running through the picture I created previously and intensifying the positive feelings even more. Each time I do this the picture gets stronger and feels more real.
My hope is that this article may be of benefit to those of you using the wonderful Matrix Reimprinting technique on yourselves. Please note that you are advised to work through traumatic memories with the support of a trained Matrix Reimprinting practitioner.
Thanks to Gary Craig for giving us EFT, and to Karl Dawson for creating Matrix Reimprinting.
Deborah Shakespeare
www.eft-therapyinmotion.co.uk