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Hi Gary:

Gary asks: "In some of the pop emotional techniques out there there is often a lack of much or even real direct exposure or confrontation. The person switches to tension release or a subtle but fleeting mood change through having their attention redirected to 'emotional' fluid pouring out of a tube or smoke going up a stack. How can someone spot these and other kinds of hidden emotional avoidance methods in these pop emotional technques?
What are some of the tipoffs that a technique is not going to lead to any real or lasting change?
What kinds of problems can some pop emotional techniques lead to?"

Gary exposure and confrontation are the key if someone desires to move out of emotional intensity that grips attention and endures. There are many excellent exposure and exposure-based techniques out there
such as:

*Emoclear.
*Exposure Therapy.
*The Counting Method.
*TIR.
*Prolonged-Exposure.
*Mindfulness emotional exercises.
*Shaliff's Sensate Focusing.
*Emotional writing.

The above techniques produce results that hold up over time because they spend time in direct contact with emotions, feelings, and physical sensations. This direct contact or exposure leads to desensitization (Sometimes called integration or habituation).

Other approaches to emotional change, which often integrate exposure methods with thought disputation
are Cognitive Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and REBT. Research shows these integrated approaches
to yield long-term change.

Some emotional techniques out there produce short-term benefits because they possess limited or no exposure. Here the focus may be on tension release, visualizing images of emotions being piped away from the site of a visualized feeling, furnaces burning up emotions, trash compactors making emotions dissapear and so forth. The person processing their emotions this way has their attention diverted to the pleasant actions of these visualizations. Their mood shifts after a few minutes of these activities, yet their emotion was never really felt for any length of time. Their unexposed emotion lives to breathe intensity and duration another day. The beliefs behind this emotion live another day to take root. These kinds of emotional visualizations, while they offer pallative temporary relief, are a subtle form of emotional avoidance. They're often used by folks who want to quickly and effortlessly dispose of their "Unwanted" emotions.

Some methods which utilize tension release may not fully contact the emotions. The focus is on releasing tension.
Often not enough time is spent fully contacting emotions and staying with them. The person receives short-term tension relief and maybe a mood boost. Yet the emotion hasn't been fully desensitized or integrated because of the lack of full contact over an extended period. The same emotional issue generally returns.

Some breathwork methods may focus on bliss making which feels great. The challenge is this endorphin high often covers over the emotion being processed. The person blissing over their emotion lacks the necessary emotional contact to fully desensitize the emotion. The emotional issue returns later with it's intensity and enduringness.

"What kinds of problems can some pop emotional techniques lead to?" Gary

The challenges that some pop emotional techniques may lead to are:

*Intense and enduring emotions that go unprocessed and are temporarily wall papered over.

*Some folks may employ this "quick and effortless" methods to avoid feeling their feelings and to "get rid" of them.

*Some of the philosophies surrounding many pop emotional techniques can enhance emotional resistance the very stuff that helps create intense and enduring emotions. Some outfits hustling these techniques put forward the ideas that emotions are "unwanted" or "garbage". This has some appeal to people pained by their emotions and who don't yet understand the effects of emotional avoidance and resistance.

*Buying into quick and effortless emotional processing can contribute to Low Frustration Tolerance of emotions.

*When pop emotional techniques don't produce the results often promised, folks are pretty let down and may distrust legititimate forms of processing in the future.


Take care, Steve

Here's a related post on emotional process hype advertising:

Bernard asks: "How does one see through deceptive and misleading hype advertising in the area of popular techniques and 'mind' cd's and gizmos that abound. It's obvious that many consumers are psychologically unsophisticated and are marks for people hustling various methods. The psychologically hungy are quite easily swayed because of their needs. The promise of quick and easy results with the latest cutting edge techniques and the promise of "do nothingism".
What are the giveaway clues that someone's hustling air castles? What are the common loaded words? Astounding far-fetched stories of discovery? Claims for clinical proof. Testimonials by stars and 'authors' who appear on everybody's dust jackets with numbing frequency. What are the other hype tricks?"

Bernard some of the hype ads I've seen in mailings and on websites are a howl. It's a bit surprising when people actually believe some of the nonsense showing up in advertsing. I can understand young persons, who haven't had much life experience, getting snookered. Older adults getting drawn in by these ads, must lack psychological savvy or are so hungry for change they have blinders on. Many of the ads appeal to folk's frustration intolerance with the promise of quick and easy change. If someone is seriously changing beliefs, behavioral patterns, and emotional responses, that hold up and are not settling for quickee and temporary feel good moments that fade when the issues climb back through the window, they have to do some work. They have to have some set times and follow through. Sometimes they may feel discomfort. Aspects may take their sweet time changing. New patterns of behavior have to be practiced and cognitive dissonance has to be passed through.

What's ashame is that hype ads help create inflated expectations. Some folks are expecting quick, easy, and effortless changes and when none are forthcoming, they give up on marginally effective methods. A few of the hyped processes actually may provide gains if you plug away at them. Some are outright bunk. What's more a problem is that once someone's been chumped, they may become skeptical of all processes and may toss in the towel on helping themselves.

There are useful and effective self-help processes out there which don't use hype promises and wild claims in their promotional material. Besides Emoclear, I have no problem endorsing TIR, Core Trans, REBT, Shaliff's Sensate Focusing, Mindfulness/Vipassana, assertiveness training, exposure techniques, Solutions-Oriented approaches, and Constructive Living, as legitimate and useful techniques for making emotional and behavioral change.

