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Emotional Release Therapy (ERT)

Why have Emotional Release Therapy (ERT)?...to feel better by releasing emotional stress and reducing the resulting physical symptoms.

Conditions Most Frequently Treated

Grieving, loss and abandonment issues are frequently treated. Depression responds very well both in releasing old emotions and mobilizing energies to physically raise one from depressed states. Bipolar problems are often defused in intensity and duration. Separation issues are often mobilized by releasing old emotional holding patterns and beliefs. Anxiety, stress, panic disorders, and somatic disorders respond well to the releases often resulting in a more relaxed state. Co-dependence issues are released and brought out more quickly when the emotion is released and validated. Post-traumatic stress issues are often totally wrapped up in blocked emotion - mobilizing and releasing the emotion facilitates the resolution of past traumas. The bottled-up emotion from abuse and its defense of denial is addressed and released with ERT, which releases the pain and trauma. Some physical conditions that improve are headaches, digestion problems, genito-urinary conditions, chronic pain throughout the body, and pain caused by accidents and injuries.

The above is only a partial listing of the conditions that respond well to ERT. The end result is that people feel so much better. Clients generally experience a "new lease on life."

Much of the emotional pain that sends people to counseling is stored in the body, and thus is the cause of many physical conditions. Our culture has led us from freely expressing emotions to being constipated emotional pressure cookers. We have been taught not to express our emotions and have often been shamed and abandoned when we did.

Many emotions can be stored for years and become stuck behind hardened muscles called character armor. This character armor actually blocks the expression of desirable emotions like love and happiness, and restricts expressions of fear, anger and sadness, leaving these less desirable emotions jammed behind the tightened muscles of character armor. Painful issues from years past that are associated with this stored emotion are unavailable for recall. Consequently, they remain unresolved only to be manifested in painful recurring behavioral patterns. The awareness and flexibility needed to change is blocked by the character armor.

ERT frees the blocked emotions, allowing their release in a safe setting. The character armor then softens and memories from the past that are buried in the tissues come to awareness for resolving in the present. When the old emotional energy is released, the old painful emotional patterns disappear, and many physical conditions can then heal.

What Happens In ERT?

ERT starts with the client explaining to the therapist what is happening in his/her life allowing the therapist to assess the client's emotional and physical state, and together they set goals. The therapist provides a safe and supportive place to express the emotions, and a way to ground them. Sometimes emotions such as sadness, rage, or fear are overwhelming, or childhood taboos restrict emotional expression. It is then necessary for the therapist to give supportive permission to release them. Some clients may fear that once they start to release emotions, they won't be able to stop. The fact is, most people are in too much control, and will only release as much as they can handle at one time.

The process begins with deep rhythmic breathing to build a charge of energy in the client's body. Then the therapist may: have the client continue breathing until the charge dissipates, taking with it the emotional energy that has been mobilized; have the client actively express emotions that are being mobilized; enable blocked emotions to release by the body positioning or stimulation of the character armor, allowing the chronically tightened tissues to soften.

When the therapist has the client continue breathing until the charge dissipates, any emotion that has been blocked, sometimes from earliest consciousness, may release. This technique is also for clients who are afraid to express their emotions or have a tremendous charge of one emotion - it brings this emotion down to a manageable level before having an overt emotional release. Many clients who experience anxiety attacks and hyperventilation will no longer have them after a few sessions.

When the therapist chooses to facilitate an emotional release with the breathing, the therapist is assisting the client to actively express blocked emotions. This is often used to mobilize grief that is stuck around the client's heart. Deep sadness and grief may also be blocked in the throat, jaw, and eyes. To facilitate the release of anger, the therapist may have the client hit, kick, scream or bite. This form of overt anger is often necessary for the client to feel that he/she has stood up against an oppressor or abuser. Standing while releasing emotion can create an energetic grounding that becomes an internal support system. Since many clients feel abandoned for having and expressing emotions when children, it is important for them that they are supported after overt emotional releases.

When the charging breathing leads to jamming of the character armor, the therapist places the client in a position that will open and stretch the blocked muscles, or presses on the tightened muscles specific to the emotional jamming - throat or chest to release grief; stomach to release swallowed anger; jaw to release fear, anger or sadness. With the therapist's pressure, the blocked areas relax, allowing the client to overtly emotionally release.