REPRESENTATION-ENHANCED PSYCHOTHERAPY

Barry Bricklin, Ph.D.

Rev. 10/9/03

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN OUTLINE I GIVE TO MY CLIENTS AND PATIENTS. IT CANNOT BE USED BY ITSELF AS A GUIDE FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT. THOSE INTERESTED IN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND NEUROLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THIS WORK CAN CALL THE AUTHOR AT (610) 688-5502.

REPRESENTATION-ENHANCED PSYCHOTHERAPY or (REP) gets its name from the fact that in paying heed to the latest neurological research, it utilizes the information-carrying potential of all of our sensory systems (eyes, ears, muscles, and even tastes, smells, and so forth) rather than focusing primarily on the information-carrying potential of words (predominately, but not exclusively, derived from auditory data), as do most psychotherapies.

REP, like all psychotherapies, attempts to access an individual’s most highly developed psychological assets, for example, the mental/physiological states of patience, courage, creativity, fresh perspectives and so forth, and then subject that person’s liabilities, for example, stress, depression, procrastination and such, to a review by the psychobiological states that create the assets. The purpose is to generate many more comfortable and effective ways to deal with the negatives. Technically, all psychotherapies seek to expand the mental/physical categories with which a person perceives, acts upon and hence experiences the objects and events in his or her life. The more ways one has to experience or interpret one’s reality, the greater will be one’s range of options not only in experiencing the world, but in behaving in that world with effectiveness and feelings of comfort.

The expanded range of behavioral and experiential options moderate or dampen what in effect is the essence of all mental impairments or stuck-points, the limited choices humans have, caused both by learned and genetic/evolutionary forces, to respond with a limited range of behaviors to what is perceived as “dangerous.” And, unfortunately, humans have a tendency to overestimate danger. This is, at least in large part, the result of a “first-response” or primary evaluating system that assesses all incoming data (one is a quick system operating out of awareness; the other a slightly longer and somewhat “conscious” one) in only two basic categories: safe or dangerous. Since few things can be rapidly judged to be totally safe, we all overestimate danger. The tendency to overestimate dangerousness seems to be a result of evolutionary forces that favor such estimations. When one stops to think about it, early humans had little need for a category called “Maybe this is dangerous,” for example,“Gee, that tiger looks happy and content; I don’t think he’ll bother me.” False negatives—predictions that conclude an entity or situation is not dangerous when it really is—obviously have less survival value than false positives, the tendency to conclude something is dangerous when it really isn’t. Remember, these systems had to operate very quickly. (An early human did not have the luxury to operate as follows: “That tiger is running after me; I’ll think about what to do for an hour or two.”)

All of the above follows from the fact that first and foremost we are survival machines. Since it appears that survival of our species is seen as a higher priority than our individual comfort levels (by God and/or any other organizing principle), many of these mechanisms work in ways that cause discomfort. (Part of this probably stems from the fact that in early evolution the entities that developed these survival mechanisms did not experience them as dysphoric: they had very little brain cortex with which to “interpret” their bodily sensations. The less we can interpret our body sensations, the less we can catastrophize about them, and hence the less the subjective discomfort.)

The basic evaluating that humans (quickly) carry out in regards to things and events in their (inner and) outer environments leads to the human’s three basic, motor-expressed, dispositions: to move toward things, away from them, or against them. (Neurosis is created by conflicts among these movements.)

Of these three dispositions, the tendency to move toward things is, by far, the most pleasant. Movements “toward” are accompanied by the most positive emotions. The things that we would commonly be predisposed to move toward are water, food, sex partners, thermal comfort and much later in evolution, great works of beauty and art. (In nature, pleasing symmetries, which are the mainstay of great art [in spite of Baroque and Rococo influences] signify health, a genetic advantage.)

The tendency to move away from, exemplified by the tendency to move away from things that are perceived as dangerous, are usually accompanied by negative emotions. The tendency to move against things, to attack them, would be accompanied by such mind/body states as anger and rage. (In truth, early humans probably didn’t move against too many things, since early humans, acting alone or without a weapon, could not defeat much of anything, even a dyspeptic squirrel.) The human dilemma arises from a timing factor. Most things toward which we move in a positive direction are not bound by a severe time limitation. Early humans had no need to search for air. One could search for water over many, many days without any immediate threat to survival. Food and sexual partners could be sought at relative leisure. The same is not true about things that we must move away from. Such things, predators, for example, can kill us very quickly. Hence the human tendency to conclude danger, accompanied by negative emotions, occurs exceedingly quickly, often outside of realms of awareness.

The psychotherapeutic technique about which we will soon speak, seeks to move people quickly out of negative states. I do not see any way that even the most healthy of humans can avoid negative emotional states. There is simply too much evolution and biology prompting quickly occurring negative emotions. I think the best we can hope for is to develop ways to move out of negative states as quickly as is “humanly” possible.

One can see this illustrated in the following vignette. Two employees are working on a problem. The boss walks in and yells at the two of them: “This is no good at all! This is not a good piece of work. I am not happy with what you two are doing!” Both experience anger, hurt and embarrassment.

Now let us move our camera ahead one hour. Let us assume that one of the employees is “neurotic,” and the other relatively healthy. After the hour goes by, the relatively healthy person is immersed in working further on the problem and trying to bring it to a successful solution. Inside the neurotic’s head this is what is going on: “That son of a bitch! He had no right to talk to me like that. Who the hell does he think he is etc., etc., etc.” This inner catastrophizing may continue for hours, days, or even weeks and months for those of us who are really expert at being neurotic.

This is essentially the difference between people who are neurotic and people who at least are relatively healthy. The latter can more easily let go of or find a way out of negative states. People who become labeled “neurotic” are those who get trapped in negative states and find it difficult to move out of them.

Let us now return to the main theme of which we were speaking. This is the theme that states the goal of psychotherapy is to create more mental/physical categories with which to perceive, act upon and hence experience our world. All of this is some variation of what is called multiple-perspective-taking.

