Tapping In: A step-by-step guide to activating your healing resources through bilateral stimulation

by Laurel Parnell, PhD

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Boulder, CO: Sounds True 2008.  290 pp.  $18.95

Laurel Parnell, trained in EMDR, has adapted this method in an interesting way. EMDR invites people to focus on their trauma memories and current symptoms while alternating stimulating the right and left sides of the body. This produces intense emotional releases that rapidly clear these issues. When the negatives are cleared, positive cognitions are installed to replace the negative ones that have been released.

Parnell focuses very heavily on the positives. She has people visualize a "safe/ peaceful place, nurturing figures, protector figures, and inner wisdom figures." (p. 45) These help people calm down when agitated, fearful, injured or upset in other ways. She discourages people from focusing on previous experiences that might resonate with the current issues.

Parnell reports dramatic improvements, not only in the primary issues being addressed, but also in attitudes, self-confidence, openness to accepting positives from others and more. She also notes that with repeated practice the positive effects with her method are more easily achieved and stronger. You will find many suggestions for positive images and cognitions one can install in this book.

My hesitation about what I read is that my personal experience of clearing current issues over a period of four decades and my experience of helping clients do the same has been that current issues very frequently resonate strongly with earlier issues. In many cases, the current issues appear to be invited to occur or even to be generated by the earlier issues. Without clearing the early issues, I would be concerned that further problems could easily arise down the rocky roads of life.

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