Notice what cues a younger, older-feeling state

Track the situations that bring forward a state whose reaction feels much older than the moment, without trying to dig into it alone.

Por qué funciona

Emmerson describes a repeated reaction that does not fit the situation — his example is a well-prepared speaker who still shakes in front of groups — as an ego state that becomes executive when a particular situational cue appears and re-experiences the feelings of an earlier experience. In a later article he calls a state overwhelmed by fear or rejection "vaded". In the therapy, a clinician uses hypnotic bridging techniques, such as Watkins's affect bridge, to follow the feeling back and resolve it. The self-applied part is only the first step: recognising the cue and the state it brings forward, so you can see a pattern instead of blaming yourself for overreacting.

Cómo hacerlo

1. When a reaction feels far bigger or younger than the situation, note afterwards what was happening just before it started.
2. Write down the feeling, where you felt it in your body, and roughly how old you felt.
3. Over a few weeks, look for the cue that repeats (a tone of voice, being watched, being criticised).
4. Stop there. Do not try to follow the feeling back to where it began on your own; that bridging is the part of ego state therapy done with a trained clinician.

Evidencia

The cue-and-state account comes from Emmerson's handbook and his journal article on the "vaded" ego state, which describes using the body sensation of such a state as a bridge, under hypnosis, to its origin. Watkins's 1971 paper is titled "The affect bridge: A hypnoanalytic technique." The clinician-led therapy this noticing feeds into has been tested: two placebo-controlled trials of a single, hypnosis-based session in clinical samples reported improvement in the treated groups; in one, only the treated group kept it at follow-up. The noticing step itself is a modest self-applied piece and has not been studied on its own. (anecdotal)

Following an old feeling back to its origin can bring up overwhelming material. If you feel flooded, lose track of where you are, or images will not settle, stop and take it to a trained therapist rather than working alone.

Fuentes

• Emmerson, G. (2007). Ego State Therapy (first published 2003). Crown House Publishing.
• Emmerson, G. (2013). The vaded ego state and the invisible bridging induction. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 61(2), 232-250.
• Watkins, J. G. (1971). The affect bridge: A hypnoanalytic technique. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 19(1), 21-27.
• Barabasz, A., Barabasz, M., Christensen, C., French, B., & Watkins, J. G. (2013). Efficacy of single-session abreactive ego state therapy for combat stress injury, PTSD, and ASD. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 61(1), 1-19.
• Christensen, C., Barabasz, A., & Barabasz, M. (2013). Efficacy of abreactive ego state therapy for PTSD: Trauma resolution, depression, and anxiety. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 61(1), 20-37.

Error común

Using the noticing as a doorway into memories and pushing on alone. The sources describe that next step as a guided, hypnotic process with therapists present, who work to strengthen the person through the strong emotion.