Emotional Core Therapy is Scientifically Proven to be the Most Effective Psychology Approach Available Worldwide to Treat Anxiety

Introduction

Anxiety is with nearly all humans, hourly and daily throughout their entire lives. For thousands of years, people have relied on the religious and spiritual communities for answers to combat the debilitating stress associated with anxiety. Over the last 150 years the field of psychology has also helped facilitate treatment of those afflicted with anxiety related issues. The Emotional Core Therapy process builds off the works of both the religious/spiritual fields as well as the psychology fields and arrived at an effective treatment for anxiety/fear. For the first time in history, we have a behavioral psychology approach that treats the root cause of anxiety each and every time it is used properly.

As a licensed therapist in Illinois, I have been certified to train professionals throughout the United States on Emotional Core Therapy. Why is the ECT process different than any of the hundreds of psychology approaches currently being used throughout the world? ECT treats the root cause of relationship stress each time it is used properly. What is the root cause of stress? The root cause of stress is the temporary arousal of one of the four true emotions. The four true emotions are joy, grief, fear and relief. These four emotions evolve from entering and leaving relationships. Fear is another word for anxiety. When you go towards something you dislike you experience the emotion of fear. Grief is another word for depression. When you leave something, you like you experience grief. As one can readily see, most humans experience these four emotions on at least a minor scale each and every day. Relief can easily be experienced when one is bloated and has to go to the bathroom. Joy is just another word for happiness, which is a goal of all humans.

This Journal is an excellent tool for disseminating the truth about behavioral psychology and the eight step ECT process. Since all humans experience these four emotions from the time, they are born till the time they die, it is critical to educate them through journals and schools that train therapists and healers. Why is this so? The four emotions serve as a navigation tool throughout life. Humans desire joy and relief and dislike fear and grief. More importantly, fear and grief can cause danger and harm to the central nervous system. Acute anxiety is a very common form of mental illness. Many humans suffer these toxic emotions for weeks, months, and sometimes years, without getting appropriate medical and mental health treatment. ECT works well with the medical model. ECT has been featured in several psychiatric and medical journals [1].

In this article I will highlight a case of anxiety I have treated. By doing so, the reader of this journal can have another way of learning the eight step ECT process. Once you have learned and applied the model to your own situational stress you have an invaluable tool to protect you from toxic and unwanted stress.

A key feature of ECT process is the aspect of learned behavior and the capacity to unlearn negative behaviors. In the case example I present below I will discuss the case of acute anxiety. Stress can come in countless ways. For a list of some of the top 43 stresses in one’s life, I will introduce the Holmes and Rahe Scale. This scale allows one to self-report the situational stress in one’s life. Remember, with ECT, we can process any situational stress that is temporary in nature through the eight-step flowchart. So please review the Holmes and Rahe Scale below [2] (Table 1).

Table 1: The Holmes - Rahe stress Inventory
The Social Readjustment Rating Scale.
Instructions: Mark down the point value of each of these life events that has happened to you during the previous year. Total these associated points.

By learning about various stress and how to properly treat stress, readers of this Journal will begin to become familiar and comfortable with their surroundings. For a more complete understanding of the ECT process it will be very helpful to read the entire Emotional Core Therapy Manuscript attached [3].

In addition, the one-hour, Emotional Core Therapy Training video is attached below. This tool will help visual learns comprehend the eight step ECT process [4]. Lastly, eight journal articles featuring the Emotional Core Therapy process are published [5]. In this journal article the author will outline a case of a patient named Tony (not his real name to protect confidentiality rights). Tony was briefly in the military and suffered from acute anxiety when I saw him over a period of several months. Tony had classic symptoms of acute anxiety. These include having an increased heart rate. Nightmares. Breathing rapidly. Tension in the neck and shoulders. Hands sweating and muscles trembling.

Tony suffered debilitating stress from being traumatized during military training. Tony suffered verbal abuse at the hands of a staff sergeant as well as other military personnel. Tony was subjected to deprivation of food and sleep for long hours. All these external stresses on Tony’s mind and body were experienced by Tony for over a period of several months. For this reason, Tony experienced debilitating bodily stress.

