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Deep Feeling Therapy: Healing Emotional Pain

Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 11:41 pm
by Clare
Hi,

Have you seen this latest UTUBE video of Paul Hannig working with clients; in deep feeling therapy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV1fWtMAKRk

Clare

Re: Deep Feeling Therapy: Healing Emotional Pain

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 4:55 am
by Lloyd
Hi Clare,
I liked that video it was good. That therapy looks similar to orgone therapy, which is what I want to do myself. I truly believe that releasing old repressed emotions in a safe environment is the way to go.
I don’t want to live my life with repressed emotions in me. If someone makes me angry I am fully aware that I’m usually reacting more to my old unexpressed anger that’s being reawakened by the situation than by the present situation itself. I don’t want that, and it's the same thing for all the emotions as well.
I personally wouldn’t do a group therapy based on this type of emotional release therapy because I think if your going to do this type of thing you need someone there that’s already been through the process, has “finished” their own therapy, is trained to do it, and knows exactly what they are doing. The way I see it how can you expect to be treated rationally and safely if the person your doing therapy with hasn’t dealt with their own repressed emotions, all of them, fully?.. And the same applies to any sort of therapist. At best they will avoid what they haven’t dealt with, and at worst they could lead you in to a dangerous situation you or they aren’t prepared for or are capable of dealing with.
But saying that, if group therapy works for some people and it can be done safely then who cares right? Whatever gets the job done safely is alright in my book. :D If group therapy does the job then that’s excellent, I wouldn’t do it myself though…


Cheerz,
Lloyd.

Re: Deep Feeling Therapy: Healing Emotional Pain

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 6:59 pm
by Dennis
I suppose such videos are great examples of the importance of the effect of deep release of anger, having it connected to the original cause. Paul Hannig is also smart enough not to call it Primal Therapy (he calls it: Transcendent Feeling Therapy), to avoid all the controversies it created, which his therapy is actually based on. In the links on his website, Primal sites are all over the place. I'm a bit hesitant to where he leads his therapy to, when I read about:

# Use the Psycho-Spiritual Therapy and the Power of Prayer to restore emotional and mental stability, bring focus and healing to your inner self and your relationships, and deepen your inner connectedness with God. Restoration of the soul is a profound part of PsychotherapyHELP's Psycho-Spiritual approach to healing.

And:

someone may be encapsulated in a third chakra, world center logical mind, power center located in the solar plexus. Part of their life is dominated by a lack of power, whether it is emotional, financial, spiritual, intellectual or some other form of power. TFT works with that individual within that power center. It is here where endurance, victory, strength, determination, discipline and planning are required for the solidification of the ego in the third chakra world. Strength is the driving force in the energy system of a third chakra devotee. A third chakra person needs effective strategies, cognitive restructuring, negotiation skills, mental concentration and focus. The ego requires strengthening of its processing, planning and interpreting skills. Without a well functioning third chakra, a person is in danger of fragmentation and regression to lower-level madness.. The third chakra is the center that guides one to be successful in the world, while being able to manipulate one's mind for greater goal achievement. Passage through the third chakra must prepare a person for grander expansions of self later in life. Without that solidification, a person can regress to the Typhonic fall from the garden of Eden. The neocortical rationality of the third chakra must be made intact, in order to manage regressions to second chakra borderline areas between the reptilian and old mammalian limbic system. Without a well functioning third chakra ego, transcendence to higher levels of consciousness can meet with disastrous regressions to lower-level anxiety, personality, mental disorders.

This is mystical nonsense, and it's all over his site. This is not language that should be used on people who are emotionally confused and seeking for guidance because of the suffered neglect by their parents. Let's call a spade a spade.

But the video was interesting. It reminds me of what I went through in my teens. And seeing raging women beating up dummies with a stick, all credit to that.

What do you think about the video and Paul Hannig, Clare?

Dennis

Re: Deep Feeling Therapy: Healing Emotional Pain

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 8:57 pm
by Clare
Dennis

I think the video is a good commercial for his form of deep feeling therapy, and I am sure that he will acquire a lot of clients as a result of UTUBE. So 100% for marketing if thats what he's after. I would have liked to have seen his 'clients' make the deeper connections. So its not classic primal in its true sense., but more like a simple cathartic release therapy. But I'm also aware that time is limited on these utube videos.

Regarding Paul Hannig, I read an article way back which he wrote on narcissistic personality disorder, and which I found very helpful at the time, as I was embroiled in a relationship with a narcissist therapist at the time. But I don't know very much else about him as a therapist. I spoke to another primal facilitator yesterday about the video, and my colleague, said he met Paul, and that he was okay, but didnt quite "'get' his spiritual stuff"!

Regarding his spirituality, my eyes glazed over when I began to read your post., in fact, I couldn't make sense of it at all; I got lost somewhere in the first paragraph! I don't relate to his type of spirituality, and I certainly wouldn't inject my 'belief's or spiritual experiences, whatever they are into a client's process. People need a safe space in which to heal, not a sermon on the mount.

My experience, as an Anam Cara, and practicing contemplative, is that occasionally some people who come to me to explore 'spiritual' issues, and who are simply searching for meaning in their lives, can often discover that they have been 'spiritually bypassing' the real issues of the pain of their childhood; escaping into various forms of mysticism, ( I did it myself for years ), and they eventually come to a place of choosing to do deep feeling or primal work, which for some is a spiritual discipline in itself.

Likewise, many who come soley to do deep feeling work, after a couple of years of deep work, begin to open up to a spiritual dimension within their lives, which may not be associated with any particular religion or belief system, but which can support their journey, rather than bypass the obvious. Each to his or her own.

I certainly don't see this work as transcendent therapy, which always suggests something beyond or outside of us, but more like imminent therapy, based upon our experiences within.

Re: Deep Feeling Therapy: Healing Emotional Pain

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 9:17 pm
by Clare
Hi Lloyd,
Yes, I agree that releasing old repressed emotions in a safe space is the way to go, provided that we can make the connections to what i call the 'original sin' against us as children.

Yes, access to our feelings is such a great gift. There are many people who simply live in their heads and unable to connect with their bodies. I feel sorry for them, but they needed to escape there to avoid the pain underneath.

Interesting, that you wouldn't do a group therapy based on this type of emotional release therapy. For me, my deepest challenges have been within groups, and as a result have been my deepest healings. I can hide for ever in a one to one situation. But to be out there and be 'seen', that was my biggest challenge (smile)

And I wonder if we are ever "finished". For me its work in progress, but I certainly agree with you round safety. I would need to feel very safe with a facilitator in either a one to one or group situation. There are therapists out there who can do a lot of damage with their unresolved issues, and which spill out into their groups, and one on one relationships. That is why I am such an advocate of good sound supervision as long as one is facilitating another in such a deep and intimate relationship.

Enlightened witnesses are few and far between!