What is Timeline Therapy?
Well, put simply, Timeline Therapy is a technique that qualified practitioners can use to help clients let go of past negative emotions, limiting beliefs and even chronic pain, in order to help people live happier, more fulfilling lives.
It was created by Tad James, a leading Master Trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and works on the concept that memories are typically stored in the unconscious mind in a linear pattern (like a timeline) where we attach memories to each like links of a chain.
When we are really young (before 2 years) we will have our first experience of the core emotions including anger, fear, sadness, hurt & guilt. As we grow we continue to have other experiences of these emotions, some significant or even traumatic, while others less significant. Our minds attach each of these experiences onto our previous experiences so that over time these chains get longer and longer.
Ever had an experience where you reacted in a way that was disproportionate to the event?
That happens when we get triggered by experiences that remind us of past emotional experiences and often react as if the outcome will be the same.
You will often hear people talk about ‘carrying around baggage’ and this is exactly what we are unconsciously doing with our emotions throughout our lives. This can cause us to hold back from taking action or allowing people in to our lives through fear of failure or being hurt. Some hold on to anger, allowing it to build up until they are walking around carrying so much rage they could explode at an any moment. It has been well documented that over time this can have serious health consequences including increased risk of heart attacks. Sometimes the sadness we experience, particularly after grief, can leave people feeling stuck in the sadness and struggling to feel anything else, especially when wrapped up with a health dose of guilt that can make feeling happy seem like a betrayal.
Timeline Therapy is a process which supports releasing these emotions from the past. That doesn’t mean forgetting the experience or the memories, but just releasing the emotions that are not helpful to hold on to. It focuses the mind on the learning we gain from experiences and how that can help us in our future, without the need to hold onto that heavy emotional baggage.
And the thing that I love the most about it is that it can be done without going back and re-living the experience. I can help clients without asking them to tell me every detail of their memory. This means that it can be much quicker and less painful than some forms of talking therapies.
The process of Timeline Therapy helps people to let go of past fear so they feel released to move forward with goals and take action on what is important to them now. It enables people to let go of sadness and remember positive memories. It helps to release the weight of negative emotions and create a lighter, brighter looking future.
For me personally, Timeline Therapy helped me to let go of fear I was carrying around after a traumatic experience. Following the experience I noticed that I was having some anxious thinking and avoiding putting myself in certain situations. If I was to think about the experience I’d find myself shaking and in tears.
After Timeline Therapy I was able to feel safe and calm again. I can think of the experience now without feeling the emotions I used to associate with it. I am able to put it in perspective and acknowledge it as an experience in my life, rather than something which needs to dominate my future. That is hugely powerful!
As a Master Time Line Therapy Practitioner - which I recently completed, I have learned more techniques to help clients including helping with chronic pain, which still blows my mind a little bit!
I’ve experienced chronic pain in my neck and shoulders since I was in a car accident as a child. In fact the morning of the Master Practitioner course I was driving there wondering if the gym on site had a foam roller I could use to try and help me get through the next couple of days as I’d woken up in pain and not had time to do anything about it before I left.
One the years I’ve used many different approaches to manage the pain and try to treat the cause including physiotherapy, acupuncture, osteopathy, pain relief, massagers, daily exercises, foam rollers etc. etc. I found it hard to believe that Timeline Therapy could help relieve my pain.
In fact I had so much resistance to it that the first exercise it didn’t really work for me and I just got a bit frustrated. If it were that simple why have I been suffering unnecessarily all these years?
However, the next day of the course I felt a shift during an exercise and I have to say that since then I’ve not experienced any really pain, even after a 4 hour drive which would normally leave me really uncomfortable. I have still have some stiffness and tightness, but not pain and I have been significantly more comfortable that I was when I arrived at the course…. Still getting my head around that one to be honest! But there were also others on my course who reported similar benefits immediately after the first exercise, so I know it’s not just me! What an amazing tool to be able to help people let go of pain!
I’m so excited to share Timeline Therapy with more clients, it really is an amazing technique, especially when used with NLP as part of a breakthrough coaching plan.
If you’d like to know more about how Timeline Therapy might be able to help you please book a free discovery call here, or drop me a message with any questions you may have.