If we expressed a multiple-perspective process in visual terms we would say the goal is to gain “new perspectives” about our upsetting and/or conflicted impairments. If we cast the description in visual/auditory forms we would say the purpose is to “reframe” the negative data. Here is a much simplified example of “reframing.” Suppose someone says he’s very afraid of his boss. Somehow this man views his boss as threatening and “dangerous.” A therapist might say: “Well, angry, screaming people are usually hurt about something or scared or feel impotent, as though if they spoke politely no one would listen and they would then feel weak and powerless.” There is now a chance that the man who is afraid of his boss will switch or “reframe” his perception of his boss so that he, the once-afraid man, will no longer “see” a threatening and dangerous boss, but rather one who feels scared, hurt, weak, or impotent. So “reframing” really denotes a change in perception, which brings a change in emotional experience. The therapeutic challenge comes in with the fact that most people cannot easily “talk” or “reason” themselves into reframing negative data. REP, however, does this automatically and largely out of the realm of awareness. Most importantly, REP takes advantage of the latest neurological research that is relevant to the ability to reframe negative psychological states. If we expressed “reframing” in purely physiological terms we would say our purpose is “to create new (and ultimately more behaviorally resourceful) neural sequences within the brain.” The 5-step REP process aims to achieve these goals by using multiple sensory channels at various levels of abstraction to represent the key psychobiologic elements that promote positive transformations. Neurological research strongly suggests that the more sensory channels we use to represent our goals and assets as well as our conflicts, and the more we alternate among these channels (for example, from words to images to anatomic-muscular movements), the more we enhance our ability to stimulate neuronal growth and create new synaptic connections. These neuronal growth patterns provide the brain-tissue infrastructures that lead to new ways to interpret, act upon and experience our worlds. REP will create many more ways for you to look at, think about and feel about things in your world that previously were the sources of conflict, ineffectiveness and discomfort. Expanded categories of experience will create a new range of options. And all of this can be accomplished by using what is popularly called one’s “willpower.” This is not to say one can simply “will” oneself at any single moment into “health” (REP is an iterative process) but rather that the REP procedure uses concrete and do-able exercises that can be executed under the direction of one’s willpower.

Note that the REP goal is not necessarily to change “unpleasant” perceptions into “pleasant” ones (although this is frequently the result of REP use). The goal is to create new and diverse perceptions at various levels of abstraction. Hence the aim is really to develop a larger biopsychological “toolbox,” one that yields a greatly expanded range of perceptions and behavioral options. This allows a person to face each and every lifetime occurrence (person, event, situation) with the potential to have available, for any particular occurrence, the optimal blend of psychological resources (alertness, creativity, emotional warmth, emotional indifference, patience, courage, confidence). An expanded toolbox maximizes the attainment of comfort and efficiency.

One REP aim is to bring added resources to “state-bound” sequences of behavior. Such sequences are repetitive, nonadaptive and painful, usually the result of trauma-encoded experiences that stay “frozen” in “areas” of the “mind,” such that it is difficult to attach more comfortable and effective behaviors to them. We refer to this type of research as SOA, for “state of arousal,” research. It has to do with the challenge of attaching new and better sequences of behavior to trauma-encoded SOAs. The SOA you are in at any moment determines the number and types of skills, talents and resources that will be available for behaviorial utilization. All therapeutic techniques, in one way or another, aim to make available a greater number of ways a person can respond to situations that previously aroused negative emotions. REP aims to do this regardless of the source of the challenge, whether internal or external, that is, whether or not the challenge is created by bad chemistry, irrational self-defeating ideas, a nagging guilt-ridden conscience or a screaming boss or spouse.

The advantages gained by having a wider range of categories with which to register your experiences can be easily illustrated. If one lives in a world in which one can either succeed or fail, (and note that we react to “failure” psychobiologically in almost the same way as we react to danger), then anything that is not an outright success will be experienced as a failure. The feelings that accompany failure probably stem from the following psychobiologic evolutionary trail. Closest to the surface would be the belief that failure elicits disdain, rejection and contempt from others. Along with this, a drop in self-approval occurs. At deeper or more primary levels is the fear of being excluded from the “tribe,” a death sentence among early humans, and at the deepest “cosmic” level a fear of being kicked out—or having to drop out—of the gene pool. This “exclusion conclusion” stems from the felt-experience of a fight-flight paralysis, and represents one of the deepest fears humans can harbor, the fear of being paralyzed physically and psychologically, unable to move or function. If a person learns to see and respond to degrees of success and/or degrees of intermediate outcomes and degrees of failure there is already an enhanced capacity for more effective and comfortable behaviors. Again, the therapeutic challenge is that while people can understand this “intellectually,” it is an altogether different challenge to “wire in” an expanded range of perceptions and behavioral patterns, since it is necessary to build the required neural circuitry to accommodate or permit the expanded range of options.

Technically, the expanded neural circuitry is the expanded range of options. In another area, if all one can do is get angry or retreat (or else become “frozen” and passive, a state among the genetically programmed fight-flight limited range of choices), then most situations in modern civilized society will create anxiety and tension. These fight/flight choices are insufficient to cope with the wide range of issues that one deals with in the modern world, which is interpreted by far more brain circuitry (cortex material) than was available to our ancestors. In other words, the complexity of the modern world is not only due to what’s “out there,” but also due to the more complex neural circuitry that not only created what is “out there” but also then goes on to “interpret” what is “out there.” Whereas in prehistoric times, killing things, running from them, or becoming temporarily paralyzed, and hence staving off predators, probably provided enough choices, modern life, depending as it does on the newly developing frontal cortex, requires effective negotiation. The problem is that the frontal cortex which is able to make a lot of fine distinctions, for example, annoyed, aggravated, frustrated, embarrassed, humiliated, and so forth, is wired to an emotional-interpretive system that all-too-frequently makes only two distinctions. As noted, the first and strongest distinction is: “Is this situation safe or dangerous?” If the choice is dangerous, the fight-flight response kicks in almost instantly and the person (i.e., you) usually ends up feeling trapped (unless there is something directly in front of you to kill or run away from). If any aspect of your sensory channels, particularly if this happens to be part of the motor system—especially the facial muscles—communicates “danger,” however intentionally or unintentionally this may happen, there is an immediate shrinkage in the number of behaviors available for use. (A situation in early evolution that triggered the fight-flight reaction was definitely not a situation that called for sustained, passive, contemplative behaviors.) For example, when you are yelling at someone, the main message your deep-inner mind (defined later) receives is not just that you are angry, but more seriously for you (and your body chemistry), that you are in imminent danger. This message then evokes some variant of the fight-flight response, that is, anger, rage, psychological paralysis (often experienced as depression or anxiety), or “running away” behavior.

