Here's a letter from last week's patient...
Dear Allan
Thank you for, I think, curing me of my 54 emotional problems! Here are a few short paragraphs about how your therapies helped me.
I had some unresolved problems which followed me around for years, some for over 30 years. Some were from a horribly abusive relationship. I felt that these problems blocked how I wanted to live my life. They stopped me moving forward. So I asked Allan for therapy.
First, I had to write an ESL - an "Emotional Shopping List" - a list of all my problems I'd like resolved. I was surprised there were over 30. Allan said, "That's not enough, there's probably more." And there were! Lots more. Traumatic events I'd forgotten, but that I found gave me bad feelings and emotions as soon as I remembered them.
I then had to number them, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. I was a bit shocked when I counted I'd had 54 horrid things that had happened to me, and that I still felt emotionally bad about them, even though I'd been to group therapy.
Allan seemed pleased. He said he'd had other patients recently with over 50 different problems too, and they had also received psychological therapies that hadn't worked, but that he'd sorted those people. He was confident I'll be OK after his therapies as well.
As I had so many problems, Allan thought SCREEN THERAPY might be the first of his therapies to try to help.
I was asked to think about the first problem on the list. I had to "tune in" deeply, thinking of the situation, the surroundings I was in, the people there, how we interacted, body language, and words.
As I tuned in to the first problem, the more I focussed, the stronger I felt the emotion about that situation. After a short while, Allan asked me to tell him what the emotion was, and give it a score out of 10, with ten being the worst, and 1 being nothing. As a scientist, I understand quantitative data. I felt anxiety quite bad so it was a score of 8.
I then scored the rest of the 54 problem-related emotions (sad, angry, miserable, anxious, etc) out of 10.
I did 8 problems in one session, then took a break of one hour before doing another 8. In all cases the score (and therefore the strength of the emotions) went down. Most reduced to zero. I had no negative emotion left! Some were a 2, not completely gone, but I repeated SCREEN on them an hour later, and they went too!
For two problems, the score did not reduce, and changed from sad to angry. I still felt as bad about them as always. These two 'angry emotions' related to injures I received from a violent ex-partner in my home when others were around.
The angry feelings would not go with SCREEN, so Allan tried a second therapy. That didn't help either. He then performed a third therapy, DREM, and showed me how to do it myself.
After the DREM session for the first problem, the anger left me! I felt that I could not be hurt any more. I cried tears of relief because I felt so happy.
The second anger problem about the abuse I received resolved easily with DREM too.
I now feel happy, calm, peaceful, as if the problems don't matter any more.
I went back to each of the 54 problems to check if scores are still 1 out of 10, and if any negative emotion returned. So far, everything is still at zero. I can't feel any bad emotion at all !
Allan asked me to check again in a few days. I feel safe. As he said, if something returns, I have two powerful therapies I can use myself. And if they don't help, Allan can choose another therapy from his repertoire.
I'd been sceptical - group counselling I'd previously received had not worked. But altogether, Allan's therapies cured 54 problems in a few hours spread over two days!
Now I feel uncluttered. I'm calm and confident about these issues and life seems bright.
I'm happy! Thank you Allan, for the therapies you developed.