Part of the ECT process is the concept of self-reporting situational stress. Tony, like all my clients, would report his level of stress to me while in therapy. We would have a rating scale of 1-10 where 10 is feeling the worst possible. Tony reported acute anxiety and rated his stress between a 7 and 8 out of 10. Tony didn’t want to take prescription medications, so he did not see a medical doctor. Each person is different regarding which treating strategy and support system they want to embrace in an effort to heal themselves. Medical management, like behavioral psychology, is a trial and error process. In other words, you will not know if the medicine or psychology technique works till you try it. That is why clients like Tony often can exbibit stress during therapy. It takes time and will to learn an effective modality for anyone, including Tony.

Over the years I have found that reading and watching videos is a non-intrusive way to have patients learn about ECT. One can view and read about 20 or so cases of clients embracing and learning the ECT process. Invariably, as with all behavioral psychology and medical management, regression and relapse can occur from time to time. Please review my published article called, “Learn to effectively minimize regression and relapse with Emotional Core Therapy” [6]. We are now ready to examine one of Tony’ s many stresses through the eight step ECT Flowchart which is also attached below. Let us review how the eight-step process is used for one of the many stressful encounters that Tony faced while in treatment. Essentially what we do in therapy is utilize the ECT process for any stress that Tony faces. For this reason, I use acronyms to help Tony learn ECT. The acronyms are lists at the bottom of this article.

The Eight Step Ect Flowchart

• Relationships

Self, Other People, Places, Things

• Needs

Emotional, Financial, Spiritual, Physical

• Five Senses

Seeing, Touching, Smelling, Tasting, Hearing

• Four Authentic Feelings

Joy, Grief, Fear, Relief

• Effects

Brain/Central Nervous System

• Uncomfortable Symptoms

Muscle Tightness, Fatigue, Etc.

• Releasing Process

Learn to Discharge Toxic Feelings

• Balancing your Equilibrium

Practice Various Daily Meditative Techniques

Step one of the ECT flowchart is to examine each relationship one enters into. This includes relationships with people places and things. In this instance, Tony is suffering anxiety/fear due to many traumatic events. With the ECT flowchart we isolate each one and process these events one at a time. Tony had been yelled at by his training sergeant in a loud and angry voice. Step one deals with the autonomy of each individual patient. When each patient realizes that they have the power to enter and leave each relationship they enter into, this can help them gain more autonomy over their treatment goals.

The second step of the ECT process it to examine the needs that cause one stress. In this case, Tony had an obligation and duty to listen and obey the staff sergeant. The staff sergeant would stand in close proximity to Tony and yell and scream at him. These verbal assaults were a common daily occurrence. The basic needs causing Tony stress were emotional (having to listen to the staff sergeant) and physical (having to stand in close proximity to him). As one can see, Tony felt trapped by this harassment. According to the ECT model, needs are broken down into four categories, Emotional, financial, spiritual, and physical. Part of the healing process was to let Tony be aware of the temporary nature of stress. The ECT model is well equipped to handle environmental stressors that cause the body and mind stress as step two requires that one examines the needs causing him stress.

The third step of the ECT process is to examine which senses are affected by the external needs one faces in the environment. The five senses are seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, and hearing. This third step happens quite automatically for nearly all humans. For Tony, he was used to seeing his staff sergeant daily, so his sense of sight was used. He heard his sergeant yelling at him so hi sense of hearing was used also. Generally speaking, our five senses happen quite automatically. So as therapists, we don’t have to spend a great deal of time teaching much more about this step than the basic facts that this step happens pretty much automatically while we are dealing with stress.

The fourth step of Emotional Core Therapy is to examine which emotion was evoked by entering into a new relationship they have chosen. This is likely the most important step for most patients. Why? Emotions are what cause the human body stress. There exist only four true and authentic emotions. These emotions are joy, grief, fear, and relief. These four emotions evolve from entering and leaving relationships. When you go towards a relationship you like, you experience joy. When you leave that relationship, you experience grief. When you go towards a relationship you dislike, you experience fear. When you leave that relationship, you experience relief. These four emotions are all temporary, unless one has experienced permanent physical or psychological damage. It is very helpful for patients to comprehend the temporary nature of stress as they have renewed hope that their psychic stress will dissipate or disappear altogether. Most humans have the ability to remember the grief and fear related events in their lives. The key is to honor them. Embrace them and learn from them. No matter how toxic they feel on our mind and body. Only when we fully acknowledge grief and fear can we learn from them.

