Hi mark I am wondering before you do swish patterns and other NLP techniques, don’t we really have to clear our fears with the Timeline Therapy Techniques™?

When we worked together 1:1 and I was able to allow joy to come in my life for the first time, it was a good start but my other issues about living life and business issues are still coming up.

When a fear comes up should I do Timeline on myself with the issue to get it clear first?  In other words what is the checklist to follow for tools to use when a fear arises that is holding me back?  I feel at this point I  should be able to use the tools I am learning in your course and what I picked up at our breakthrough session .

I really understand that we are the only ones that can cure ourselves.  Thanks so much.

-Name Witheld

Here’s my response:

An important Key to NLP Success: As long as we’re alive stuff will come up. It’s like your Unconscious Mind  “gets” that it can release stuff now and so it keeps offering up new “layers” to be addressed. I also want to remind us all that when we do make a major shift to not discount it or negate it just because there is still more work to do. There will always be more to shift. That why it’s so cool to have a wide choice of NLP tools to choose from.

I find that when I clear something with timeline it typically stays cleared if I have gotten the root cause event. Sometimes, I’ve had to go back and clear a slightly different limiting decision that seemed to have the same root cause.

I prefer to do time line therapy techniques ® to clear the limiting decision and chain of negative emotions first. Then I’ll use the swish pattern to “program” the new response I want into my neurology. If you do a Swish pattern enough times it’s cool because the old negative “knee-jerk” trigger will now bring up the desired state or picture.

It’s hard to give a “check-list” of first do a. then b. then c. I tend to follow my intuition with what to do when.

What I love about NLP, Hypnosis, Time Line and EFT is that I can do a lot of things on my own to clear stuff that comes up at the moment it gets in my face. That’s one reason I truly believe in teaching my clients how to take charge of their own change rather than see me as the “curer” or “healer”.  That said, sometimes though we just can’t get enough leverage on our selves to shift something.  At those moments it can save a lot of time and angst to get help from a trained practitioner of NLP.

In those cases, I find it a lot easier to have someone else do it with me. That’s yet another benefit of the NLP Training because you not only learn how to do the NLP techniques on your own for yourself and for other people, but you actually get to take turns with the other students in being the “client” in our 4 day bootcamp. So you can clear a lot of your own stuff in the process of learning NLP. You also make friends with other people who “get” you and who are interested in clearing their own issues and blocks. So it makes a lot of sense to come to the training and then do trades afterward with the students you meet.

If I’m in a moment of  “challenge” and I just need to shift something immediately, I  use EFT.  I tap and speak the “set up phrase” LOUDLY! It seems the more emotion I have towards clearing something the more powerful EFT tapping is. If you’d like to learn more about EFT click here:  Get a free EFT Starter package

Here’s an example:

“Even though I thought I’d cleared this @#^&*$%!@$*%$!@# problem, I deeply and completely accept myself!”
I do a couple rounds unashamedly focusing on the problem and wallowing loudly in the whiny victim mode as much as I want while tapping the EFT acupressure points. I have so much fun with this that often that’s enough to snap me out of my funk!

Then I start feeding in positive how and why questions like:
“Even though I haven’t yet found and released the root cause event of this challenge, why do I deeply and completely accept myself?”

Finally I just tap on

“Why do I deeply and completely accept myself and why does it work out better than I can possibly imagine?”
“Why do I love myself? Why do I attract all the resources and assistance I need to clear this once and for all?”
Why do I resolve this in a way that’s even better than I can possibly imagine?”
etc.
Usually EFT clears  pretty much everything from headaches to limiting beliefs.

If it doesn’t do the job for a particular issue I will next use swish patterns and other NLP submodalities techniques to get relief.

If I’m still not shifting the issue, then I will call one of my students/colleagues and get them to do Time Line Therapy with me. Sometimes I can do Time line by myself but I tend to space out and drift off unless someone is there keeping me on track.

Depending upon the issue, when I can’t get enough leverage on my “stuff” by myself, I call Joann Dunsing or Joe Schroder or Kathy McAfee or Kim Kasperian.

Remember that Tiger Woods has a coach and Michael Jordan had a coach. One of my greatest and most humbling lessons is that sometimes it saves a lot of time and money to get with someone who can get you the results you can’t always get on your own.

I have even just handed the Time Line Therapy™ script to someone who knew nothing about it and just had them read the damn thing. It worked like a charm because it kept me on task. The script doesn’t do the clearing, we do. So as you learn various techniques approach using them on your own issues or “stuff” with an attitude of wanton curiosity and playfulness.