Most psychotherapies, in their aim to de- then re-construct or reframe or bring “insight” to their patients, do so by using and teaching their patients to use auditory data (“words”), or sometimes visual data (“mental images”). REP adds other sensory channels to this list. Most people, at a conscious therapeutic level, send consciously deliberate messages to the Deep Inner Mind, that part of us that puts information together and prioritizes it, in either words or images. These are the sensory channels people use in consciously deliberate ways, the ones people are most aware of. While all sensory channels send information to the DIM, most of us make conscious use of a limited number of them, usually words. (However, note that in our present evolutionary state, it seems that activity in any sensory system elicits activity in many others. REP seeks to optimize the representation of information by getting full potential from each channel.)

Before saying more about REP, let us take a slight pause to speak about the Deep Inner Mind (we will call it DIM), because it is to that part of the body/mind the techniques you will be using communicate with most directly.

The DIM interprets and prioritizes incoming sensory information. This informational data may arise within the body or in the external world. (It is not really a “part” of the mind, but all of the processes by which the human organism carries out this function.) Countless “bits” of information, largely outside of awareness, are somehow brought together and prioritized in terms of the action sequences judged to be most relevant and useful for the circumstances, and hence are those most likely to be executed in actual behavior. Many required sequences of action are not only processed but executed outside of awareness, for example, heartbeats, breathing patterns, maintaining body balance, and so forth, while others reach an awareness level. These are usually those that require energy-form transductions or “shifts,” and higher cognitive input. For example, when you are driving, you are taking in thousands of pieces of information. The most critical are obviously visual. But if you suddenly hear a loud sound nearby, you may need to steer your car quickly to the side of a road. In this situation, you shifted auditory data, hearing the loud sound, into a visual-kinesthetic behavior, turning your wheel and visually guiding it to the side. The higher cognitive functioning came in with your “decision” that the auditory data could not be ignored, like would have been the case if you were near an airport and the loud noise was interpreted as caused by overhead jet engines rather than a car or truck either bearing in on you or sounding its horn. (Actually, we now know that incoming sensory information is assessed for “dangerousness” by two separate pathways, one of which features very rapid assessment—this pathway does not reach awareness, the higher cortical centers—and a slower process more amenable to awareness and therapeutic input.)

It is important that you understand that the 5-step process continually feeds information into your Deep Inner Mind (the prioritizing functions) and not necessarily directly into your “awareness.” In other words, it will be a rare occasion when use of the 5-step process leads to awareness which can co-create immediate results. Your awareness will, however, gradually be involved, as the new choices made available by the 5-step become, so to speak, “wired-in” and ready for use in the real world.

Returning to our prior point, REP deliberately uses motor and other sensory data in addition to words, to send information to the Deep Inner Mind. (You are already doing this, that is, sending other sensory-system messages to your DIM in addition to words, but not in effective or self-healing ways. More likely–almost certainly–you are unknowingly sending self-hurtful or self-defeating messages.) Just as the eyes send visual information to the DIM, so too can the musculature send its own kind of information. The muscles most frequently capitalized upon in REP are the facial muscles. Almost all important interpersonal or psychological data (at some point in a loop) flow through the facial muscles. (I will explain this to you, in person.)

The ultimate aim of any psychotherapy is to change the properties of a complex psychobiological system. That is, eventually the psychotherapeutic techniques must change the ways people think of and store experiences cognitively, as well as alter how their inner chemical factories function (or malfunction), as well as a host of other body-oriented systemic functions. All of these processes operate as a more or less integrated system. (The greater the mental and/or physical impairments, the less the appropriate integration. Inappropriate integration occurs when certain data are afforded much greater priority than competent functioning in the real world requires.) REP concentrates or focuses on the alternation and use of multiple representational systems and not on direct conscious challenges to irrational belief systems. An example of an irrational belief would be: “I must be approved of by everyone or else I am worthless.” Nevertheless, REP-use will result in the reduction of irrational, deeply held, belief systems. It is these deeply held beliefs that are, so to speak, a main part of the “hard storage” of pathological behavior patterns. (Note well, however, that other systems, for example, muscular and chemical processes, can also encode and be part of “hard storage” mechanisms. They operate out of awareness in ways that override and defeat other more rationally encoded information.)

Four of the five steps in REP aim to access a healing resource, a way of “being,” such that it is possible to reframe or reconstitute deeply held, negative mind/body structures. These structures are usually not only hard to modify, but tend to be very broad-based. They are, so to speak, functioning much like defining foundations or DOS systems, such that they can control and override other sources of information. For example, if at this level your “beliefs” represent the feeling that you are basically “worthless and hold very little power,” then lectures, advice, aphorisms, superficial therapy and so forth, will do little to change you. The core foundation systems, unless modified, will eventually override attempts to help yourself with these techniques. At a neurological level, superficial interventions are not effective in creating the circuitry required to carry the information-flow needed for new behavior to emerge. Superficial therapies are akin to a plumber who tries to send water appropriately through your house without installing the pipes that are needed to transport the water. This is psychologically akin to a person’s knowing he should “relax,” but not having the neural circuitry available to accomplish the mission.

In our work together, we will speak of your SOAs. The state-of-arousal (SOA) dictates the psychological assets that you will have available at any given time. REP aims to access your negative SOAs and attach more positive sequences to them. A SOA is created by complex interactions between neurochemical reactions in the brain and incoming sensory information. Its importance to you is that the SOA you are in at any given moment can drastically limit the availability of your resources. Such resources may include the ability to think and behave clearly, comfortably and effectively. The SOA concept also explains how and why the 5-step REP can only gradually modify deeply-held negative body/mind structures, which we will call for shorthand, beliefs. What happens is this: the deeply-held core beliefs, formed usually when people are very young, become part of almost each and every SOA in which you function. SOA-formation is much like brain development. Damage to a very young brain, which has not yet become highly differentiated, will have many more dire consequences than would be the case had that damage occurred later, after the brain has evolved into a multitude of different systems. So too with a SOA. This is because when you are young, interpersonal “inputs” can affect the whole of your personality—the sum total of the very limited number of SOAs available. As we grow older, the number of SOAs increases, and results in a more highly differentiated overall structure, just as happens with the brain. As you do the 5-step repeatedly, the core negative beliefs will eventually be modified in positive directions, because these negative beliefs have become attached to, or associated with, the huge range of SOAs that spun-off or developed from the limited few that were initially traumatized. As each current SOA is subjected to the potential of the healing REP access codes, the influence of the core negative beliefs will be “diluted,” replaced by more useful resources. But note that this is why time is required for the healing process to occur. You are in one given SOA at any moment (or, at least, very few), and the healing process may require modifying a significant number of them.

