A Quick Go-To

A friend of mine is a dentist and hired an organization to help him improve the systems in his practice. His company literally exploded overnight and I got him to share a few of the principles with me. One of the concepts was called the Tone Scale. It referred to the emotional tones people will have in their lives. From apathy to elation and all in between, this company helped him work with people who were upset or anxious and quickly move them forward to a happy place. Why do you think his practice skyrocketed? Imagine working with a dentist that knew psychology, since my friend was a fellow graduate with a degree in Spiritual Psychology.

The example of the tone scale he gave me was a customer coming in for treatment with cavities and him explaining the procedure and the cost. If somebody reacted with anger, he knew where they were on the tone scale and worked to move them up it.

“I can see the cost makes you angry,” he would say. “I would get angry too if I realized that it was a typical industry-wide cost,” he would normalize their emotions. “Then I would get afraid,” he said to move them up. “I would be afraid that if I didn’t get the proper treatment, I may lose my teeth or something worse might happen to me.” Joe would go on to say, “Then I would start to get some hope that taking care of this situation was at hand, by someone who was well versed at treating this issue, and I would be happy that this nagging issue would be dealt with properly.”

So you see that my friend moved the client from anger to anxiety, to hope, and then to being happy. He stated that in the dental office he is booked out all day and only has a few minutes to step people up. Whereas, in a counseling situation, you are able to process the feelings of people properly, and lasting healing can take place. He feels that he is in an emergency room and has to do quick interventions, especially when he treats people that are dental chickens. Of course, we had a field day imagining a live chicken in his dental chair.

 

 

There is a book entitled “Core Transformations” that describes the process of working through negative emotional states quickly. There are even seminars on the subject that helps people work quickly through problems. Sometimes we don’t have the luxury of time to work through anger or anxiety and need to take quick action. I could only imagine a firefighter needing to process their feelings before responding to an emergency call. For them, this technique would be important.

In core transformation, you work with the emotional state you are in, imagine what it would be like if it faded away, and simply hold onto that new emotional state. There is a ten-step process that takes you to the ultimate core of love and joy in sometimes 10 to 15 minutes!

Imagine coming home after a trying day, feeling all stressed out and upset, then in 10 minutes ready to take on the evening filled with joy!

There is great value to step through problems quickly. However, as a therapist, I am more old school and want to track the emotional reaction back to the core of the wound and apply love to it, properly handle that issue forever, and then move on to the next. Oh yeah, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but issues will continue to pop up in our lives and it is important for us to learn and grow from them.

Along these same lines of quick healing is our process called “Self-Forgiveness.” In self-forgiveness, we excuse ourselves for any negative judgments we have toward ourselves or other people. We are not forgiving them, which needs to be emphasized, we are forgiving ourselves for the judgments we hold against others. It is these judgments that cause us upset and health issues. Self-forgiveness is the last step in our basic steps process. If we use self-forgiveness too soon, we can bypass the healing, or brush over it.

Still, I like having self-forgiveness days when I am too lazy to do the processing and want to go to the ice cream instead. It definitely feels good and I know that soon I will do the processing, but I needed something quick to get myself through a particularly difficult day.

So, these are a few quick strategies to use to get you through the problems in your life. “Core Transformation” is a good read and so is my book “Self Helping,” by Dr. Scott Alpert, which teaches the proper steps to problem resolution.  

Compassionate Care is Always Available

There are many more tools and strategies you can use in your pursuit of happiness. Here is where we come in. Contact us at Basic Steps Mental Health and let us support and educate you on this journey back to your loving heart center. Imagine living a heart-centered life, regardless of what is happening externally. We’d love to be of help.

For 25 years, Dr. Scott Alpert, the clinical director of Basic Steps Mental Health, has treated over 7,000 people with mental health and addiction problems, using a Psychological approach that mixes and matches ten of the top approaches used in the industry. We are here virtually and in-person to help you get through this COVID-19 pandemic and many other difficulties you may be experiencing.

May you have good mental health.