I hope that answered the question and was helpful for those of you who are working to “Defeat The Dark Side In Your Personal And Professional Life. Master Your Mind For A Change with NLP!” )

Why does it work out better than you can possibly imagine?

-Mark Shepard, NLPT
Certified Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP, Hypnosis & Time Line Therapy™

p.s. Any questions or comments? Leave them below. Please pass this post along on Twitter, or Facebook or StumbleUpon etc.

Want to learn more? Since the new On-Line/Hands-On NLP course is designed for you to go at your own pace you can still join our current class! Defeat the Dark Side in Your Personal or Professional Life. Master Your Mind For A Change with NLP (For less than a latte)

Click here to discover: Modern Jedi NLP Trainings

• The Mind/Body Connection
• The link between language and physical manifestations of Dis-Ease and Healing
• Applications to business, healing, education, sports, peak performance

Q: How will the class process work?

Course material will be delivered on Fridays through a web-based program called Basecamp in the following multi-media formats:

• PDF’s
• Audio mp3 files
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Every Monday we will meet via tele-conference to cover that week’s lesson and answer any questions as well as to share stories and experiences of using the techniques

At the end of the course we will have a “boot-camp”

Q: What does the course Cover?

A: NLP Course Details

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A: Yes. They may be separate trainings in the future. But for this release they are included at no extra charge.

Q: When does the course begin?

Updated answer posted 09/22/09

A: The first version of the new On-Line/Hands-On format began May 8th, 2009.  You can now begin the course at anytime and have 2 years to complete it. I’m continually adding videos and other materials to the course as well as improving the format and deliverability of the info.

Register for the Modern Jedi NLP Online Mind Mastery Course

• PTSD Case Study Introduction
• PTSD Case Study Part 1

Emily Bernard writes:

“Mark and I began our first session with an interview. He asked me a series of questions about the problems—anxiety, fear, dread—I have experienced since I was stabbed in 1994.

His questions made me think.

They weren’t the usual “What happened? And then what happened?” kinds of queries. Mark’s questions put me in the center, if that makes sense.

Immediately, he was guiding me to reframe the event—and the enduring negative feelings created by my memory—so that I could see myself as having a role—not in what happened (the past is the past, of course), but in my subsequent reactions to it.

I once read somewhere that humans use only a small fraction of their enormous brain power throughout their lifetimes. It wasn’t that I felt my brain expanding as Mark and I talked, but his questions led me to a new doorway in my mind. Suddenly, the literature he sent me about the powers of the unconscious mind began to make sense. We have more control over what goes on inside of our heads than we often believe we do.

After more than an hour of this intensive interview, Mark and I broke for lunch. Again, I was impressed by his gentle spirit, his warmth and sparkle. He was as eager to get back to work as I was. So, after this short break, we began again.

The second part of our session involved reconstructing a timeline. Mark guided me back in time as I explored the roots of negative emotions and limiting decisions. We went further back than I was honestly comfortable with—at first. For me, I think the strength of this work is how much it pushed me to do and think things that I wasn’t comfortable with. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, and all those habitual ways of understanding and narrating myself and my relationship to the world.

Mark and I went into the recesses of my memory, and I found myself able to recount experiences that I had thought I had buried. I was able to speak about things that I had talked only to a few other people about.

Mark was not judgmental; his demeanor was calm and relaxed the entire time. Because I felt safe, I went further and further back. And before I knew it, I was ready to be hypnotized.”

- Emily Bernard

In part 3 I’ll share what those questions were that I asked Emily as well as key ways what I do is different from traditional therapy.

In part 4 Emily will share her experience of being hypnotized…

In the meantime if you’d like to:

Defeat the Dark Side and Master Your Mind For A Change.
Discover How You Can Learn NLP in 17 Minutes A Day For Less Than A Latte

Mark Shepard is very tall. His height is the first thing I notice about him when I open the door to let him in. The second thing is his demeanor, which is kind, gentle, and warm. He has a youthful, eager way about him. His smile says, “This is as much of an adventure for me as it is for you.”

When I called Mark, I was ready. I had arrived in New Haven in July 2008 in order to begin a fellowship at Yale. Within four weeks, I was in Yale-New Haven hospital. The doctors determined I had a bowel obstruction–my second in seven years–and scheduled me for surgery. I was lucky–my intestines somehow untangled themselves from the mass of scar tissue inside my abdomen. After a week’s stay, I was allowed to leave.

This was my second visit to Yale-New Haven. Fifteen years ago, I was stabbed in the gut by a stranger in a coffee shop. The perpetrator was sick with mental illness. He was hospitalized; everyone involved survived.