Before giving the direct instructions of how to use Representation Enhanced-Psychotherapy, I am going to spell out some of the general principles behind it, since they are different than was the case when the system focused mainly on facial expressions and was called Motor-Assisted Psychotherapy. Representation-Enhanced Psychotherapy or REP capitalizes on several factors in its quest to upgrade the quality of information available to you. This upgraded information continually creates new categories with which to process, act upon and hence experience the world. (It is an interesting question as to whether one first “experiences” something and then acts toward this thing, or rather acts toward it prior to sensing the “experience.” It is likely that both sequences operate.) With REP, you will be accessing healing mind/body states in a special way that co-creates them with the use of words, images, and anatomic-skeletal sensory information and possibly other sensory data. Further, you will be alternating among these sensory channels as you proceed. So one important characteristic feature of REP is the shift between words, images, facial muscles and other sense-data.

Healing or transforming attitudes are mind/body states that will eventually create a greatly extended range of awarenesses and behaviors by continually extending the number of categories you use to register and “understand” your life experiences. In turn, these expanded categories will extend the range of behavioral options you use to act upon your world. REP constantly seeks to upgrade the quality of information available to you, whether the information arises internally, from within your body, or externally, in the outer world. Hence, regardless of where the information comes from, whether it comes from chemical processes within your body or sensory input from the external world, the result will be the same: an extended range of categories into which this information will be categorized, which in turn leads to a greater range of options available to you. Greater comfort and effectiveness will eventually result from this extended range of categories.

Neurological Advantages and Information-Carrying Potential

Before giving the basic instructions, it will be useful for you to understand that the REP steps take advantage of three factors.

One is to take advantage of the neurological research suggesting that alternating among different sensory systems promotes positive neural activity.

The second advantage is informational. One information-form advantage operates outside of awareness, the other within awareness. First, REP will provide information to your Deep Inner Mind to call up healing states of awareness. The second informational advantage is to reveal to your own conscious mind the ways in which you construct (“define”) your own assets and your own liabilities and/or problems. This will become clearer as we give examples of how REP operates. The third advantage is given later.

You will profit from the first advantage, that is, the neurological research, without any need for you to pay attention to how or why this is happening. However you will not profit from the second advantage, that is, the informational value in how you are constructing and sending information with your sensory channels, without paying attention to how you are doing this. Here you would want to be mindful of what you are saying and imaging and otherwise portraying with your sensory information.

For those of you interested in the scientific process, the first informational usage conceptually operates with what is called a bottom-up flow of information. Cellular and synaptic changes take place within the organism and the information that accrues from this may gradually become conscious in your own mind. That is, the organic changes taking place within the brain can gradually result in new information for your conscious mind that you can become aware of and utilize.

The other information flow is called top-down. Here one uses information of which one is aware to direct further sequences of action. (In actuality, the process is “circular” and interactive. Philosophers and scientists still argue about whether there really is such a thing as top-down information that flows within humans.)

The Specific Instructions for the 5-Step REP Process

There are two sets of instructions. We will call one the Primary Instructions. This 5-step REP process (using the Primary Instructions) should be used at least once a day for people who are wrestling with rather severe negative emotions. For others, the use of this process three or four times a week may be sufficient. The Abbreviated Instructions are for use when there is no time to do all of the steps required in the Primary Instructions, or when the situation one is in at the time precludes use of the Primary Instruction. When using the Abbreviated Instructions, all or any of the 5-steps can be used.

The access-codes are the same in both the Primary Instructions and the Abbreviated Instructions. One main purpose is to allow you to represent information in a way that maximizes the accessing of healing processes within yourself, and to represent your problems “to” these processes in a way that maximally stimulates positive change. The second purpose is to recognize how you have come to represent (conceptualize, define) both your assets and your liabilities so you can upgrade all of them. As you continually use REP, you will acquire information that will permit you to spot what the strengths and weaknesses are in the ways you have come to represent your world to yourself. Remember, in human psychology nothing much has any real “meaning” outside of how it is interpreted, (actually, “meaning” is the informational value that resides in the neural sequences in which our experiences have been encoded). While it is certainly true that we would all pretty much interpret a lion eating a leg off generally in the same way, (not too good), there is huge latitude in how we interpret the many ways life “treats us.” So too, with the ways we have built our assets. You may find, for example, that you have left key defining ingredients out of such tremendously positive assets as patience, courage and confidence. You may have formed your assets in very limited ways, both consciously and unconsciously. The 5-step process, in both its Primary and Abbreviated forms, enables you to consistently upgrade the manner in which you have represented your world and your assets to yourself.

I side-step the knotty issue of what it means to say that we are communicating with ourselves. The self that is being communicated to is actually part of the overall self that is doing the communicating. We can debate this interesting philosophical issue in person. However, it is quite obvious that the so called “mind” has a way of compartmentalizing various functions so it makes sense to say that one aspect of the “self” communicates with other aspects. The critical issue really concerns the functions, limitations and complexities of how these systems have been organized by evolution and, to some extent, experience. What we think of as “consciousness” and “awareness” are actually not the same thing. Each has different functions and degrees of complexity as opposed to those processes that represent the Deep Inner Mind. The ability to de-connect and re-connect sequences of behavior are different at each functional level, the processes representing the DIM apparently having much greater internal flexibility than “awareness” or “consciousness,” and with this, more ability to correct trauma-encoded learning than is possible via the other routes, if they are conceptualized as unitary functional elements.

Here is a summary of the steps. As mentioned, they are the same in both the Primary and Abbreviated Instructions.

The first step allows you both to optimize neurologic growth-potential by switching in the use of different representational systems, as well as affording a rather excellent view of the way you are representing either your goals or your problems. Procedurally and detail-wise, Step 1 is the same in both the Primary and Abbreviated Instructions. (The detailed instructions for Steps 2, 3 and 5 are different in the Primary and Abbreviated Instructions.) Examples of each of the steps will be given shortly. Basically, Step 1 aims to reveal how you have conceptualized or defined or imaged your problems and goals. As mentioned, it will also present these problems and goals to your DIM in a way that is best suited to facilitate change. From a detail-perspective, Step 1 will ask you to define in words, images, and any other sensory systems you care to use, just how you have represented a goal or a problem. A problem may be something like anxiety or depression. A goal may be to clean your office or finish writing a paper you have stalled on. Whether you are dealing with a problem or goal, it is vastly helpful to know how you have represented such a challenge to your own creative processes.

Step 2 is an access-code (an “access-code” is a way to access some desired internal state) to create in you a willingness to be open and receptive to new thoughts, images and feelings. This is the access-code:

2. “With patience and courage, I can become open to receive new information.”