Tony sought treatment as he was experiencing some physical and mental pain because of the fear/anxiety caused by his staff sergeant. He had felt acute stress for a period of time lasting more than several weeks. Each person is different and unique in how they perceives stress. Tony desired relief from his uncomfortable state of being. For each stressful encounter one faces, the ECT process can and needs to be used. Autonomy is the goal. So hopefully after repeated uses, patients like Tony can use the ECT model routinely after therapy concludes. Oftentimes, my clients carry their books with them. They can then turn to the chapter in the book covering stress and release the new stress they encounter. These debilitating emotions serve as a navigation tool for Tony. Since he recognized he didn’t like these emotions of fear he was more likely to change his behavior and seek help. It was most helpful for Tony to realize he only had to learn about four emotions. These emotions are with Tony his entire life. Therefore, he began to recognize that is was important to take charge of this tragic life event. It is important to remember that Tony is making hundreds of relationship choices each day. Some of these choices are big, such as leaving the military, while some are small. According to the ECT model, each relationship is deemed as a separate incident.

The fifth step of the ECT process is to have the emotions register with the brain and central nervous system. This is an automatic step for Tony and nearly all humans. It helps people to understand the cause and effect relationship with stress. The brain notifies certain body parts of stress on the nervous system. Again, the emphasis on toxic emotions needs to be made. The sooner in life one learns that having excess fear and grief in your body and mind is harmful, the better.

The sixth step of the ECT process is to experience the bodily stress. Each person likely experiences bodily stress differently. Some may have pain in their chest, while others suffer headaches. Tony suffered bodily stress in his neck and back area. These physical ailments serve as vital information that can ultimately be used to help Tony. With ECT, we do a complete history on the stress facing Tony, including the stress at boot camp. Toxic grief like the acute fear faced by Tony can cause harm to the organs. Sometimes the pressure can be very intense. That is why it is important to consider and utilize the medical model if the pain becomes immense and the pressure uncontrollable. Each patient is in charge of their treatment and all types of remedies need to be examined for efficacy. Medicine, just like psychotherapy is a trial and error process. No one can say for sure that this psychotherapy technique will work 100% of the time. The same is true for medicine. No one can say a certain medication will alleviate psychic grief or fear. It is important to note, medications cannot be prescribed for emotions specifically. There doesn’t exist a medication to stop grief or to stop fear. The medications can only alter the central nervous system which in turn alter one’s perceptions of how your body feels. Human behavior is often learned over months and years. Therefore, short term, quick fixes don’t work. How long will it take for Tony to stop experiencing fear? Often times this can take weeks or months. Tony ended therapy with my office while still experiencing minor anxiety. But the therapy was successful as he lessoned his stress level and learned the basics of the eight step ECT process. Every patient varies in their recovery outcomes. That is why it is essential to treat therapy as a supportive process to recovery.

Acceptance of clients is paramount to treatment and recovery. Sometimes patients like Tony can regress. Therapy is not a linear process. The more we can have patients like Tony learn to rate themselves with their emotions, the more likely treatment will improve and move in a positive direction. Why? The patient is learning to feel empowered by having some control over their treatment. One can begin to see how easy it is to transfer the ECT process to other stress that Tony may face during treatment. What if Tony decided to take medication for his feelings of acute anxiety/ fear? Step by step, we examine and rate Tony on his perception of how he feels. Medications entail learning about the chemical makeup of these products. Step two discusses how to process these medications. Also, some of the other journal articles on ECT go into more detail on medication management. By transitioning the ECT process to all of the factors causing Tony stress some positive outcomes may occur. Tony will likely become more confident in the ECT process to treat his situational stress. Tony will realize the temporary state of stress. Learning to resolve emotional duress can often help patients to feel empowered by their treatment and more in control of their lives. Bodily stress for grief and fear can take many forms. It is important to take notice of the emotional component as that is where some of the most insightful learning can take place. People are often more motivated to change when things make them sad, versus happy. That is why crisis’s can indeed be learning opportunities.