For fifteen years, I have been unable to get past certain fears associated with being in public and interacting with strangers. After one of my doctors informed me that I was just “one of those unfortunates,” people who “over heal,” or make too much scar tissue, I decided to do whatever I could to turn my fears and luck around.

Medical doctors told me there was nothing to be done; psychotherapy didn’t seem to be helping. I decided to look beyond traditional doctor’s offices for solutions.

Enter Mark Shepard.

For our first session, Mark agreed to come to my house. His generosity put me at ease, and made it that much more possible for me to take the leap into the unknown world of hypnosis. At that point, all I knew about hypnosis I had read about in books. Mark was recommended to me by a massage therapist who herself had yet to try hypnosis. “When I’m ready, Mark Shepard is the one I will go to.” That was enough for me.

Mark and I first spoke on the phone. He was friendly, prompt, and direct. I liked him immediately. He sent me some literature to help me get acquainted with hypnosis, the unconscious mind, and his methods. There were questionnaires to fill out, and homework to prepare so that Mark could come to know more intimately the kinds of struggles that had led me to hypnosis in the first place.

I liked the questionnaires and the homework. I see them as the first stage in the process of the work I am doing with Mark. They force you to articulate your problems, fears, and goals. They help you focus, and they all center around the issue of “change.” What Mark does has psychological components, but it is not psychotherapy. He gets you to identify the root of a problem, but also the role you have played in either creating the problem or contributing to its survival. The work is goal-oriented. It takes faith, work, and openness. I believe it is a process–one, for me, that has only begun.

Thanks to Emily’s willingness to share her process, you will be able to get a sense of how I do what I do to help people clear fears, phobias, anxiety, PTSD and other Mind/Body challenges. Look for Part 2 next…

“I came to realize the panic attacks were not uncontrollable once I understood how they started and grew. I was basically creating my own panic by bouncing back and forth between past guilts and fears, to future non-existent terrors. Back and forth, again and again.

“Now I anchor myself in the present. I force myself to think about what I’m saying, force myself to stop recalling past ‘nasties’ and force myself to stop imagining them as even nastier future outcomes. I stay right here, right now, in the present. It takes determination and effort, but it works.”

Read the Full Health Sciences Institute News Letter Article

In my experience the more tools you have at your disposal the greater your chances of drug free relief. If a small dose of a supplement can help I’m not against it. I am against the pattern in our culture of treating the symptom but doing nothing for the cause.

The work I do with clients one on one and in my “Crush Anxiety” calls is all about clearing the root cause and having a full arsenal of easy to use tools to master your mind for a change. Using the NLP and Time Line Therapy™ processes I teach as well as Self Hypnosis and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) it is often possible to eliminate phobias, anxiety and panic attacks in a very short period of time. Everything I do is designed to put the client in a place of power where you are in charge of your own mind. Another point I want to make is that by working with your unconscious mind instead of fighting it, you don’t have to necessarily use “force” to control your mind.

A recent example of this is the client I worked with on Friday. Emily had been physically attacked in a public place some 14 years ago and up until Friday, whenever she went anywhere she fully expected to be attacked and hurt. Here’s the voice mail message she left me a day later:

“I feel great! I walked to the bank today and had no feeling of fear about getting shot. And I owe this to you. The old pattern is just a distant memory. I’m feeling really excellent and really happy.”

Notice she did not say, that as she walked to the bank she forced herself to think positive thoughts. The changes we make sometimes require conscious awareness but almost never “force”. The beauty of NLP and hypnosis is that once the changes are made on the unconscious level things just become different.

BTW Emily and I had a great time doing her foundation breakthrough session from 10 am-4 pm. The way i work is relaxed and safe. She has agreed to write about her experiences working with me so watch for a several part article by her in the near future.

If you or someone you know needs help with panic attacks, anxiety, phobias, self sabotage, procrastination, PTSD etc. I can be contacted at: mark[at]markshepard.com or 203-495-8808.

I’m also doing two “Crush Anxiety” teleseminars this week Wednesday at Noon and Thursday Evening at 7:00 pm US Eastern Time

The cost is $97 and comes with my “Crush Anxiety” e-book and audio series. There are also a few scholarships available so please contact me by phone or e-mail if cost is an issue for you.

Register for this month’s CRUSH Anxiety Call
Wednesday, March 11 at Noon Eastern Time

or

Thursday Night, March 12 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time

For a one time fee of only $97 you get to work with me over the phone in a small group as well as get my Crush Anxiety E-book and complete audio set as my gift ($197 value). If you’ve been on one of these calls before you are welcome to come back any time or as many times as you want for free. Lines are limited so register now.

Courage!

