Time Line Therapy® is a relatively new approach to changing attitudes and behaviours. It affects change in a very brief period time, often in one short session. The methods used in Time Line Therapy® were designed by Tad James, M.S., Ph.D. in 1985. Since then, many people have benefited from them.
The theory is based upon the fact that memory is grounded in time. Every person has a time line® that can be used to determine whether something happened in the past, is happening in the present, or may happen in the future. People do not often realise how many times the time line is rearranged by our unconscious minds.
For example, a person may experience sudden overwhelming anger that has nothing to do with the present. Upon careful examination, the person will come to understand that the anger is related to a past event. Time Line Therapy® is a means of manipulating the time line to help the person overcome these unreasonable responses.
Time Line Therapy® clinics work with the unconscious mind to call up moments in the past. These are significant moments involving an emotion or behaviour the person wants to get under control. The person is instructed to mentally go to a moment in the past when the emotion or behaviour was a problem.
The next step in Time Line Therapy® is to fully experience the emotions that were present in that moment. If it was an angry moment, the goal is to feel an enormous sense of rage just as was felt at the original moment. The person receiving treatment will usually show visible signs of enduring that feeling.
Then, the therapist will use Time Line Therapy® techniques to release their emotion in that past moment. The therapist will help the person go back in his or her mind to a point before the inappropriate emotion or behaviour happened. If the anger, or whatever has caused the trouble, is gone at a point before it happened, then all is as it should be. It means that the Time Line Therapy® is doing its job.
After the person is brought to a point where he or she can return to a point before the incident and feel calm and at ease, it will be time to deal with the future. The therapist will again guide the person to a point on their time line. This time, that point will be in the future.
The person imagines a scenario in which he or she might feel the same way inappropriately. The test is to determine if thinking about a similar situation will elicit the same response as it has in the past. The therapist will continue using the methods of Time Line Therapy® until the person can go to any point on his or her timeline and feel nothing but comfort.
Time Line Therapy® can be used for many different issues. If a performer is experiencing a bit of stage fright, Time Line Therapy® can help him or her overcome feelings of shyness, inadequacy, or fear of failure. This therapeutic method can even help the performer to achieve greater success by eliminating their limiting thinking.
Limiting thinking holds people back in a variety of careers. Simply put, it is an occurrence in which a person believes that they cannot have or do something. He or she does not dare imagine that great things are possible, and the person usually has no evidence for this negative belief.
By working with Time Line Therapy® , people can change their time lines to include positive emotional and mental messages for their futures. They can come to believe that they will succeed and have strong, healthy relationships. Once they believe these things, their positive thoughts breed real and positive results.
Timeline Therapy® can also be used in a business environment. Executives may learn to let go of inappropriate behaviours to further the company’s aims. At the same time, they may increase their effectiveness at work and earn promotions. They may also teach their workers the same tools they have learned to help them work together better.
There are other uses of Time Line Therapy® besides the strictly emotional responses like anger or anxiety. For example, these methods help people who live with chronic illness. The illnesses tend to take over their lives, but Time Line Therapy® can change their inappropriate responses. In little time at all, they can become more relaxed and appropriate about their symptoms and discomforts.
When Time Line Therapy® is used successfully, people can change their futures. They can still remember what happened in the past, and perhaps learn from it. Yet they will find that the past has no emotional hold on them anymore. The way is open for a positive future.