The Inner Theater technique involves the client using EFT and visual imagery in a way which allows them to approach highly emotionally charged memories that is non-threatening to the client and is less traumatic than some more traditional approaches.
With Inner Theater, a client creates a safe place in their mind/imagination — an inner sanctuary of sorts in which they have total control. Nobody can enter that sanctuary without their permission, and nothing can happen in that space that they don’t wish to have happen.
Clients are encouraged to give their imagination free reign, and to “go with the flow”, and not try to analyze what happens as this imagery plays out. Things seem to evolve very naturally and easily when using Inner Theater, and the solutions flow just as easily. If a client can trust in the process, they will find EFT and Inner Theater to be powerful tools for change and healing.
I have found inner Theater to be an effective technique for me personally, although I don’t consider myself to be a particularly visual person. Even if you can’t actually create a picture in your mind, so long as you can imagine the picture/scene, the technique works. Continuous tapping, without specific words, is often a part of my Inner Theater sessions.
Using Inner Theater, you have all the power, and you can transform even the most frightening things in your past into something less threatening and easier to work with using traditional EFT.
For instance, if you carry a lot of fear related to incidents in your past, think about what it would take to make you feel safe. In an Inner Theater session of my own, during which I worked with a skilled EFT practitioner experienced in Inner Theater, I addressed all the fear that I had due to a history of physical abuse. Unable to confront the fear directly, I visualized myself projecting the fear outside of my body, and I magically transformed it into a gray, swirling mist. As I continuously tapped, that mist became a small tornado, and the faster it swirled, the smaller it got. Finally the fear was reduced to a lump of coal.
Another way that I have personally used EFT and Inner Theater is to deal with guilt. I was carrying a lot of guilt about my mothering abilities, and that guilt was constantly pricking at me. When I thought about how I pictured the guilt, I got a mental image of me laying on a bed of nails. Each nail represented a time that I felt I had failed my children. Every time I moved, the nails would prick me. How could I get off of that bed of nails? I tapped continuously as I pondered that, and gradually got a picture of the nails transforming into soft blades of grass, gently cushioning me. The guilt diminished, and I could feel the emotional intensity of this issue dropping as I continued to tap.
Next I pictured a conversation between my daughter and I. I expressed my guilt about the way in which I had raised her, and I apologized. Her response was “You’re a great mom, and I’m lucky to have you!” (Something she had actually said to me). I tapped on those very positive statements, and the level of my guilt dropped even more, while my confidence about what kind of mother I’d been increased.
EFT and Inner Theater can be used in a multitude of ways, with your only limits being those of your imagination. If you can think it and picture it, you can work on it, so why not give a try?