The purpose of Step 3 is to make gradually available to your awareness and/or behavioral use information stored or encoded or “remembered” in body feelings. These actions tendencies are usually aborted but purposeful actions that were part of some sequence you were not able to complete in the past, due to the circumstances you found yourself in. This could have been some kind of event that caused psychological trauma. Trauma limits the mental processes available for use. For example, the memory system may operate as a single-shot “camera” during a traumatic event, so the brain fails to register in any way that can be remembered, all of the events that took place during the trauma. That is, it shifts from being a “moving picture” camera to a one-shot-at-a-time camera, resulting in crucial omissions in what is stored in available memory. The purpose of Step 3 is not just to have you complete the aborted action tendency, as some people who do motor-type therapies believe, but to develop the skill to carry out a certain purposeful action that is probably still not in your current repertory. Here is the access-code for Step 3.

3. “With patience and courage, I can become aware of feelings within my body and what they seek to accomplish.”

4. Step 4 must be demonstrated in person. It uses only anatomic-skeletal and facial information to create a child’s sense of wonder, delight, amusement, interest and surprise.

It is designed to create fresh perspectives, uncontaminated by the wishes, prohibitions and values that others have imposed upon you. There are no direct verbal statements or affirmations to be made here. In this step, which I will demonstrate in person, you should seek to create in your body and especially on your face, the attitudes called for.

The aim of step 5 is self-evident: to access a willingness to create new categories into which your experiences can be put. Here is the code for Step 5, the final step, (although when doing the REP 5-step process iteratively, you may go from Step 5 right back to Step 1. Newly created information—information of which you may lack awareness—will be fed right back into the REP iterative system).

5. “With confidence, I can create new ways to look at, think about, feel about and act upon my world.”

Certain eye-movement patterns are to be used with steps 1, 2, 3 and 5, but not 4. Their purpose is to integrate left-brain right-brain processing, and to subject memories of which you may be unaware to healing processes.

Now that the healing access-codes have been detailed, we can list the third REP advantage mentioned earlier. It follows from the fact that not only do the mind/body states of patience, courage and confidence help facilitate the emergence of information into awareness, but they then infuse the newly emerging information, as well as the mind/body states that encode the problem situation with which one is dealing, with aspects of their own character. We refer to the psychological assets yielded by patience, courage and confidence. Among other benefits, these assets allow a person to ward-off impulsive, poorly thought-out actions, create a heightened ability to deal with scary situations, and expand the ability to carry out appropriately-reasoned risks.

THE PRIMARY INSTRUCTIONS

The main strategy of REP is to present information to your DIM and your awareness by switching back and forth among various ways of representing that information, especially in regard to what I will call the key words and phrases. These tend to be words or concepts that are encoded at a fairly high level of abstraction, that is, may have no uniform definition to which everyone might subscribe, but nevertheless are crucial in the internal communications that take place within our personalities. They would be especially important in regard to how we represent and hence “live-out” our assets and liabilities. By “high” level of abstraction we mean that although all of us could probably agree on what the word “patience” means in general, or the word “courage” means, it is unlikely that deep within ourselves we define these things in exactly the same ways. REP approach allows you to better realize exactly what you, personally, mean by these terms. (What you “mean,” at a biophysiological level, will reflect what kinds of activity take place when your neural circuitry is activated by their usage.) The representations will further allow you to see that you are probably defining these key words and what they access in limited ways. Hence you can upgrade the quality of your representations of each key access-code every time you go through the REP process. You may also find ways to mitigate the harshness or all-or-none ways you are probably defining your problems. You will see, for example, that the way I define “patience,” (a key asset in most situations), may be very different from the way you define it, and you will see how my definitions have been shaped and limited, even distorted, by my own life experiences. As one notices limitations in one’s definitions of assets, or finds evidence of black/white thinking in defining and hence creating obstacles, one can continually upgrade and change the definitions and perhaps the visual ways of representing them as well as other sensory ways of representing them.

Let me now take you through the Primary Instructions for the 5-step REP process. What follows is a highly personal way I might read the instructions to myself, and the inner thinking I would do to carry out the instructions. I will not use quotation marks. When I want to speak to you, the reader of these instructions, I will put these “aside” remarks in parentheses. We begin with Step 1, representing the problem or goal.

OK, I see that the job is first to represent my problem or my goal in as many different sensory representation systems as possible. This means I will want to define the problem or goal in words, and then create both a concrete image of the problem or goal and an abstract image also. I may want to use other sensory representations as well. (So you see, then, that the first job is to represent the problem or goal in words, concrete images and abstract images. Other sensory representation systems may also be used if you can think of any that seem to do the job. I am going to assume in this demonstration that I am depressed. This will be what I will call a “problem.” I will also assume that I have a goal that I am not sure how to tackle. I will offer this illustration later, of how to use REP not just to mitigate “neuroses,” but also to create upgraded solution strategies for any task or goals.)

OK, I’m depressed. Now how would I define that in words. I guess I will first describe how it feels. I feel lonely. I feel sad. I feel a little bit disconnected from life. I don’t seem to have the energy to do very much.

Wait a minute, this is only telling how I feel. Maybe I should also say what particularly makes depression a problem for me. I may find a clue as to something I am perhaps trying to avoid. So let me now try to define what makes this a problem for me, and not just reiterate how if feels. I want to stay in bed and not even get up. This might mean I want to avoid doing the different jobs I have to do. Some of my kids are having rough times right now. I guess hanging back would take me out of any need to meet with them and try to help them. It’s not always clear how to help people that you would like to help, especially people you love and care for. Gee, this may also have to do with my patients because I feel a very strong sense of obligation toward them.

(So now what I have done is move from a mere description of what my problem feels like, to considering what may make these feelings a special problem for me. Along these same lines, one of my patients claimed that she was afraid to tackle the job of cleaning her house. The mere thought of cleaning it aroused tremendous anxiety. I asked her to define what made cleaning the house such a challenge or obstacle for her. The progression of the information she revealed to both of us was indeed illuminating. She began by saying how cluttered the house was, how full of old newspapers and magazines and even old food there was to contend with. Some of the books and magazines were from her childhood. She went on describing what the house was like. At a certain point, I said: “What makes cleaning the house such a specific problem for you?” In other words, in addition to all the feelings and images cleaning the house creates in her (anxiety and feelings of phobic avoidance), I asked her to list some things she would have to face if she in fact did clean the house. She went on to say: “Well, the truth is I can’t stand to throw anything out.” So now we saw that the problem was really not so much cleaning the house. The problem was more the need to part with things from her childhood. Many of the items in the house reflected a very troubled childhood. Throwing them out apparently required her to deal with a lot of unfinished psychological business between herself and her parents.)

