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Trauma

General

Another approach to the Movie Technique

Important Note: This article was written prior to 2010 and is now outdated.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,

Christel Preuss from Germany was having difficulty with our highly successful Tearless Trauma Technique and Movie Technique. She was applying them for a trauma client and eventually used a somewhat different angle that may be useful to others. Note that she also discusses a Cinema Technique. This one is new to me but potentially useful for you.

Hugs, Gary


By Christel Preuss

While working with a client with the usual EFT trauma therapy techniques – the Tearless Trauma Technique and Movie Technique and Cinema techniques, and realising that none of them was successful in reaching this client, I accidentally discovered a new technique.  It works on very deep fears - cases in which the feeling is dissociated from the situation.  I call this technique The Review Technique.

The following explains how the Review Technique is used.

“Edith” came into my office with serious marriage problems.  She was shying away from any kind of conflict.  She always wanted to please her husband who reacted to this behaviour with increasing aggressiveness.  The client could not understand the mutual interdependence of her and her husband's behaviour.  Contrary to her behaviour at work, where she was quite self confident, she refused to claim any personal needs in her family life.

After she discovered the differences in her behaviour in her working environment vs. home, I asked her, "What does it remind you of?"  She couldn't answer.

Then I asked, "What does it remind the small Edith of?"

Edith replied, "She was sitting at the window in the evening and couldn't sleep, because the parents left her alone.  She had great fears."  When I asked how the parents reacted to this situation, Edith said that she couldn’t tell anyone.

During the conversation it became clear that Edith had learned to live with psychological and physical violence.  The small Edith was saved with a trauma therapy technique and the result was fixed with EFT.

Afterwards the adult Edith was able for the first time to confront herself with the question how to talk to her husband about their conflicts.

Tearless Trauma Technique: I asked, "How high would you estimate your stress level if you imagined openly disagreeing with your husband."  She replied, "Absolutely high."  One round of tapping brought no change, because a concrete imagination wasn't possible.

Movie Technique: I asked, "What would the title of the movie be if you saw this situation?"  It was impossible for her to find a title.  She only saw herself standing with an angry face and her husband was sitting with an angry face.

Cinema Technique: I asked, "If you could choose your seat in a cinema yourself to watch this movie, where would you sit?"  She replied, "Quite in the middle and in the middle of my row, too."  I asked, "Are you watching this movie on your own or is someone watching it with you?"  She said her husband was sitting beside her.  I asked, "Please explain me what the two of you are seeing on the screen, while I am tapping."  She said, "There is only a freeze image."

I felt that a connection to this situation was not possible.  Therefore I proposed, “Could you talk to your husband and review this freeze image?”  This was immediately possible!  The EFT Review Technique was born!

During the first tapping the couple had a very lively discussion about this freeze image and their suppositions about it.  The emotional connection was made!  I proposed that the torn film reel got repaired and finally the spectators could watch the long awaited movie.

Now the cinema technique was working.  During the next tapping she could comment the movie in the third person.  For example, "The woman is standing there and she says…  The husband answered..."

After the tapping I asked her how she felt.  She couldn't say it.  I asked her if her husband was still sitting beside her.  She said, “Yes … We are both very quiet.  We sit peacefully beside each other.  We don't say anything.  I asked her how she felt and she said, "Calm.  It is not dangerous."

This was a breakthrough for a behavioural change and it showed once more how much security traumatized people need.  I have often used this technique since, whenever topics were dissociated.  I have always used it with great success!

Christel Preuss,

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