by Lynne Shaner, guest author —
“I know it’s not real. But I still feel it, all the time.” My client James was talking about his fear—we had worked through a number of different traumas in earlier sessions, but there was still more fear, a palpable fear that was just not going away. He came in that morning feeling low, and feeling as if everything had a dark pall over it. As he was talking, he held out his hand, and mimicked looking at Fear, resting there, in his palm. The imagery was so clear.
I suggested we see what we could do with that fear, and he agreed, closing his eyes and just visualizing the fear. All the while, I was guiding James through the tapping points, and he was tapping on himself continually while narrating what was going on visually, internally. “It is huge, a huge crystal of some sort—I can almost see around it but it has gotten bigger.” He decided that he wanted to walk around it, so I guided him there, and as he walked around it he found that he wanted to push it out a window. It was still very large. And stubborn. He tried to push it out the window but it was so resistant; it just wouldn’t go.
I asked whether it might be able to go there, if it were smaller, and immediately it had transformed into an egg-sized ruby that fit into his palm. “I’m okay with it now, it is just this ruby.” I wondered whether it felt positive in any way so I asked whether the ruby seemed beautiful. “No, it’s very dark and actually it is now a garnet, not a ruby.” So we explored what he’d like to do, if anything, and he wanted to take it to the window, now that it was small.
What is happening now? I asked. “It has turned into a puffball—one of those puffball mushrooms that turn to dust.” And he found himself taking it to the window and the garnet just disintegrated. I wondered whether he’d like to have the dust washed away so we brought a gentle, warm, magical rain into the picture and it washed his hands clean of the garnet puffball dust. And how does that feel? What is happening? I asked. James immediately said that he was looking out over a beautiful bay, that the sun was out, and that the water was sparkling. He felt much better, and we brought him out of the space gently, allowing him to return whenever he’d like to.
REFLECTIONS:
In the beginning, when James held out his hand and was miming holding this huge crystal of fear, it was clear that his inner mind was using a symbol to communicate clearly what was going on, and giving us a great deal of information—-it was large, it was hard and dense, it didn’t want to go anywhere, but it was also levitating, and could be seen around, and changed with a thought, and was willing to disintegrate.
For the most part, we used continuous tapping during this session. This way there are no interruptions between what is going on in terms of healing and the client. What is important is that there is a feeling of flow, of allowing the imagery from the client to lead. I just needed to take the cues as they came up and be a gentle guide, following James and the imagery around, calling out the tapping points softly. I always find myself “seeing” images as my client talks through the story that unfolds, and as it seems necessary, will gently offer some idea or thought or question, to allow the process to continue to flow easily. Sometimes a client feels stuck; the suggestions allow the inner logjam to gently float apart and flow with the current again.
Inner Theater is a beautiful and gentle approach which seems to go directly to the subconscious for profound healing and transformation.