The “Inner Committee” Meets Gestalt Therapy & EFT

I recently went to bed with an annoying little headache that lasted all through the night. It forced me to rise much earlier than I like. Hoping to squeeze in a little more sleep, I went looking for its roots.

An offer I had made to give a class had been accepted the night before. I had yet to create the course content. This “pressure” in my head wanted me to begin work immediately. I knew I needed to do some tapping or I would have this headache until I finalized the entire curriculum.

I began with: “Even though I have this pressure headache, I completely love and accept myself”, “Even though I’m putting all this pressure on myself right now to flesh-out this class…” but I wasn’t getting proper relief so I decided to dispense with the set-up phrase and try something else.

Inspired by Gestalt Therapy and an article written by Ann Ross many years ago about our Inner Committee (see below for reference), I began a different approach: no affirmation, just conversation, choosing one “voice” (point of view), letting it express itself freely, then switching to another while continuously tapping the 8-point shortcut (TOH, EB, SE, UE, UN, CH, CB and UA). To distinguish between voices, I have named them.

I present here the main ideas of that “conversation”:

The Persecutor, the one who didn’t want me to sleep, said:

You need to get to work!
We don’t have enough time.
There’s so much to do.
8-weeks of material

The Whiny Victim, answered back:

Why do you always have to push me so hard?
You know I will do the work.
I’ve proven myself with other classes I’ve given.
I can be trusted.

Suddenly, I remembered high school. I would put off writing reports until the last minute. Invariably, the Sunday before handing one in, I was in a high state of stress gathering information and writing the report until all hours of the night. The Persecutor was reminding me that I was not always as reliable as I was trying to make out.

Continuing to tap, The Persecutor responded:

You can’t be trusted.
You won’t do the work.

“Okay, cut me a break” The Whiny Victim answered back, “I was 16!”

I’ve organized many classes since then and I’ve never been unprepared.
I’ve always done the work and even enjoyed it.
There’s no reason to believe I won’t do it in time.

Sensing intuitively that The Persecutor was resisting letting it go, I looked around within myself for other voices influencing the situation.

What I found was The Fearful One. The Whiny Victim asked The Fearful One this question:
“Why can’t you let it go?”

Still tapping through the points, The Fearful One spoke (everything has an exclamation mark with the Fearful One – she’s a bit of a drama queen):

This class is serious!
You’ll be well-paid!
How embarrassing if you don’t know what you’re doing, if you’re not prepared!
Public humiliation!! (an old unresolved, recurring issue with me)
No one will ever offer to pay you to give classes again!
You’ll never be able to do this for a living if it’s not serious and professional!

… after a bit of a rant, she eventually ran out of steam.

The whole process took about 15 to 20 minutes. After that, I was able to go back to bed, headache free and sleep for a few more hours. Yay!

A week or so after this experience, the headache and the worry have not returned. Even though the course content is still nonexistent, peace reigns within me. I know that the work will be done in time and it seems that, now, “all of us” know it.

Try this on yourself and with your clients. It is fascinating to see "who" will show up to tap.

REFERENCE: Article on "The Inner Committee" on EFT Universe

Kelly Roughton
EFT International Certified EFT Practitioner
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
www.InnerShining.com

From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on January 5, 2013.