This article is a short version of a booklet I wrote Hello, My Pain, Welcome. What Can I Do For You? -- Introduction into Emotional Body Healing. The book is written as a text book to accompany my seminars.
Emotional Body Healing was developed by Dr. Dorothea von Stumpfeldt, a physician, Anne Soeller, a teacher of physical therapy, and me. In the early 1990s we met regularly and went into a trance like state together. During these sessions of intense focusing we 'received' information leading to this form of therapy. None of us has a degree in psychology, but all of us have always been interested in the field. Our therapy is not based on anything we have read or were trained in but is a product of our trance work together. The fabulous part of this therapy is that we do not 'guide' our clients into images but follow the images they give us. Also differing from other therapies is that during an image (especially a negative or frightening image) we never send anything or anyone away, but welcome everything and everyone (even if it is the Devil) and ask "What can I do for you?"
During the thousands of sessions I have done so far I have learned to trust that the answer to every problem lies in the client himself. Everyone in the end gets an image which transforms the problem. I do not have to do anything but create and hold a healing space. I do not need to say or suggest anything. In fact, the longer I work with this therapy and the longer I work on myself, my Ego, the personal one and the therapist one, subsides. Sometimes I just stand next to a client, very still and imagine energy coming from above into me and pouring through my heart into the room surrounding the client. Then, words of truth and understanding and forgiving will pour out of their mouths, bypassing their minds bypassing the control of their brains -- and all I need to do is just to be there. Sometimes I tape these sessions; mostly I just scribble notes on paper. The client is in a deep state of relaxation, but still he is in control and remembers everything he imagined or said.
With this article I will guide you through the technique of Emotional Body Healing the way I practice it now. The suggestions to the client are in bold print, followed by my explanations.
I start a session by getting the client relaxed -- and me, too. Here are the steps:
1. Lie down or sit down very comfortably.
Actually a session can be done anywhere. If someone comes for a treatment for the first time, I suggest finding a surrounding that will support relaxation and a feeling of safety and comfort. When I work with somebody who's already had a few sessions, I can work in a cafe, in a park, or any other location in the world.
2. Breathe a few times deeply in and out.
I ask my clients to breathe deeply in and out a few times and to relax their muscles. Often I realize in that moment that I'mstarting to relax myself, and that my breathing slows down and deepens too. "Please arrive fully in this room, in your own body" helps the other one to focus, to leave the world outside and to concentrate. Most of the time the clients have their eyes closed, and sometimes I lay a silk scarf over their eyes, which is appreciated.
3. Connect yourself to what is sacred to you.
I ask my clients to connect themselves to whatever is sacred to them. I give them a few minutes of time for this connection. During this time I calm down and arrive fully in the here and now, in the client-therapist setting, in my body, focusing on what is going to happen.
At this point many of my clients like to pray, and some like to pray out loud. I make sure they know that whatever they choose is fine with me. They will not be judged. One participant chose a tree she felt very close to. Another contacted her deceased grandmother; and a devout atheist said that she connected herself to "mankind."
While my clients connect themselves to what is sacred to them, I draw the Reiki symbols in my mind and connect to the Higher Self of the client, and I ask God to help me. While I do this, I can feel an increase in the energy between us, and this seems to create a condition in which the client easily goes into a totally relaxed state. They are fully in the here and now, and simultaneously in a state where they can access their subconscious minds. Although they are completely relaxed, they know that they are fully in control of their own state of mind at all times.
4. Ask for higher guidance and support.
I ask my clients to repeat the following words: "I'm thankful for being here and ask for higher guidance and support." I ask that they do this out loud because the spoken word seems to have more power than the thought. Asking for higher guidance and support seems to be the key to other dimensions -- to higher and larger parts of ourselves. As Dorothea says: "With these words we open ourselves to the Oneness. We connect ourselves to it or we signal that now we are ready, open for intuition or God or whatever we want to name it. 'I ask for support' is an opener, a magic phrase that, like in fairy tales, opens the castle or the mountain."
5. Tune into your body and your emotions.
Next I ask my client to go with her attention to the inside, to feel, and to sense inside her body. "Feel inside your body and feel if something is noticeable or perceptible, a body feeling or an emotional feeling, and then describe it to me." The question is phrased "What do you feel?" not, "How do you feel?" In my experience clients sometimes hide behind "good" as an answer to how they feel, whereas to "what do you feel?" there is hardly a hiding place.
Once the client tells me about her feeling, if it is an emotion like anger or grief, I ask, "Where in the body does this feeling live?" and later on, "What does it look like?" I have found that this method helps my clients to start "seeing" inside, to really get in contact with their feelings. It is easier to connect to "the fear that's a rock in the middle of my stomach" than just "my fear." If I do not get an answer right away, I wait patiently and then add: "Even the smallest, slightest feeling, perhaps just a tickle in your little toe, is a signal. Please describe to me what you feel."
To my question "What do you feel?" I always receive an answer. There always is a feeling coming up to the surface and wanting attention. One of my clients explained to me before the session that exactly this was her problem -- she could never feel anything. In no meditation, no therapy session, no self-awareness group, no yoga class or anywhere would she feel anything. In our first session her answer to my question "What do you feel?" was "nothing." There are several possibilities to counter this"nothing." One possibility is to greet it as in, "Nothing, I sense you. I welcome you." Very often the nothing will take on a form, shape, or color. Another possible approach is to keep asking: "Where in your body is this nothing?" In our case the answer was perplexing: "The nothing is a hole, an emptiness in my stomach."
Yet another approach would be to address the resistance against feelings inside that person. "My resistance against feelings, I feel you and I welcome you." A resistance is also a symptom, so I would continue to work with that symptom.
While I ask my opening question and the client is sensing inside her body, I hold my hands in her energy field, starting about one foot above her physical body. Very soon I start to feel something like a "second skin" of that person, a layer of energy surrounding that person, called the "Emotional Body." To me the feeling of that energy varies. It can be hot or cold or fuzzy or smooth. Somehow it feels like a resistance in the air. Since I am connected to Higher Guidance, I just let my hands be there. By then I am in the flow of the healing energy, and without thinking about it consciously, my hands just know where to go and what to do. Some people have reported actually seeing colored light coming out of my palms during this part of the session. This "energy work" lasts for a few minutes, but can come back at any time of the session, especially in times, when the client is "stuck." Moving the energy seems to enhance the flow and deepen the relaxation.
6. Give the feeling a name.
Some of my clients make my life easy and say, for instance: "I feel fear," whereas others describe a conglomerate of feelings, an itchy feeling here, an insecurity there, a pain, an apprehension. Of course, I could pick one of those feelings and take it from there, but my intention is to direct as little as possible and to let the client be in control as much as possible. My way out of this is, "If you would have to summarize your feelings and put them into one word, just one feeling, how would you name this feeling?" Every client at this point comes up with only one word, sometimes even a word she makes up. For me it is important to use terminology my client relates to.
I will give you an example. One lady at the very beginning of our session said she felt ice cold hands, coolness, and sickness in her stomach. One half of her face was paralyzed, and she could hardly swallow because of a lump in her throat. She summarized all of the above feelings into: "ice-cold-stress," a term we could work with.
7. Welcome the feeling.
It is easier to describe the following using examples. For example, if the client says: "I am apprehensive," then I say "My apprehension, I feel you, I welcome you," and let the client repeat my words aloud. Or if she says, "My stomach hurts," then I let her repeat after me, "Pain in my stomach, I feel you, I welcome you." Or she may say, "I am so angry with my boss!" Then she should repeat, "My anger towards my boss, I feel you, I welcome you."
We address the apprehension, the pain, or the anger as independent entities and tell them they are being noticed, felt, and heard. Once the feeling is addressed and noticed, it will react, mostly by getting less intense. Sometimes it vanishes there and then. A few times I have seen it increase. Sometimes recognizing a feeling is enough to make it go away for good.
8. Thank the Feeling.
The next step is to thank the feeling. This usually seems strange to clients at first, but there are always reasons to bethankful. One, we can be thankful that the pain or any other feeling is showing up at all. We can try to understand the pain or feeling as a communication tool from the body or soul to the conscious mind. It wants to alert us that something is wrong. Maybe the pain will bring attention to something inside which is wrong or starting to go wrong and in doing so, prevent it from getting worse. For that we should be grateful.
For example, one client felt a tightness in his chest. After asking the tightness what it was, he came up with: "A metal band around my heart." For this metal band he could be grateful because it protected him from more injuries to his heart. Our most rejected feelings all have good reasons for being there, and we have to learn to be grateful for them.