Step seven is the releasing process. Learning to cathartically release the emotions that cause one stress. Any psychology technique that has demonstrated effectiveness at releasing stress can be utilized. Verbalization of emotional duress is the most common. Otherwise known as talking therapy is the most common way to release emotions. An empathy-based approach, like Emotional Core Therapy focuses on having a receptive milieu to cathartically release emotions like grief and fear. Some other common ways to release emotions are Role Playing, Gestalt Therapy, Music Therapy, Art Therapy, Prayer, etc. Both the attached manuscript and video offer ways to release emotions. The focus of ECT is to externalize stress. In Tony’s’ case, we used journal writing as a way for Tony to authenticate his fear. Having a written memory of his stress can help Tony with asserting that he was treated harmfully. Once Tony realized the harmful impact that fear was having on his body, he became more motivated in therapy. By giving a voice to this psychic pain, and taking ownership of this fear, Tony was able to begin to take steps to ameliorate his condition. Catharsis is integral to the ECT approach. Therefore, it is important to examine ways which clients like Tony feel comfortable using every day. Expressive therapies do quite well for helping one release stress such as acute anxiety. See wiki.com below.

The last and final step of ECT is to regain one’s equilibrium. Every stressful event in one’s life can be viewed as a “cause and effect” situation. That means there exists a beginning and end. For all intents and purposes, there really only needs to be seven steps for the ECT process to be successful. Why? Once a patient releases stress, the activity is over, and they begin to take on new stress. ECT builds off the work of other successful psychology and religious approaches where a “reset button” occurs. The rest button is the state of returning to a balanced equilibrium. Since nearly all psychic pain dissipates over time, it becomes very helpful to learn how to reset one’s emotions. During the last 10-20 years lots of research has focused on ways to reset and relax. Prayer and mindfulness are two of the more well researched topics. For a more exhaustive explanation of the role of mindfulness and prayer.

In the case of Tony, he focused on doing Qigong exercises to calm his body down. Qigong is a Chinese system of physical exercises to breathing methods to calm the central nervous system down. As we finish our case study of Tony, it is helpful again to remind the reader that ECT effectively identifies and treats situational stress. Nearly all situational stress a human being like Tony will encounter can be identified and processed effectively through the ECT flowchart. Why can no other behavioral psychology or religious approach boast this claim? Aspect of the eight steps happen in any stressful event one encounters. This occurrence happens whether you like it or not. Therefore, a full understanding of ECT allows one exceptional confidence that they can overcome some of the traumatic and debilitating events in one’s life.

The Emotional Core Therapy process works just like entering data in a computer. Just input your situational stress into the ECT process and the product can be a peaceful state of being. It is that exacting, if used properly and correctly. The easiest way to test the process is to reflect on past stressful events. In regard to the topic of anxiety/fear, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of external stressors effecting patients like Tony. My point is that there exist many stressors. With the internet and sources of information such as “wiki.com” and “Ask me.com” many answers to health questions can be found.

Materials and Methods

Since each person are unique in how they identify and treat relationship stress, the main tools you need to prove effectiveness are your own personal stressful events, my Emotional Core Therapy manuscript and training videos. You will also need the rules of scientific evidence and Emotional Core Therapy link. Access to all these materials can be found in the links below. It may take between 5-20 hours or more to completely master the ECT process. Therefore, time, patience, and a good support system can aid in learning the eight step Emotional Core Therapy process. Remember, the ECT process can be transitioned to use for any relationship stress.

Results

Although many people have utilized parts or all of the ECT process successfully to identify and treat stress, these results only provide circumstantial proof of effectiveness. For direct scientific proof, one needs to utilize the eight-step process oneself. See guidelines on scientific evidence below along with the journal review on how to proceed. Scientific evidence can be done with the naked eye. In the case of psychology approaches, this is the most optimum way of demonstrating effectiveness. Since each individual perceives addiction stress differently, results will vary from person to person.

Conclusion

In conclusion, anyone at any time can review the eight step Emotional Core Therapy flowchart. All one needs for a conclusive understanding of how ECT works is to fully comprehend the model. You also need to learn the rules of scientific evidence which are attached below. A review of the scientific method (source scientific psychic.com) and how to test the scientific method and Emotional Core Therapy please review the Emotional Core Therapy model [7]. This journal article featuring Emotional Core Therapy highlights case studies which allow one to test, learn and utilize the eight step ECT Flowchart. Also, please review the one-hour training video at the bottom of this article for an explanation on how the Emotional Core Therapy model works and can be proven with direct evidence. Again, the reader of this journal can test, learn and utilize the eight step ECT flowchart which is necessary to prove the ECT process works every time it is used properly. Both the video and manuscript offer the reader of this journal article 20-30 examples of how the ECT behavioral psychology process works. Here is the conclusion.