Mark

p.s. If you or someone you love is suffering from phobia, anxiety, or panic attacks please stop waiting to contact me. In light of our economic crisis I am willing to consider payment plans, barter or any other creative way to value the help I offer and create a fair exchange that is a win/win for both of us.

E-mail: mark[at]markshepard.com

Telephone: 203-495-8808

I got a comment today on my “How To Stop Anxiety in 10 minutes” video series. The questions were so well put and a perfect example of the questions I often get on this natural anxiety treatment nlp technique that I thought it would be helpful to share with you.

1. What happens if the fear that it won’t have a positive outcome comes back to you?
   
2. Also, when you go 15 minutes into the future should you float above that event or imagine literally you being 15 minutes into the future?
   
3. Also, should you imagine the stressful event as not stressful when you float above it?

– badskroy71

Thanks for your questions!

1. What happens if the fear that it won’t have a positive outcome comes back to you? Fear that using the technique won’t have a positive outcome is exactly what you do that creates anxiety in the first place. It’s a catch 22 and a negative double bind. First do the technique on the technique itself! go out 15 minutes after the successful experience of using the technique and look back seeing it work.
2. Also, when you go 15 minutes into the future should you float above that event or imagine literally you being 15 minutes into the future?When you are out in the future up above the event you want to be 15 minutes farther out looking down and back rather then right above the event.
3. Also, should you imagine the stressful event as not stressful when you float above it? And yes, instead of imagining the stressful event as stressfull which your body experiences as real, use your powerful imagination to create a positive, desired outcome.

The whole point of this exercise is that we are creating anxiety with our “worst case scenario thoughts” but because of the position above and beyond the event on the time line this tool is 100 X more effective than positive thinking.

Your body will feel the difference.

Sometimes I have to go waaaaaay out and look waaaaaay back. Play with that and leave a comment below to let me know how it worked for you.

Thanks again for your questions and have an awesome day!

Yours,

Mark Shepard, NLPT – Master Practitioner & Trainer of NLP, Hypnosis, Timeline Therapy® & EFT

See the Anxiety Treatment Videos

Whatever the outcome of the election, there is a lot of uncertainty, worry, and anxiety swirling around us here in the United States as well as around the world.

What continually amazes me though is that we have the tools through NLP and Time Line Therapy™, Ericksonian Hypnosis and EFT to totally eradicate anxiety and the physical, and emotional cost it takes.

If you are interested in truly addressing this negative pattern in your life Pay Attention:

Between now and the end of the year I will be offering a 50% discount on phone sessions.

So if you are anywhere in the world struggling with anxiety, worry, phobias, panic attacks or any thing else that is holding you back, hurting you and costing you financially, emotionally, physically, contact me now. I can help.

Available appointments are limited so either e-mail me at modernjedi [at] gmail.com or call my office at 203-804-1208.

and one more thing…remember to Vote! )

Mark

How’s it working for you? have any quesitons? You get extra credit for leaving a comment or question below. Bonus points for e-mailing this to a friend or bookmarking it with Stumbleupon or Digg etc.

Now normally I advise my clients to stop watching or listening to the news because it bombards your unconscious mind with a constant stream of negative, anxiety provoking, panic attack inducing input.

Anxiety is created by vividly imagining (consciously or unconsciously) the worst possible scenario. Your unconscious mind does not know the difference between what is real and what is imagined so it creates all the same fight or flight chemicals in your body as if it was real. That’s the mind body connection.

Those of us who suffer from anxiety are especially vulnerable to the negative news because we have powerful and vivid imaginations. So  if you take into account the huge amount of bad news to come out of the financial markets in the last few weeks before the upcoming presidential election, it adds up to a massive voter anxiety attack.

So, even though I follow my own advice and avoid actively watching or listening to the news,  the fear is all around us: The economy is in trouble. What’s going to happen? Is it the end of the world as we know it? Will there be mass hysteria? What is the collective power of millions of anxious minds focusing on the worst possible scenario or negative outcome?

There is so much fear surrounding all of us right now that you can not help but be aware of it.

All that being said, what can you do right now to lower your own anxiety or to help the people you love who may be suffering from anxiety?

Here are a couple of links to some NLP techniques you can access for free that might be of help:

How To Stop Anxiety In 10 Minutes or Less Without Drugs or Endless Therapy

How To Change Limiting Beliefs With NLP

My suggestion for today is to visit the links above, watch the videos and actually put the NLP techniques into practice. Right away. Once you lower your anxiety you can then install a new belief or “program” that there is more than enough, that you are okay, that you can even thrive and prosper in these exciting times.

Please comment below and let me know if this was helpful for you.

- Mark Shepard, NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer