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Natural Awakenings Healthy Living Magazine

Getting to the Root of Chronic Anxiety with Emotional Complex Clearing

We could certainly argue that anxiety is simply part of the normal human experience. For instance, we have a presentation at work and there’s a lot at stake. It’s understandable to be anxious. But about those people whose anxiety never goes away or who have always been anxious, the psychiatrist may well say, “You have a chemical imbalance.”

            We may say, “Well, my mother was anxious. It must be genetic.”

            Although genetics are important, they are not destiny. These days, there is an equal or greater emphasis on the emerging science of epigenetics—the lifestyle choices and experiences that tend to shape us. If it is indeed a chemical imbalance, it's important to know where it came from. It actually may come from the unresolved past.

            Muscle testing, or Kinesiology, can be used to access the relevant past experiences that have led to the present anxiety. Muscle testing has been around for about 60 years, primarily used by chiropractors. Psychotherapists have largely shied away from it, perhaps because it involves simply touching the client.

            Muscle testing involves pushing down on the client’s outstretched arm while putting the other hand on their shoulder to steady them. The deltoid muscle will either hold strong, meaning the arm doesn’t move much at all, or go weak, meaning the arm comes down. (There are numerous examples on YouTube.)

             If the muscle test is preceded by a question, we can use this curious phenomenon to get information from that deeper part of the client—whether we call it the unconscious, the inner self, or the higher self. These answers seem to bypass conscious filters and access a deeper truth, so what is revealed is not what they think or what the practitioner thinks, but what is really so.

            With Emotional Complex Clearing, a strong response means true and a weak response means false. This is sort of like an internal lie detector, except this procedure is always used with a willing participant, not a suspect.

            We can thus use muscle testing to determine at what age(s) past trauma or problematic events occurred and then identify what the issues are. Used correctly, we can then generate a list of the past experiences that have caused or contributed to the present problem. This is the Target List.

            For example, John complained of a constant tension in his chest, overwhelming anxiety, palpitations and frequent panic attacks. His Target List included:

            From conception on, Mom and Dad fought constantly. John thought it was his fault.

            John was a difficult breech birth. The (unconscious) decision he made was, “I’m not okay. I caused my mom pain.”

            At age 3, John felt left out when his baby sister was born and she got more attention. The (unconscious) decision he made was, “I don’t matter.”

            At age 9, he and a friend engaged in mutual masturbation and oral sex. He felt ashamed and dirty as a result.

            At age 17, he was sexually inappropriate with an underage girl and arrested. He felt guilty and humiliated.

At age 19, his father died. They were very close, and John suppressed his grief.

            After using a clearing process over several sessions to resolve these issues, plus adding the support activity of letter-writing and group sharing, John said, “I don’t have the anxiety now, and the pressure around my heart is gone. I feel much better and I’m more at ease with myself. My emotions were all messed up, and I held them inside for so long. Working with you, there was no BS. I couldn’t lie. Now I feel like something came off my back.”

            For about two years, John called this therapist on a regular basis and reported no recurrence of his previous problems.

For more information, including a free Zoom introduction to Brad May, Ph.D., and an upcoming seminar in Ann Arbor, visit ecctherapy.com.