Observation made both visually and with scientific equipment

Stress occurs on the mind and body. There exists a cause and effect relationship with stress. Often times this stress can be uncomfortable for humans.

Formulation of a hypothesis to explain the hypothesis in the form of a causal mechanism/method/approach

Many psychology methods (Rational Emotive Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, etc.), Religious and spiritual approaches (Buddhism, Christianity, 12 steps, etc.), educational programs (Smart Recovery) have attempted to fully and completely explain via a model, and how this cause and effect relationship with stress occurs. Up until this point in time, we have not had a model in the world that can successfully depict how this stress occurs each and every time. To their credit, many of these methods partially work and have contributed greatly to humanity. The evidence that these aforementioned programs work to treat stress is circumstantial. With the invention/discovery of Emotional Core Therapy (ECT) we now have a Psychology method that accurately can depict this causal relationship between stress and humans through Bob Moylan’s Eight Step Emotional Core Therapy Flowchart. ECT does share and borrow many psychological techniques from the aforementioned approaches.

Test the hypothesis

The Eight Step flowchart has been tested thousands of times by Mr. Moylan and others and works accurately and completely to depict the situational stress affecting humans. The ECT process has never been disproven and is currently the only model in the world capable of depicting how the natural state of stress occurs at this time.

Establish a theory based on repeated verification of the result

Billions of people suffer relationship stress can be helped by Emotional Core Therapy. Every effort needs to be made to ensure people suffering from stress have access to this model. Every effort needs to be made to educate the human population on the ECT process as all humans suffer stress from time to time. Because of the inclusiveness of Emotional Core Therapy, many effective psychology techniques that have been demonstrated to release stress can be incorporated into ECT. It takes time and will to learn and apply ECT. Behavioral psychology, including ECT has some limitations, which are addressed in Mr. Moylan’s work. Some of the requirements to effectively learn ECT are a level of cognition generally at or above a high school level. Also, those with long term physical or psychological damage may not be able to utilize all steps effectively. ECT can incorporate any psychology or religious method that can successfully release emotions. The following approaches are some of the many techniques that have been shown to successfully release emotions. Gestalt Therapy, psychodrama, art therapy, music therapy, hypnosis, EMDR, biofeedback, pet therapy, journaling, Mindfulness, some aspects of prayer, yoga, verbalization of emotions, etc., as part of the eight-step process. View wiki for detailed explanations of these techniques. Humans release stress in many ways and it is critically important to work from a person’s worldview and utilize techniques that may be familiar to them

Emotional Core Therapy Acronyms

My clients write down these acronyms in their book next to the flowchart at the end of each chapter. If you can remember these three acronyms, you are well on your way to identifying and processing the stress you encounter in life through Emotional Core Therapy.

Real Nervous Souls Experience Bodily Stress Racing Everywhere (Acronym for 8 steps)

R-Relationships N- Needs S- Five Senses E- Emotions B- Bodily S- Symptoms R-Releasing process E- Equilibrium Balanced.

Every Feeling Soul Prospers (Acronym for the four needs that can cause us stress) E- Emotional F- Financial S- Spiritual PPhysical.

References

• (2018) Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 13: 26.
• Moylan RA (2018) Using emotional core therapy to effectively treat those individuals suffering debilitating physical injuries requiring rehabilitation. Int Phys Med Rehab J 3(4): 304-307.
• Holmes TH, Rahe RH (1967) “The Social Readjustment Rating Scale”. J Psychosom Res 11(2): 213-218.
• Moylan, LCPC RA (2016) Emotional Core Therapy. International Journal of Medical Science and Clinical invention 3(2).
• Moylan RA (n.d.). Most effective and most inclusive psychological approach worldwide to treat relationship and psychological stress.
• Robert A Moylan. “Learn to Effectively Minimize Regression and Relapse in Patients with Emotional Core Therapy”. Acta Scientific Medical.
• LCPC, RA (2018) Using Prayer and Spirituality in the Healing Professions with Emotional Core Therapy. Journal of Current Medical Research and Opinion 1(05): 23-28.