parts as soon as possible. It is easier to do this now because I have learned a strategy to treat dangerous parts slowly and safely. This strategy removes the possibility of having suicidal thoughts or parts motivated by emotional flooding. It is respectful to all parts of the personality.
The subconscious can learn barriers
One of the most helpful qualities of the subconscious is that it is not subject to damage by trauma and physical sensations. The subconscious can accurately see life history and help diagnose and treat traumatic issues. However, I managed to damage a patient’s subconscious. (This damage was easy to repair, as you will see.) I caused the damage by having the subconscious step into her body experience and converse with me directly. I wanted to expand my understanding of the internal processes and thought that direct communication with the subconscious using spoken language would promote this goal. The subconscious was able to do this, and in one session we conversed readily.
In a later session, I noticed the subconscious was not as effective in identifying and treating issues as she had been previously. Using leading questions, I discovered that the subconscious process, while in the Active Experience, had associated with physical sensations. The physical sensations created barriers to “seeing” internal history and was restricting her view of the inner dynamics and her control of internal processes. I corrected this mistake by having the subconscious look through the patient’s eyes while I did eye movement processing. After treatment, the subconscious again became very effective in identifying and treating issues. Since this experience, I believe that it is inappropriate and even harmful to ask the subconscious to run the body and communicate with spoken words. Covert communication seems to cause no problems.
Parts can fool the therapist
The following is an example of the usefulness of working with the subconscious to solve a problem. In a session with a torture survivor, I identified at least three new parts that I had not met in previous sessions. I asked the subconscious if she could treat these parts. The subconscious said, “Yes.” I asked her to treat these parts and to let me know when she had finished. After she finished, I asked if she had joined these parts with “Barbara,” as I normally had her do. She said, “Yes.” I asked Barbara to become the active personality. She spontaneously commented that the three parts that had recently joined with her had made her experience chaotic. I returned to the subconscious to discover that I had been working with a surrogate subconscious — a fake subconscious. The integrated parts still had trauma emotions associated with them. The trauma emotions associated with the parts caused a disturbance in Barbara. While the surrogate subconscious was the active personality, I asked the true subconscious if she could treat this part. The subconscious signaled “No” with a thumb response.
I communicated with the subconscious by asking leading questions and getting “Yes” and “No” answers. It is similar to the game of 20 questions. I discovered the surrogate subconscious was a programmed part, a part deliberately created by the use of torture. One of its activities was to repeat “I won’t do it” continuously in the unconscious. This repetitive, unconscious behavior caused a barrier to treatment. It disorganized the patient’s unconscious behavior so treatment would not work. It was like receiving therapy while repeatedly singing “Bongo, bongo, bongo, I don’t want to leave the Congo.” I reassured the subconscious that painful emotions motivated the “I won’t do it, I won’t do it” program. The patient learned these emotions from the trauma during the programming. I stressed that the repeating response would become less motivated as she treated the trauma emotions associated with the program. She said she would try to treat the programmed part as I had previously requested. I waited while the subconscious was doing the treatment and talked to the programmed part. After several minutes, the surrogate said, “I’m beginning to feel confused” and then, within a minute, she gradually went into a dormant state; my patient’s eyes closed and her head slumped. Barbara returned to become the active personality. She said spontaneously that another fragment joined with her. Therapy continued.
Flexibility when treating with the subconscious
In a recent case, a patient came in complaining that she felt confused after she exercised. She had stopped exercising for about 10 days and started feeling clearheaded. Conversation with her subconscious suggested there was a part that was co-conscious in her conscious experience when she was exercising that gave her the lingering confusion. I set up rapport with all parts and was soon teaching the subconscious how to diagnose and treat parts. I then ran into a barrier. I was not seeing any finger responses.
I dealt with this barrier by assuming it was caused by a part. My approach was to set up rapport with the part and then treat it. I told her that all parts, including the prebirth parts, parts formed at birth, preverbal parts, or any other traumatic parts, were members of one personality. Trauma created those parts that seemed independent. They had experience in the body that gave them a false sense of ownership or fears about treatment. If they were all treated by neutralizing their trauma emotions, they could join the Main Personality. They would then experience more satisfaction in life and be able to protect themselves more effectively. With this explanation, I was hoping to get permission from this part and other parts to teach the subconscious how to treat trauma memories. By being respectful of all parts and by educating them and answering their objections, all parts eventually wanted treatment and to join with the Main Personality.
After getting permission from the parts, I taught the subconscious to locate the treatment points by tapping the points on myself. My demonstration taught the subconscious how to treat the painful emotions associated with the trauma memories learned during the trauma experience. The subconscious eventually signaled that she was able to treat a part that was co-conscious with the patient and who was the cause of her confusion. I asked the subconscious to start this process and chatted lightly with the patient as the subconscious continued to treat the part. After three or four minutes, the patient said she felt clearer. I asked the subconscious to signal with a finger response when she finished. Within a few moments, the subconscious signaled that she was finished. The patient felt much clearer by the end of the session. She later reported that she had no confusion after exercising.
Summary
A language process starts forming in utero and later becomes our subconscious. By explaining how the subconscious and the personality are formed, one can get rapport with the subconscious and all aspects of the personality. The subconscious is useful to direct the path of treatment, to help create new ways to treat difficult issues, to organize treatment plans, and to learn how to treat the effect of trauma. In addition, the subconscious can learn how to treat negative experiences automatically and independently of the Main Personality. The subconscious can treat active memories (negative beliefs, simple memories and life experiences) in different ways. The subconscious can apply these techniques to treat unknown trauma in a person’s history, such as self-limiting beliefs and other traumatic experiences and memories. While this form of treatment lacks support from published research, it has been effective for scores of patients treating themselves, as well as patients in my office and patients in clinics in Latin America.
The Process Healing Method is a treatment intervention that developed out of my relationship with my various patients’ subconsciouses. To summarize the process, the therapist first educates and works with all aspects of the personality to convince the aspects to want to receive treatment and join with the Main Personality. This approach is both respectful to the patient and makes later treatment easier. I call the process of getting parts on the Treatment Team the Education Process. The goal is to get all aspects of the personality to want to be treated and join the Treatment Team. During this process, the patient learns a way to communicate with the subconscious and aspects of the personality. When all aspects are on the Treatment Team and give permission, the therapist then teaches the subconscious how to treat painful emotions. Then in the