Now I’ve defined what depression feels like and what makes it a problem for me. Let me now make an abstract image. I think I will picture myself looking very sad and dejected. That is a concrete image. I might see myself sitting very still, unwilling to get out of a chair. Now I need to make an abstract image. An abstract image may be just one of a plain black field, denoting “blackness.” I wonder if I can represent this in any other system? What about the kinesthetic? I can just allow my head, shoulders and chest to sag and sink in. This is denoting the body feeling I get from depression with my anatomic- muscle system.

At this point I need to do the eye movements. (I will demonstrate to you in person how to use the eye movements in this step and in the others.) OK, now I’m going to move into doing step 2. In step 2 my first job will be to expand all of the key words and concepts in both words, concrete and abstract images as well as other sensory systems if possible.

Now I’m reading the second access code. I see that it starts with the phrase, with patience. Now what do I mean by patience? This is what I mean by patience. I will do things my way. I will not allow people to push me around. I will not conform to the immediate desires and needs of other people. (You can see already how my definition of patience is a fairly belligerent one, essentially saying that I will not allow people to push me around, that I will do things my way. This limited set of definitions, which creates a limited way to experience “patience,” followed from my particular life experiences. When I first did this REP step, and could see how my definitions were flavored by a defensive and belligerent “You’re not going to push me around” attitude, I could immediately start to expand my definitions to include attitudes more reflective of relaxation and enjoyment.) Wait a minute, all of these definitions are kind of aggressive. Patience is also the ability to take things slowly and comfortably, enjoying things as you go along. (Hence, I expand my experience and ultimately, with repeated REP use, my real-life creation of “patience.”)

The next job I have is to represent patience to myself in images. Since I love the old west, I’m going to picture myself on a horse ambling along a beautiful stream knowing that it will take me two days to get to the town I’m heading for, but that’s just fine. (At this point I would make that picture.) I also want to see myself looking very relaxed.

Now I need a way to represent patience with an abstract picture. I’ll just picture a straight line, slowly lengthening. Gee, some situations may be complicated and require patience. I’ll picture those interwoven DNA strands moving slowly along, and wrapping themselves into complex patterns, but very slowly.

Can I think of any other sensory ways to represent patience? I can move my hand slowly along a line. This would be a kinesthetic and proprioceptive representation.

Well, next I have to expand on the key word courage. What is courage to me? I’ll get the job done no matter what. I’ll stick with whatever task is in front of me regardless of how I feel. Even if I’m very scared inside or intimidated I will stay-the-course and get the job done. (Following this, I would make pictures of this.) The more you use all of these methods of representing key concepts and phrases the more value you will get from the process.)

(Next, I want to work with and expand the phrase or idea of being open to information. I will define it.) I will allow things into my body. I will allow even very boring people to speak to me and I will be very open and ready to hear what they have to say. I will allow things in without reacting in my body even if they are scary or intimidating or frightening. (If this seems to represent “openness” in too “lenient” a way, you could note you would make an exception for threats that require evasive body reactions in the real world.) I will now make pictorial representations of allowing things into my body, and being patient even with boring speakers. Gosh, I cannot think of an abstract image for being open to information. Well, I can always “default” to the position of making a picture of the concrete image I used, but as though drawn by Picasso or Dali.

(Note that when you create images, you may do so from two perspectives. From one perspective, it is as though you are in the pictures, taking part in whatever is going on, as though you are either viewing a home movie in which you are included, or a still photo in which you are included. From the other perspective, your image may be of some person, event or situation as you would see it from within your own head. Either type of image will serve the REP purpose.)

We are returning now to an explanatory mode. So far, we have expanded in words and images the key concepts and phrases in Step 2. At this point you would return and read to yourself Step 2 in a more smooth fashion. “With patience and courage I will be open to receive new information.” Following the smooth reading of the sentence, you would now add the facial and anatomic skeletal information to the message. You would set your face and your facial muscles and your body to represent a person who is truly open and ready to receive new information. You hold this for at least thirty seconds and at that point you would do the eye movements which I will have demonstrated in person.

With Step 3 the key words or concepts again involve patience and courage, two problem-solving states of enormous importance, physically and psychologically, and the idea of what body feelings are trying to express or accomplish. So you would go through that step just as I have explained for Step 2, and again define each key word in words and then in concrete and abstract images. If you can represent these words or concepts in other sensory systems, please do so. We can discuss in person how you could even use touch, tastes or smells. Following this, you would add the facial expressions and the eye movements.

Step 4 remains exactly the same as it was in Motor Assisted Psychotherapy or MAP. I do not want you to use words or a deliberate use of images in this step. Do it by facial expressions only.

Step 5 would be the same detail-wise as I have already described in reference to Steps 2 and 3.

Before saying a bit more about the anatomic-skeletal/musculature systems used in Steps 2, 3, 4 and 5, we will offer some remarks on using the REP process for goals, as distinct from problems. We will also summarize the 5 steps. We begin with the latter.

Summary of the 5-Steps in REP

1. The purpose of Step 1 is to represent your problem or goal in as many different sensory systems as you can think of. Begin with words. Define (describe, detail) the problem. Following this, represent it in concrete and then abstract imagery. Following this, use any other sensory systems that you believe can represent (symbolize, portray) the situation you are trying to heal or make better.

Step 2 is as follows: “With patience and courage, I can become open to receive new information.”

Step 3 uses the following access-code: “With patience and courage, I can become aware of feelings within my body and what they seek to accomplish.”

Step 4 must be demonstrated in person. It uses only anatomic-skeletal and muscular information, particularly what the face is able to provide, to create a child’s sense of wonder, delight, amusement, interest and surprise.

Step 5 uses the following access-code: “With confidence, I can create new ways to look at, think about, feel about and act upon my world.”

Remember to use the eye movements with Steps 1, 2, 3 and 5, but not 4.

Using REP to Upgrade Goal-Attainment

Although the distinction is probably superficial, when people speak to me about problems they generally refer to situations in which they experience some form of emotional distress, such as anxiety or depression or phobic avoidance. When speaking of attaining goals, wherein they may feel only a little bit daunted or intimidated or overwhelmed, that is, they experience fewer bad feelings than with “problems,” they generally speak about goal attainment. While the “problem” aspect of anxiety and depression may be more obvious (they “hurt”) than the problems encountered in goal-attainment, the challenges are really the same in both situations: the need to create added mind/body resources to upgrade critical response opportunities. Basically, in each situation the involved person would profit from having added skills, whether they be used to deal with anxiety or depression patterns or getting a new job or cleaning a cluttered office.

REP embraces a philosophy that does not seek to get rid of things, even “depressions” or “anxieties.” These dysphoric emotions will organically disappear as a person learns more effective ranges of strategies to deal with the life situations that cause the negative emotions. The capacity to be depressed or become anxious is built into our organisms. These capacities will always be there. There may be moments where it is very appropriate to have such attitudes and/or feelings. For example, when a loved one dies it would certainly be normal to be depressed. (However, it may not be normal to have to continue being depressed for a greater length of time than is required for the mourning process and other self-healing processes to run their course.) The same is somewhat true of anxiety only here the field of psychology makes a distinction. The word “fearfulness” is used in psychology when a person is scared, and there is a realistic situation in the external world toward which it would be reasonable to experience fear. Fearful feelings tend to disappear when the situation has either been dealt with or has passed. Anxiety is a term reserved for situations when there is really no rational reason to support the duration or extent of the scared or anxious feelings. Regardless, when all is said and done, anxiety actually springs from internal conflict. That is, a person cannot find a safe alternative to address some critical issue in his or her life. (Technically, the person cannot find a response that is free from a push-pull ambivalence, resulting in no clear way for the person to choose among the three basic alternatives: movement toward, movement away from, movement against.) The solution to this is to build more resources and options, so that the person caught in the ambivalence-trap ends up with an extended range of ways to deal with the life situations that are unconsciously causing the trap and hence the anxieties. So even here, dealing with anxiety, the underlying curative structure consists of building an extended range of neural circuitry, which in essence becomes an extended range of options in real-life behavior. The extended range of options become the building blocks of the needed resources (attitudes, beliefs, range of courage, “insights,” upgraded calmness in the face of trying situations and so forth), allowing the person to choose among the available choices (toward, away from, against).

Let me now present an example of goal-attainment that involved finding a “best solution.” I had need to move an extremely large and heavy piece of furniture. Since my children have moved out of our house, I needed to find some way to do this within my own means, that is to make moving it a one-person job. In the illustration of using REP to address this goal, I will comment only on Step 1, since the use of the other steps would be a similar to using REP for any other (therapeutic) purpose. Goal-attainments are often upgraded by the use of Step 1 alone. I will again share with you my inner thoughts as I used Step 1 of the REP process.

My job is to move that heavy chair. Let me define what my goal is. My goal is to move it about two or three feet. So I guess I have to find a way to lift the chair and move it. Let me think of a way one person can do this, since it is large, heavy, and bulky. I need to define and envision how I can get a grip on it and get it up into the air. I can’t just push it, since a large shag rug is under it. Let me switch to imagery for a moment. (At this point I began making multiple images of how I could pick this chair up and move it. I also considered the use of a dolly. As I made various images, even abstract ones, the critical insight occurred. I will explain it first in words.) Wait a minute, I don’t really have to lift it. Maybe there is some way to roll it. (At that point I could visualize how it could be rolled on its circular base. Since the base was a circle, the actual point of contact between any point on the base and the rug would be less than one-half inch. Hence, tilting it and rolling it on the base allowed the chair to be moved in a rather effortless sort of way since it was being rolled and not lifted, which not only distributed its weight differently than would be the case in lifting it straight up, but also because there was such little contact between any given point on the base and the rug no friction was generated. I am, of course, mindful that most mechanically-inclined people would have seen this solution immediately, with no need to do the 5-step REP process. [Such people are in fact already doing at least some visual multiple-perspective-taking “naturally,” without conscious effort.] But I am not “mechanically-inclined” and usually need physical as well as conceptual help to change lightbulbs. REP has definitely upgraded my skills in this area.)

Here is another example of upgrading goal attainment. I found myself stalling on finishing an article that a journal was to publish. Here were my thoughts.

I am putting off writing this article. This editor has given me somewhat of a hard time. I think I am a little bit afraid about having it rejected or having more confrontations with him. Nevertheless, I want to get it done. I’ll picture myself sitting at the desk doing nothing, as a concrete representation of the problem. I can picture a stalled car as another concrete image of failing to get proper movement. As an abstract image, I can picture a moving kaleidoscope that suddenly freezes in one place. I can feel my facial muscles getting annoyed and angry in having to deal with an editor who seems not to understand our statistics. (At this point, the critical insight occurred. I realized that I, myself, did not understand the statistics as well as I thought I did. Hence, to “unstall” myself it was necessary to go back and do far more reading and consultation on the use of a rather complex and seldom-used statistic.)

In general, when dealing with the attainment of any goal, first state the mission or the purpose or the goal as many different ways as is possible. In the example I have just given, it might be to write a paper, complete a paper, share ideas and so forth. The more different ways you define a goal the more ways you are likely to think of to address the goal. Further, you will discover critical areas of the mission that are not being dealt with or understood as well as other areas. For example, many years ago I avoided working on a particular book that I was writing on underachievement. Using some procedures that would eventually be incorporated in REP, I went through a process in which I attempted to bring to awareness what the problem was. It took several days to get “unstuck,” since I had not yet come up with a time-saving, “eliminate-the-fat” procedure like REP. I eventually realized that I was not clear on what I wanted to accomplish with the book. For example, I was unclear as to whether I wanted to write it for a professional audience or a lay audience. I was unclear on what my message was to be, especially the extent and the depth in which I would cover the points that were involved (in this case, underachievement patterns). Had this problem occurred nowadays, I could use the sort of free-associative REP first step to create multiple thoughts and visions and perspectives from which to view the attainment of my goal. REP will create many strategies to use in goal-attainments, and do so rather quickly as compared to other methods that have the same aim.

Anatomic-Skeletal/Muscular Representations

Just as the eyes and ears send information to the DIM, so too do the bones and the muscles. REP capitalizes on the fact that from an evolutionary perspective the influence of information carried over these representational systems (they are functioning as sensory systems) is likely more powerful than verbal and even visual information. “Motor information” seems to have developed far earlier in evolution than did other information-carrying systems. And always keep in mind that these systems are sending information to an interpretive-evaluative-emotional system that, right off the bat, very quickly puts information into only two categories: safe or dangerous. If your facial muscles are contorted or grimacing in anger or annoyance, the message to the DIM is not just that you are annoyed or chagrined, but that you are in danger. The body will respond accordingly. Hence we must be very careful about the types of information we are unwittingly sending with these systems.

