Emotional Release Work

The stories my clients tell me are about loss, abandonment, rejection and neglect. About physical, sexual and emotional abuse. I listen to the ways my clients avoid their sadness, anger and fear. They overeat. Do drugs. Smoke. Drink. Take anti-depressants. Shop. Play games. Gamble. Work too much. Stay busy. When they come to see me they feel lonely. Depressed. Unhappy in their relationships and work. They're looking for help. They want to be happy. They want to love and be loved. What we all want.

I tell my clients that emotions let them know the truth about their lives. They give them valuable information about how they’re being treated and what’s happening around them. That's why they have them. Although some emotions are messy, painful and difficult to feel, they can be trusted.

Like most of us, my clients had to shut their emotions down to get their parents’ love and approval. They learned to hold in their sadness, anger and fear and stuff them in their bodies so they could be “good,” first for their parents, then for their teachers, friends, employers and partners.

Because they grew up believing they had to avoid their emotions in order to be loved, they spent years distracting themselves, numbing their emotions and medicating them away. But all that does is push them even deeper inside, causing more loneliness, anxiety and depression.

I have yet to find a quick fix or a magic pill that removes repressed emotions from the body. But I know what works. Feeling is healing. Just as babies naturally express their emotions, my clients give themselves permission to feel again, in a safe environment. And by releasing their bottled-up sadness, anger and fear, past trauma leaves their body. That’s how they heal themselves and feel more joy and peace.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, the renowned psychiatrist who pioneered the Hospice movement and who wrote the book On Death and Dying, created the emotional release technique I use with my clients. Elisabeth knew that talking alone won’t heal emotions. Neither will drugs. After leaving the medical profession, she held workshops around the world and taught thousands of people how to release their backlog of emotions safely and appropriately. This is the work that transformed my life and my clients' lives the most.