As I said before, saying "Thank you" works almost like magic. The feeling or the pain, even the most hurtful ones, will always react and change when we say thank you. It feels to me that the energy field of the client changes completely just by saying it. Healing energy begins to flow when we stop rejecting our pain and humbly accept the lesson it has come to teach us.
9. Love the Feeling.
The clients have already had a hard time saying thank you to their negative feelings, but on top of it all now they are supposed to say, "My pain, I love you!" Why are they supposed to say that? "What effects could that have?" they ask. So I say, "If what you're doing isn't working, why not try something else?" The "something else" in this case would be that instead of hating the pain or fear and trying to ignore it or fight it, to lovingly accept it.
So, instead of screaming at a migraine to go away, the client can say, "My migraine, I love you." This simple phrase takes away the stress of fighting the headache, and much of the pain can be relieved almost instantly. The symptom no longer gets viewed as an enemy and the whole situation is no longer like a war. Communication has begun.
10. "My Pain, what can I do for you?"
Here we come to the core, the heart of our therapy. The pillars of this method are gratitude, humbleness, and service -- attitudes very well known in the philosophies of the East and also in Christian traditions.
The question, "What may I do for you?" is asked out loud and the answers which come from within are almost always very clear and often surprising. Sometimes a pain asks for something very specific and practical. For instance, a pain in the foot may ask for different shoes. Or, as it happened in the case of a depressed pianist, the request was, "Move into an apartment with more sunlight."
Of course an answer like that might cause some doubts - "How can I afford to move to a sunny apartment? I don't think that will be possible." In situations like that I let the client ask more questions, for example, "What can I do first? How and where do I begin? Where do I find help?" The pain will always have an answer.
During one of my sessions with a pregnant woman, her asthma gave very practical advice. She asked, "My trouble getting air, what can I do for you?" and this symptom answered, "Let Susanna put her hands on your stomach." During the next few minutes the child moved under my hands and turned, bringing itself into a position where the mother could breathe freely.
Sometimes the pain gives advice like: "Change your eating habits; you need more protein; move slower or faster; start running; dance; sing; start painting; play the guitar; go see your dentist; forgive your mother (father, husband, lover etc.); or forgive yourself."
Often just a visualization of the activity is enough to begin alleviating the pain immediately. By the time we ask the question, "My pain, what can I do for you?" the clients are in a very relaxed, altered state of consciousness which makes it easier for the answer to come as an inner vision. Often the vision is of a memory of when the pain began.
Another inner vision that happens quite frequently is the picture or impression of someone talking to the client. This might be a friend or enemy, alive or dead, a family member, or it could be a spirit guide, an animal, a cartoon character, an angel, or frightening things like the devil, or dragons or evil itself. Whatever it may be, the steps of Emotional Body Healing will always be the same: to greet the being, to say thank you, to accept them in love, and to ask, "What can I do for you?" Even the scariest of these beings will be transformed by this accepting attitude. They will dissolve in love, and will bring messages which are essential to the client's healing process.
I accompany the clients through their inner visions, letting them have the experience with as little direction as possible, but with full support. For example, sometimes their guidance may be instructing them to do things that seem extreme, like to let themselves fall, to let go completely, to sink to the bottom of the ocean, to fly, to dissolve, to drown, or to die.
I stay connected with my clients throughout all of these mental experiences. I support them, I guide them, and I remind them that these are only pictures and that in reality they are lying safely on the couch, and they can allow themselves to go into theseimages. When they dare to imagine themselves doing these things, they go into a different dimension of reality, deeper into their own subconscious minds, giving them even more insight.
I remember the first time Dorothea was asked one of those "let go" demands. It was during our early years of developing Emotional Body Healing and I was guiding Dorothea into one of her problems. Before her inner eyes she saw a threshing machine. She was asked by her inner voice to go toward that monster machine and allow it to "eat her up."
I was frightened, surprised and puzzled. Should I dare to guide her through a process of being eaten, being destroyed, maybe a process of death? What would happen? Could we trust this process?
Together we asked for higher guidance and support. In her inner vision she was taken by this machinery, cut into tiny pieces, and in the very end put back together new. After coming out of the session Dorothea reported having a slightly different awareness of her body. The problem she was working on never showed up again.
I have no explanation why a process happens like that and how it happens. I do not know what happens in the different parts of the physical, mental, or spiritual plane. At this time all I can do is report my experiences.
In her book Babys wollen reden, Dorothea describes the examples of 'free falling and floating:'
The client begins to fall. Most of the times it is dark. She keeps falling, sometimes into a shaft or tunnel. The client is advised to let go and just experience the falling, nothing harmful will happen to her. If the falling frightens her or seems to be too fast, she can ask for higher guidance. Or she can ask for support from a being. It can be a human being or an animal, alive or dead, any kind of being. Some clients ask for angel wings or a cloud or hands to hold them. This imagery helps the "falling" client to feel safe. After a few minutes (sometimes seconds) the client normally lands somewhere very softly. From there the journey goes on, different images, often different places and different times. Very often the client arrives in an early age of their youth, at the origin of their current problem or symptom. There, the problem can be accepted, transformed, solved and one can forgive oneself.
Another experience is that of floating. Often the client has a feeling of being turned, rotated, or spun. Sometimes she becomes dizzy. Again, it is important to keep the process going, and if necessary, ask for higher guidance and support again. After a short period of time the turning and dizziness will stop and the client has the feeling as if she is floating outside and above of her own physical body.
From here she sometimes gets into a state of celestial happiness or into the state of complete nothing, sometimes called Nirvana, where all that is is melted together. Or she reaches the state of Oneness, where there is neither time nor space, only love and light. She then has arrived in Oneness, a state of utter happiness.
This is one of the most elemental and highest experiences we as human beings can have. It brings us to our origin, to our essential being, to the bottom of our soul, to other dimensions we are connected to.
11. Express gratitude at the end of a session.
A session is ended by the client. Normally I do not watch the clock. One session can last between twenty minutes or as much as three hours. The clients come back into fully awareness by themselves. This happens slowly or sometimes at once as if the subconscious mind would say, "This is it! No more, no further."
I do respect the "announcements" of the subconscious mind. I remember a young woman who, in her inner visions, arrived at the bottom of the ocean. Slowly she was floating to the top but the surface was too tight, too hard. She did not get through. She imagined having the beak of a bird, and she pricked the surface until it had a hole. At the speed of light she was through the surface, sat in an upright position at once, got up, and left my office almost without saying good-bye.
More commonly the clients move slowly into the awakened state. During their time of 'coming back into the here and now,' I ask them to say, "Thank you." Some give thanks to their angels or masters, others thank God or Jesus, and for others it is enough just to speak out loud a "Thank you."
I thank them for their courage and for their trust in me.
The following is a report from a 'satisfied careseeker.' I had asked Gina to write this article herself because I liked her writing style. In brackets I offer my own comments for better understanding of the healing process.
Gina's Story: Going Through the 'Veil' Susanna presented a demonstration of Emotional Body Healing at an Alternative Health Practitioners meeting in Klamath Falls, Oregon. She worked with two different volunteers. What transpired in front of us for each volunteer was impressive to me in terms of speed and understanding of what was 'bothering' them. This process seemed to cut through all the layers of defenses. To me it was a bit frightening, so it took a while until I decided to take one of Susanna's classes. I still felt apprehensive that day.
In my class was Patricia, a hypnotherapist I know very well and trust, and me.
The idea was that each of us would get a treatment and also each of us would observe the treatment of the other participant.
Susanna started with a relaxation exercise of tightening, then relaxing all the muscles in the body beginning with the toes and working up. By the time she was done I was so relaxed, it was difficult to move - like heavy sleeping but still awake enough to answer questions.
After the relaxation we decided the other lady in the group, let me call her Sandra, would 'go' first. Susanna guided her (giving explanations to me of what she was doing) and I was to watch. Sandra sneezed and coughed suddenly, and that was the signal from the body indicating where to begin. Susanna said the messages can be in the form of a vision, a sound, a pain or a discomfort, a sneeze, a feeling, a thought or anything. Susanna then said "Hello, sneeze, welcome. Thank you for coming. What can I do for you?" Then Sandra answered the questions. The answers were there - bizarre as they might seem.
Susanna also senses what to do as far as leading energy away (brushing outward) or laying hands on areas needing energy (head, heart, etc.). I do not have a clue at this time how to determine this yet; it seems essential to move the negative stuff out for the messages to come forth.
[I am trained as a Reiki master and an aura healer. My intuition guides me as to where to lay my hands or to move energy]
Sandra's messages were fast, personal, and she understood exactly what they meant. She got very specific instructions about such things as her body -- how to care for it better. There were also messages relating to her fears that were profound. Her eyes were closed. She would articulate what she saw/heard, and Susanna would assist by 'pulling strings of energy out' that were tangled in the right side of her body disturbing her aura. It was very powerful and amazing.
Sandra seemed clear about what she was to do from the messages given. We did discuss things to clarify and help the messages be remembered.
Now it was my turn. I was excited but apprehensive. I lay down on the recliner and closed my eyes, Susanna on my right and Sandra on my left. Immediately I began to smell ether. I opened my eyes to look around; nothing was different. Sandra and Susanna did not smell the ether. It was scary. The smell was very strong to me - creating fear - possibly from getting tonsils removed as a child or the smell of my dad who was a veterinarian and used ether quite frequently for surgery.
Susanna asked what I was feeling and I said 'fear.' She said "Hello, fear", "welcome." "Thanks for showing up and what can I do for you?" The fear said "Die." I said " I don't think so."
[The 'inner command' that asks for dying comes up once in a while. It is always meant metaphorically. Nobody ever dies. But by going through the image of dying, then fears or other problems can be freed. My interpretation would be that a part of us (like a fear) which we do not need any longer is dying. So I never interrupt the command 'die,', but let the client ask for guidance and support and then let it happen as an image.]
Susanna suggested to ask for guidance and support. I did. My voice said to "Go for it". So - ok - the ether was stronger now - my heart was racing. (This was not a feeling, it actually was racing.)
[Very often my intuition tells me to provide a safe space by placing my hand on a client's heart, head or stomach or to hold her hands. That is how it was in this case.]
Susanna put her hands on my heart (thank goodness!), that helped a little. I thought I might have a heart attack.
I knew I was dying no matter what else was happening to me. I stopped breathing. No struggle. About the time my mind said "You are not breathing," Sandra commanded, "Gina, breathe!" I did. Whew! My mind said "Wow - no struggle for air - how odd."
[Sandra, the hypnotherapist, who witnessed this session, saw Gina not breathing. She knew that with Gina being totally relaxed she could give commands to Gina's body, bypassing her conscious mind. She very loudly commanded, "Gina, breathe!" and Gina's body reacted promptly. At no time are patients in danger but some of them do get into their images quite deeply. The therapist has to pay close attention to their body and their words.]
About then I saw what I describe as water moving over glass in small waves. It was beautiful -- like a water veil over an opening. I tried to describe this to Sandra and Susanna -- they asked, "What is on the other side?" I said, "I don't know, I am afraid to go through." They told me to ask for guidance again. I did. My voice said "Come on through." I did. It was peaceful - nothing - no sound. No colors, nobody there, empty. Not fearful or scary at all. I got a strange feeling. I felt that from here I would get answers to all the questions I would ever have. And I did.
For me this experience was profound. Nothing has been the same since. My fears are less. I am opting for things to be more peaceful. I can let things go more easily. I feel less important to others and more important to myself. I am more honest and more interested in learning how to really communicate. I listen better -- with my whole being. I quiet my mind so I can hear the voice. I am taking better care of my body. I am learning what is important and of value to me.
Nothing is the same. I feel more like an observer -- less reactive. Whew!
[For all the psychiatrists out there, when a healthy person in a trance-like state of mind is 'hearing voices', it is not the same as the auditory hallucinations of a psychotic person. A healthy person describes the 'hearing' more as a sensing, a knowing. The voice does not really have a sound to it. It is more the 'gut feeling' or 'inner voice'.]
Susanna Luebcke, M.D. is a physician from Berlin, a general practitioner and allergy specialist. In 1993 she left Germany to live with her American husband in Oregon. She also left the field of traditional medicine to travel the world studying alternative and complementary healing methods. Together with Anne Soeller and Dr. Dorothea von Stumpfeldt from Germany, she developed the amazingly simple and powerful therapy introduced in this article:
Emotional Body Healing.
Dr. Luebcke is currently working with clients and teaching seminars in the Pacific Northwest and in Berlin, Germany.
Hello, My Pain, Welcome. What Can I Do For You? -- Introduction into Emotional Body Healing is self published and can be purchased directly from the author.
Susanna Luebcke, M.D.
P.O. Box 83
Sprague River, OR 97639
http://www.dr-susanna.com/ harvsusi@earthlink.net
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