In Steps 2, 3, 4 and 5 the musculature and the skeleton are used to create certain types of information to be sent to the DIM. The blend of attitudes called for are expressed in the access-codes. For example, in Step 2, you are putting your anatomic-skeletal system and facial muscles as they would be if you were experiencing patience, courage and were open to information. From a practical standpoint, it is best to do this by imagining yourself in two different roles. One is as a movie director on a silent film set. The other is as an actor. As you read the access-codes to yourself, you are in director mode. Make sure you read the sentences slowly and carefully so that when you are behaving as an actor, the “you” who will manifest these motor blends of attitudes in your face, you understand what is being called for. (You should use as much of your body as is possible to represent the attitudes called for in the access-codes, but the facial muscles are of primary importance.)

There are basically two different practical ways to “call up” the desired attitude. First, you might want to remember an actual situation in which you experienced any of these attitudes, for example, patience, courage or openness to information. Vividly recall these actual situations in every sensory system. That is, remember what, in these situations, you were seeing, hearing, possibly smelling, as well as any kind of feeling within your body. As you make these vivid recollections, pay attention to your facial expressions. You may only pick up suggestive hints. Use them to guide the development of the required attitudes. This is what is called using a real-life access-code to enhance the attainment of the attitudes called for.

If you cannot do this, simply imagine yourself as an actor on a silent movie set, where without the benefit of a mirror, you will try to mobilize the anatomic-skeletal and muscular actions called for. Pay particular attention to your facial muscles.

There is no way to do this incorrectly. You may just simply not get the same results as if you were making a more direct hit on the attitudes called for.

The most frequent question asked of me is does it matter what you are thinking about when you are using your facial muscles and other muscles. The answer is it does not matter, but on the other hand, you should really be concentrating on attaining the right “look” for the silent film camera.

THE ABBREVIATED INSTRUCTIONS

REP procedures are designed to be used in the sequence in which they are listed. Following, is the psychological reasons for this particular sequence.

Step 1 requires defining the problem or the goal. Once you have “fed into” the DIM in the most optimal way possible that to which you are seeking a solution, it then follows logically that the next step should be one that instructs the DIM to be open to new information. Hence, the phrasing for Step 2 involves being open to new information.

Step 3 instructs the DIM to be willing to accept information that may be stored, so to speak, within the body in a way where words may not be readily available to represent what this information happens to be. Step 4, the child sense of wonder, amusement, delight, surprise and interest, is designed to enable the user of REP to return as much as is humanly possible to do so, to a preverbal mode of functioning. This would be a time in one’s life in which that person would be maximally open to fresh and new perspectives, uncontaminated by either the tendency to quickly throw information into word-bound categories or to be overly influenced by the suggestions of others. Step 5 instructs the user of REP to be willing to use new information in ways that lead to an expanded range of options for seeing, explaining, feeling and acting on the world.

Further, REP should be used iteratively in “tough” cases. In other words, here, one is going through the 5 steps and immediately returning to Step 1 and doing all five once again. This, so to speak, feeds the new but still unconscious information generated by the use of the 5 steps back through the same system.

However, any single step can be used alone. This is especially useful in real-life situations where there simply is not time to do all five of the steps. Further, there may be other people around. We often find ourselves in situations where it would look, to put it mildly, a bit wacky to sit and do these 5 steps, especially the facial expression part of the process.

Hence, any single step can be used alone. Further, any number of the steps may be combined. For example, Steps 2 and 5 are often good ones to use in stressful situations. Step 2 accesses the healing states of patience, courage and openness, and then Step 5 facilitates the confidence to use them in some immediate situation.

One can also invent one’s own 1-step processes. This may be something as simple as calmness, or patience or courage. One can do this by using the body and the facial muscles. One can also use attitudinal/emotional blends as a 1-step process. For example, when I am in court being interrogated by a very aggressive attorney, I will often use the access-codes of alertness, creativity and emotional neutrality. In other words, I do not want to be sucked into responding either to the sarcasm or the intimidation usually meted out by a cross-examining attorney. However, I do want to be alert, creative and neither angry nor warm. Hence, “emotional neutrality” is a very excellent SOA with which to deal with aggressive, or stressful situations where it will not pay for one to go into a rage, passivity or a fight-flight reaction or paralysis. In other words, you want to avoid angry sarcasm or the fearful feeling of being intimidated and wanting to retreat.

So we see that even parts of a single step can be used. In real-life situations, one would typically capitalize on the ability of the facial muscles and the vocal muscles to call up the attitudes desired. This can be done in a very covert manner where others around you will not readily be able to see exactly what you are doing. Knowing that you are not going to be criticized or judged by others should make it easier to do these things in public situations.

THE POWER OF THE PRIMARY INSTRUCTIONS

Whenever possible, use the Primary rather than the Abbreviated Instructions. Further, it is best to use REP when you are actively seeking to solve a problem or address some emotional pain. I will explain, in person, why this is so. Basically, in using REP, one is seeking to attach new and more resourceful options to states-of-arousal (SOAs) that, at the moment, yield very limited perceptions and options. The surest way to attach new options to any option-limited SOA, is to mobilize the new resources while the option-limited SOA is operating. This presents a seeming dilemma. If the best time to use REP is when an option-limited SOA is active, and this happens to occur during some real-life situation in which it would be awkward (or there is no time) to do all 5 steps, what is one to do?

Simulating an Option-Limited SOA

The answer is to simulate (access, reconstruct) the restricted SOA in your body/mind at some point in time when it is convenient to follow the Primary Instructions.

The best way to simulate a mind/body state is to vividly remember (re-live), in every sense channel available, what was going on during the situation to be simulated. Recall all of the sights, sounds, thoughts, kinesthesias, proprioceptions (as well as smells and tastes) and so forth, that accompanied the event or situation. For example, suppose you are a college student and some professor criticized you in class, and you experienced keen embarrassment. Days go by and you cannot dispel the bad feelings. Since there was no time, or you either did not know the feelings would last or doing REP would have been awkward at the critical moment, REP was not used. So you now decide to simulate the event and initiate the healing process. To simulate the event, you would vividly picture the teacher, the classroom, other students who were part of your mental imagery at the time, as well as the sound of the words, the “feeling” of the chair you sat on, the smell of the classroom plus any other sensory information you can muster. When you have done this, whether or not you are convinced you have achieved a “good” simulation, proceed to follow the REP Primary Instructions.