Okay what are the tell-tale signs of hype and flat out bs? Here's the signs:

*The discoverer has drammatically discovered their miraculous technique and tells an incredible "story" about how they came by it. The fellow:

-Sat at the feet of monks and holymen.
-Was on the verge of death when the secret revealed itself.
-Got the secret passed on by some noble soul on their deathbed. (Hey if old Houdini could pass deathbed secrets, why not?)
-Received a revelation while being inmate in a halfway house.
-Came as an intuitive flash while in the "Mind Lab".
-Or any of the other unbelievable stories.

Often the developer was:

-A world explorer.
-Scientist.
-Self-made millionaire (Hey and enlightened too).
-Man of goodwill.
-Enlightened at 10 years old.
-A living success story and a testament to the divine spirit.
-Member of the National Geographic Society (A trial subscription)
-Studied with Madam Curie and Jonas Saulk while in his teens (They just happened to notice Little Joe's budding genius)

Folks if the story sounds like bs, step back and sniff. It probably is.

*Common loaded words/phrases in hype ad copy. Typical ones:

-Validated and Proven effective (I haven't seen one yet that passes scientific muster. Either research is done inhouse (conflict of interest), the sample was far too small to be considered scientific, it appeared in no peer reviewed journals, or the socalled research was unrelated to the claims being made for the technique.)
-Quick, easy, and effortless. (Right).
-Cutting edge--Miraculous changes--Life changing.
-5 millionaires in 6 months. (It's also a spiritual technique)
-Money back Guarantee (Sounds good, but the fact is the majority of folks will let the stuff gather dust in closets and never return it. Most people don't return stuff. They take the hit.)
-What monks have tried to do for years...
-Drammatically improve relationships.
-The most powerful and drammatic human potential tool the Earth has ever seen.
-Nostradamous sensed the coming age of light when OUR mind tools would be in the hands of all mankind.
-Get the financial security you've always desired--easy and effortlessly. (A technique endorsed by Willie Sutton)
-Total weight loss--Wipe out insomnia--Superb and radiant health.
-Pimples be gone!
-Peace, security, love, success, & spiritual awareness beyond your wildest dreams.
-Secret technique.
-Instantly dissolves self-defeat painlessly and effortlessly. (Some of these processes must be practiced in an oxygen tent or iron lung)
-Revolutionary (In reality the same technique has been in existance for 2000 years)
-Used by leaders and top execs in Fourtune 500 companies. (They chumped an executive or two at a seminar and found out where they were employed. Maybe the guy was a mailroom clerk at Smith-Barney)
-The ultimate truth revealed. (You can buy the special report.)
-You WILL be a millionaire and become enlightened.
-The answer--What you've always been seeking--True happiness! (All the time too just like the manic who discovered the secret)
-Magical transformation. (Let's hope you don't turn into a toadstool)
-Used by top businessmen and celebrities (Like these folks are paragons of emotional health and good relationships).
-Accelerate learning, intelligence, intuition. (Now you can spot a con job)
-Stimulate neural pathways. (Maybe this means you learned from getting chumped)
-Quantum leap.
-Increased longevity. Set your timepiece back 40 years!
-Provides the benefits of meditation at previously unheard of speeds.
-Jump start your IQ.
-Unresolved emotions gassed at the deepest level.

Does the above sound like wild and unproven claims? Outrageous in appearence to the semi-sane, but to someone unsophisticated and needy this bait works even though the technique or gizmo doesn't.

** From a previous response about testimonial advertising now in our archives** Them old devil testimonials. What's the challenge with them? Let us count the ways:

*Testimonials are viewed by critically thinking and intelligent folks as forms of deceptive advertising. Businesses possess bottom lines and people who wish to make a profit. They feel a need to slant their advertising to push their products. Testimonials are ALWAYS manipulated.

*How many companies out there, with profit margins or a hunger for bucks, are going to place their complaint department letters in their advertising? You'll only see the glowing endorsements. (Some gathered when trainees endorphined up at group trainings or purchased from author and celebrity agencies. Authors and celebrities sell their endorsements just like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. You've seen the same tired names on the dust jackets of hundreds of books).

*Testimonials are deceptive by their nature. They are information control. Most intelligent people see them as meaningless fluff. They ignore testimonials because they understand their nature. They're used to try to sell you something.

*Testimonials may be repositories for hype and inflated claims. Hype and inflated claims may have short-term benefits for the business, but in the long run word gets around that what they're hustling is bs.

*A very important thing about hype and inflated claims is that if you're in the business of pushing hyped growth techniques your customers can get really high expections. If these high expectations fail to be met, folks may get very pissed off, feel guilty about not "getting it", or maybe even depressed about their failure to "get it". It also sets up magical expectations that the learning will come effortlessly with little or no work. People may quit what they're doing when they don't experience immediate gratification.

*Testimonials may be "bought". In the book industry it's well known that certain authors and experts regularly sell their testimonials. There's agencies that handle endorsements and testimonials. Many readers are hip to this when they keep seeing the same group of name authors showing up time and again on the dust jackets of so many books. There's some concern among readers that Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer may go blind from so much "reading". On a similar note in the world of sports and sneakers some highschool basketball kid just got 90 million bucks for endorsing sneaks. Think he won't wear them and smile at their name?

*Some testimonials are nothing more than pasted up faces and ad copy, the constructions of a well paid ad agency.

*There are numerous training organizations notorious for grabbing exuberantly glowing and "life changing" testimonials from their newly minted and highly endorphined trainees fresh from running long hours of techniques and being in a "loving" and "ra ra" atmosphere. These are those classics like: "My life changed forever." "The greatest six days of my life--totally AMAZING." "I too was skeptical until I saw the face of Konga and knew the greatest love of all. I chased enlightenment in all the wrong places. I tried Buddhism, dowsing, necromancy--none of it worked. Then I found SatanWorks. The answer was mine. In humble gratitude and total love, Idi Amin." You know the riff. B capital S.

Life is filled with learnings.

Take care, Steve