Mantak Chia - EMDR and the Universal Healing Tao: An Energy Psychology Approach to Overcoming Emotional Trauma

Acknowledgments

The authors and Universal Healing Tao Publications staff involved in the preparation and production of EMDR and the Universal Healing Tao extend our gratitude to the many generations of Taoist masters who have passed on their special lineage, in the form of an unbroken oral transmission, over thousands of years. We thank Taoist Master Yi Eng (One Cloud Hermit) for his openness in transmitting the formulas of Taoist Inner Alchemy.

We offer our eternal gratitude to our parents and teachers for their many gifts to us. Remembering them brings joy and satisfaction to our continued efforts in presenting the Universal Healing Tao system. For their gifts, we offer our eternal gratitude and love. As always, their contribution has been crucial in presenting the concepts and techniques of the Universal Healing Tao.

We wish to thank the thousands of unknown men and women of the Taoist healing arts who developed many of the methods and ideas presented in this book. For their continuous personal encouragement, we wish to thank our fellow Taoists, students, clients, families, and friends who have inspired the writing of this book by their eager desire to understand Taoist Emotional Recycling.

We thank the many contributors essential to this books final form: the editorial and production staff at Inner Traditions/Destiny Books for their efforts to clarify the text and produce a handsome new edition of the book, and Nancy Yeilding for her line edit of the new edition.

A special thanks goes to our Thai production team for their efforts on the first edition of this book: Hirunyathorn Punsan, Sopitnapa Promnon, Udon Jandee, and Suthisa Chaisarn.

Doug Hilton would like to thank: His wife Ana for all her love and support through the writing process; Master Mantak Chia for all of his knowledge, wisdom, guidance, and support; Dell Graff for introducing him to the field of addictions counseling; Veronica Graff for introducing him to the value of older traditions; Brent Neumann for numerous thought-provoking conversations; Donna Baird for introducing him to EMDR and for continual support; Dr. Sal Mendaglio for introducing him to the concept of polarities; Gerald Hilton for his encouragement and continual reminders of the value of polar opposites; Edward Gutierrez for his wisdom and continual encouragement; Jutta and Walter Kellenberger for their quiet and steady support; Gordon Mah for offering a patient and encouraging ear; Dr. Marshall Wilensky for teaching EMDR to him; Dr. Francine Shapiro for discovering EMDR; Dr. Robert Miller for creating the Feeling-State Addiction Protocol; all the Taoist masters who have contributed to the current knowledge; and the thousands of clients who have shared their wisdom and experience over the years. Special thanks also go to William U. Wei for his patience and diligence during the production process of the original edition.

Putting Taoist Emotional Recycling into Practice

The information presented in this book is based on the authors personal experience and knowledge of Taoist Emotional Recycling. The practices described in this book have been used successfully for thousands of years by Taoists trained by personal instruction. Readers should not undertake the practices on themselves or others without receiving personal transmission, training, and certification from a certified instructor of Taoist Emotional Recycling, since certain of these practices, if done improperly, may cause injury or result in health problems. This book is intended to supplement individual training by the Universal Healing Tao and to serve as a reference guide for these practices. Anyone who undertakes these practices on the basis of this book alone does so entirely at his or her own risk.

The meditations, practices, and techniques described herein are not intended to be used as an alternative to or substitute for professional medical treatment and care. If any readers are suffering from illnesses based on physical, mental, or emotional disorders, an appropriate professional health care practitioner or therapist should be consulted. Such problems should be corrected before you start Universal Healing Tao training.

Neither the Universal Healing Tao nor its staff and instructors can be responsible for the consequences of any practice or misuse of the information contained in this book. If the reader undertakes any exercise without strictly following the instructions, notes, and warnings, the responsibility must lie solely with the reader.

This book does not attempt to give any medical diagnosis, treatment, prescription, or remedial recommendation in relation to any human disease, ailment, suffering, or physical condition whatsoever.

Introduction

Developing an Integrated Energy Psychology

By Doug Hilton

I started training to be a psychotherapist in 1984. Throughout my training I had questions that were never answered. For example, in my first personality theory class the professor told us that most of us were coming to learn about psychology because we had a desire to fix ourselves, not just help other people. That was certainly true for me.

However, as I worked in various areas of the psychology field it did not seem like my mental health or the mental health of my colleagues was significantly improving with experience. I started to wonder if a lack of wellness was characteristic of people who chose counseling as a profession or if it was created or made worse by working in the field. If counselors became unhealthy from working in the field, I wondered how that could happen and what to do to prevent it.

Relatedly, in graduate school I remember being told that there would be times when I would end a day of counseling and feel like I was still wearing the emotions of the clients I had seen that day. The professor told us not to take on the emotions of our clients. He told us we might each need to have our own counselor to talk to so that we could keep those feelings from piling up inside of us and becoming unmanageable. That was the extent of our training on this important aspect of counseling. I had no clue how to detach myself, protect myself, or get rid of the unhealthy effects that I was absorbing from my clients.

I was confused by the emphasis on the mind and the brain in many classical approaches to counseling, when it seems to be common knowledge that our minds and bodies are connected. My clients were continually complaining about physical problems that seemed related to their emotional challenges, but I did not know how to help them. I had even more trouble understanding how issues like addictions and eating disorders were treated primarily by telling people to think differently.

I was surprised at how often clients were not able to resolve the challenges that they faced, and even more shocked at how often they were labeled as having a personality disorder and written off as being beyond help if their progress was not quick and steady. I wondered how my field had become so seemingly complacent.

Then in 2001 I trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), a revolution in the field of counseling. It took a big step toward addressing the cycles and dynamics that challenge us in a practical way. EMDR is a special counseling technique that is now used all over the world to help people put away bad feelings about things that have happened to them in the past that still bother them. It has been especially helpful for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in both soldiers returning from war and in the general population. It does not involve or require much in the way of interpretation, advice, or homework. It recognizes the mind-body connection and works with energy (whether that is officially recognized or not). It has been highly researched and refined over the years into a treatment that provides fast and permanent results for the majority of people who receive the treatment.