How does Neuro Emotional Technique compare to traditional counseling, or cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT)?  Here is a chart the highlights the difference.

While I am in between patients, I decided to write a quick post about how Neuro Emotional Technique has helped my patients to move past and heal from marital affairs, cheating, and adultery.   Often times in couple’s therapy, one spouse remains emotionally stuck on a particular event or events of the past. This makes the healing process very difficult. I have heard it many times before.   One spouse has the affair, and the other one is left trying to cope and pick up the pieces. They often stay to me, “How can I ever move past and trust my spouse again?” The answer is simple. If a couple is determined to work through whatever occurred trust can be rebuilt. First, the offending spouse need to “eat some crow” as I call it by being completely and utterly transparent. No secrecy whatsoever.  Second, they MUST     handle any emotional upsets from the other spouse with total mercy and grace.   Here is what I mean by mercy and grace. Instead of getting frustrated and say things such as, “When are you ever gonna get over this?”  The offending spouse must say something along the lines of, “You are right, I was wrong, and I will do whatever it takes to make it right so you no longer feel this way.”  Anything less starts the healing all over. It opens the wounds back up. Now, this is where Neuro Emotional Technique comes into play.

     The reason I love Neuro Emotional Technique so much is that we can get a year’s worth of talk therapy completed in under an hour.   In the case in infidelity, the person who was offended, or the one left to pick up the pieces, will benefit the most from this technique.  We focus on the emotional blockages that keep us from moving forward such as feelings of fear, anger, resentment, etc. Once these feelings are released, healing takes place rather quickly. I do not know how to describe how it feels for my patients when they go through this technique.  There is almost a universal feelings of calm and peace about the whole situation. The mind slows WAY down, and the patient can think calmly for the first time in a long time. Basically, I am told that they have their life back.

So, if this is something you are someone you know may benefit from, please feel free to give us a call.   

Till next time,


Justin

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Let's face it,  no one wants to need the services of a therapist.  Talking to a complete stranger about intimate details of our lives is anything but enjoyable.  Sometimes therapy works, and most of the time it does not.   Most of us therapists never persue training outside of continuing education and graduate school.  We are content just practicing and using boring talk therapy.    Don't get me wrong, talk therapy has it's place, but consider the alternatives.   

What I want to particularly talk about is how alternatives to talk therapy can put lives back together without spending thousands of dollars on copayments and fees to have someone just stare at a clock waiting for your time to be up.

I have said this before, and I will continue to say it. Almost every person I see falls into two categories.  Depression or Trauma(Anxiety).   Depression can easily be treated with standard talk therapy, and benefits from what about to say. Trauma, on the other hand, does not seem to respond well to traditional counseling, and needs other solutions.   

For those inidividuals suffering from trauma help arrives in the treatment of either or both EMDR and clinical hypnosis.  For those interested in how either of these treatments work, check out the other pages on this site.  What's cool, if anything can be cool about trauma, is that once we identify a cause of the truama, and treat it, everything else seems to fall back in line.  Literally what this means is that once the initial trauma is desensitized, anything else that was problematic returns the the pretraumatic state.  I have actually seen victims of rape and other heinous acts return to their lives in a little as 30 minutes.  Even after a follow up the next week, there are still no signs of anxiety, stress, nightmares, and flashbacks.  For those suffering from multiple traumas, we have to tackle each trauma inidvidually from smallest to largest. The results are the same. 

I know this sounds too good to be true. Let me tell you, that I have done of 2800 sessions using EMDR and probably close to 1000 using hypnosis(I learned hypnosis later in my career), and I can not begin to describe th joy I get when I see someone who has suffered for years finally recieve freedom from the chains of mental oppression.

Till next time friends,

Justin

1558-G Union Road
​Gastonia, NC 28054

The answer is "Maybe, Yes, and NO."  If I had a nickel for every person that told me that counseling did not help to resolve their traumatic past and memories, I would be able to retire to the beach yesterday.  I always ask the person why they decided to give me a try.  The answer is almost universal,  "You helped my brother, friend, cousin, neighbor, etc."  It is not that I am any better than the other therapists around;  it is because I do not believe that one size fits all.    

Quite frankly, talking about a traumatic past sucks.  It often times will retraumatize the person telling the story.  What good does that do?  Absolutely nothing.  That it why I answered, "no"  when addressing the title to this post.  Most therapist think talk therapy or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT) works for almost everything. This is what I call the one size fits all approach to therapy.  As we have seen, this is not the approach to use.

The "maybe" answer comes from therapists who have experience with trauma, and have had some success treating it.  This usually happens from therapists who are trained in different techniques besides CBT.   They are what I call the eclectics.    Generally, these therapists are fantastic in what they do.  They assume their approaches can handle most anything.  They use a wide net of counseling techniques to see what actually catches and works.  Help normally comes with these therapists, but it may be slow because trauma is not their passion. 

In our practice, we specialize in trauma. For myself, I live and breathe this type of work.  I get the greatest joy in seeing someone smile for the first time in years.  Little makes me happier than here someone who has a night's sleep free of nightmares.  We use non-traditional techniques such as EMDR, hynpnosis, Visual Coding Displacement Therapy, and EFT to rapidly reduce symptoms.  I have addressed these approaches in other posts.  I know, it sounds like hocus pocus, but trust us, it works. Most of the therapists in our practice know how to use these techniques and you will be referred to a therapist that does.   What we usually see is relief in one session, and full resolution in under five.   Every situation is different,  give us a call, and talk to us.  We are not about wasting your time or money.

 When life gets us down, we seem to overlook the options that are before us.   Sometimes, what we need is to look through our predicament through a different perspective. If we seek professional help, there are so many counselors and therapists that we do not know where to turn. Know that not all therapists are the same.  Do not necessarily worry about what letters are after the name, but focus on what the therapist provides and how they approach a particular issue or problem. 

At Bright Hope Counseling Center, we pride ourselves on being different because we know that what we do works.  We often times are the counseling center of last resort because by the time a person comes to us, they have already been through three, four, or even five different counselors.   What makes us different is our approach.  While most therapists and for that matter, most schools of counseling, preach traditional talk counseling such CBT(Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), we focus on techniques that work directly with the subconscious mind and use methods that wok on rewiring the actual synapses of the brain.  Our difference is that we get people better fast.  For example, we have had many people who have experienced traumatic events such as rape, violence, car accidents, etc.  Instead of talking about it for what feels likes years, we jump right to the heart of the problem, and work on reprogramming the brain.   The result is that the person usually feels better after 1-2 sessions.   We come with a guarantee, that if we can not help a person feel significantly better in month, that we need to be fired, and help the person find a more suitable referral.  

The internal struggle of depression and trauma can run incredibly deep.  The scars and wounds of emotional pain , though not seen by the naked eye, cause infinitesimally more damage than anything physical.  Society places an unfair stigma on the people that suffer because the world just does not understand.   For some, many of these wounds have been going on since childhood. For others, they may be more recent.  Either way, the person feels that they are completely alone and have no where to turn.

To those suffering, there is hope.  I say this because our office has helped thousands of people find hope, purpose, and healing.  Have we helped everybody we met?  Unfortunately, no.  In working with emotional pain, there is unfortunately, no guarantee.  Will we give our best? Absolutely.  The people we were unable to help refused  to take the journey to healing with us.  The reasons are many, but core is the same.  They are afraid. Healing is scary, and sometimes past healers caused more damage.

I have heard dozens of stories where a person gave up hope because a therapist did not know what to do, or made a blanket statement that going back church will fix them.  To those therapists, I say, "How dare you."  There is nothing wrong with referring out to another therapist who has a different level of expertise, but to flat out deny the person the opportunity to heal is wrong.  

So here is our proposal:

Give us a chance. We will compassionately listen and hear you. Since we specialize in non traditional methods of counseling, our chances of success are far greater than just talk therapy alone.  Together, we will develop a plan of attack, and develop measurable goals for success.  At times, it may be painful, yet goal will be in sight.  If you feel that we are not a good fit, talk to us, and we will find someone that will.  We are diverse group of therapists working with a common goal. Just know that there is hope.


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