Suzi Tarrant
Ecotherapist
Clinical Psychologist
Nature Connection Leader & Guide
Working with internal resistance to change
Various forms of therapy and attempts at bringing about personal change can often be slow or unsuccessful, or in some cases even bring about an intensification of the undesired state or behaviour. In these cases there seems to be some form of internal resistance or barrier to change which is not held at a conscious level. We may be consciously committed to changing a particular habit or pattern of behaviour and yet despite our best efforts, find ourselves returning to it over and over again.
One of the key strengths of Energy Psychotherapy is its focus on recognising and treating these internal objections to change. And because the focus is on treating the energetic roots of the objection, most can be released quite rapidly. The term most often used for these inner conflicts is "psychological reversal". These reversals are often related to issues around safety (“it’s not safe for me to be free of this issue”), deservedness (“I don’t deserve to be free of this issue”), identity (“it’s not who I am to be free of this issue”) and anger ("I'm too angry to be free of this issue").
Psychological reversals may be apparent at the start of therapy or appear as issues are worked through, almost as if there are layers in the body-mind-energy system. Energy Psychotherapy facilitates the full resolution of these inner objections as and when they become apparent. This process lies at the heart of the deep and often rapid shifts in perception and experience that are achieved in a session.
The term "psychological reversal" was first coined by Dr Roger Callahan PhD, an American Clinical Psychologist and the founder of Thought Field Therapy (TFT).
Callahan also developed effective ways of treating this kind of inner resistance to change and he said that it was probably the most important of his discoveries in Energy Psychology.