Neuro-Emotional Technique

Neuro-Emotional Technique (NET) is a proven blend of the latest scientific research and centuries-old Eastern healing techniques. NET acknowledges the relationship between the body’s emotional health, environmental toxicity, nutritional balance and structural integrity. It is a methodology used to normalise unresolved physical and/or behavioural patterns in the body that has enabled patients worldwide to enjoy better health and emotional and physical wellbeing.

Click here to see published research on the effectiveness of NET.

NET is defined largely as a stress-reduction technique that allows greater ease in the body by normalising physical effects that may be linked to our emotions and thinking. The technique illustrates well the interrelatedness of our bodily systems in dis-ease and demonstrates the benefits of an interrelated disciplinary approach to treatment.

Neuro-emotional technique makes use of the brain patterns and pathways of speech, general semantics, emotions, kinesiology, skin reflex points, principles of chiropractic, acupuncture, traditional psychology and more.

The NET Process: Practitioners who employ NET’s mind-body approach are trained to assist the body’s healing processes by identifying and balancing unresolved emotional influences caused by both real and imagined events.

The theoretical basis behind NET is psychodynamic as well as behavioural in nature. Freud’s concept of “repetition compulsion” is a central tenet of NET. Freud believed that when a trauma is not fully processed or relieved, an individual can develop a maladaptive symptom or adverse behaviour pattern in a fruitless attempt to resolve the original problem. NET practitioners look for any conditioned response patterns that exists.

Think of unresolved emotions stored in your body as similar to a computer “glitch” that can short circuit your desires and affect your health.

A current stressor in your life is more likely to develop into a trauma if it is similar to an event that was traumatic for you in the past. When the earlier unresolved event is revealed and released at the basic energy level, however, most current emotional reactions or traumas dissolve in response.

NET is most effectively used in the following ways:

1. As a body-focused approach to clear Neuro-Emotional Complexes (NECs). These are unresolved emotional pathways that may be affecting the body’s ability to heal itself. These emotional roadblocks can be related to re-occurring pain syndromes and a lack of physical wellbeing.
2. In an approach known as NEAT, or neuro-emotional anti-sabotage technique. This process allows an individual to identify a limiting subconscious belief, understand its source and resolve it. It works on the physiology of the psychology.

The Correction or Release Process. The correction or release process is safe, efficient, elegant and does not require a lot of talking, nor is it concerned with appropriating blame.

Biofeedback and polygraph testing are based on the fact that thoughts and emotions can cause measurable changes in the physical body. Unresolved feelings and conflicting desires can create internal stress which, in turn, create measurable changes in heart rate, blood pressure, breath rate and muscle tension.

In NET, the use of tailored and versatile muscle testing is used to assess the presence of internal stress and conflict and provide a means to facilitate a resolution. The use of tailored muscle testing is standard in this technique and makes possible the pin pointing of an individual problem. The muscle testing protocol also helps in identifying the earliest event where a feeling or problem originated.

The impact of NET. NET has been known to dramatically improve health and allow people to experience significant personal change. Many people have reported that they felt an internal shift and sense of relief after experiencing NET.

Research undertaken at Harvard, Oxford and Macquarie Universities has shown NET to be effective in treating such conditions as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), hypothyroidism and infertility of no known origin, to name a few.

Unfortunately, current Australian legislation governing registered chiropractors prevents discussion of any beneficial outcomes that my clients have received from neuro-emotional treatment during my 18 years as an NET practitioner.

For more information, however, go to www.NETmindbody.com. Another source for journal-published scientific research on the effectiveness of NET can be found at www.OneFoundation.org.

What Are Emotions?

Central to the practice of neuro-emotional technique is an understanding of the role emotions play in our lives.

Emotions are a normal response to everyday situations, such as anger, fear, grief or sadness. Emotions are normal functions of all human beings, and most often they are a healthy response to a situation and pose no neurophysiologic problem. Generally speaking, if you feel threatened by a snarling dog, it is normal to feel fear. This is a healthy reaction designed to help keep you safe. Once the threat is removed, the fear will generally resolve.

Where do our emotions reside? The connection between emotions, the nervous system and our health is now widely recognised. In fact, scientists currently estimate that chronic stress and its effects are the underlying causes of some 90% of chronic illness. (See also, An Integrated Approach.)

Once thought to reside only in the brain, emotions are now scientifically known to produce a physiological (or chemical) reaction in the body. Experiencing an emotion can create a temporary change in body chemistry, our indication that parts of the body outside of the brain can hold emotions, too.

The conditioned response or what we learned from Pavlov’s dogs. Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936) was a Russian physiologist who conducted a well-known experiment with dogs. During his research, he rang a bell to signal the dogs they were about to be fed. Soon, when the dogs heard the bell, they would begin to salivate in anticipation of being fed. Pavlov discovered, however, that after a while, the dogs would salivate when they heard the bell, even if there was no food. He also discovered that if the bell was changed to a different sounding bell or any of a variety of cues, the dogs would still salivate. This automatic reaction came to be known as “a conditioned response.”

The dogs’ anticipation of food created a chemical response that produced saliva. Similarly, emotions chemically affect our human bodies at almost every level. A simple example of this connection is the “butterflies” we sometimes feel in our stomach when we are anxious.

Most of the time, the body processes these chemical changes satisfactorily, enabling us to “let go” of any psychological or physical affects of the emotion. Sometimes, however, emotional response patterns can unconsciously become “stuck” in the body, especially if you are overwhelmed by the incident or experiencing a physical deficiency at the time. In such a case, we are unable to process that particular feeling and become stuck with an emotional response that is doomed to repeat itself. The “stuck” emotion creates a mind-body “loop”, in which an undesirable feeling, belief or situation triggers an emotion that in turn creates stress and perhaps physical ramifications, as well. This is our human conditioned response.

For example, if you often were criticised and scolded for little mistakes as a child, you would begin to do what you could to be sure you didn’t make further “mistakes” that could garner you criticism. As an adult, your past experience might make you tense and anxious about trying new things or making a decision, without recognizing the long-ago connection that could be causing your worry much of the time.

Your body responds to your emotional as well as physical reality—even imagined events can affect your emotions and have a dramatic impact on your body chemistry. A phobia, or fear, for example, is based on your body’s reacting to perceived future events.

It is for this conditioned response that NET is a particularly effective therapy. NET helps us connect the dots to the original event, thereby forming a basis for undoing our own conditioned response and moving ahead to relieve our stress and/or its related physical manifestations.