Clint Matheny

My name is Clinton Matheny. You can call me “Clint” or “Clinton”. Welcome to my blog, where I share insights and strategies for emotional well-being. With nearly forty years of experience in “Brief Therapies” and a lifetime of mistakes spanning seventy-eight years, I have observed the escalating need for mental …

In 1985, thirteen year old Lucinda changed my beliefs on what is possible in a therapy session. I had been doing therapy for less than a year. Are your expectations affecting your clients expectations? This video is 12 minutes long. It is partly the 1985 session and the followup interview …

Reimprinting by using the“Back To The Future” approach and “Clean Language” techniques can be transformative, offering a way for individuals to address and heal from deep-rooted challenges, thereby enabling them to transcend their past limitations. As a premier technique, reimprinting is designed to confront and mend traumas at their deepest …

The 13th century poet Rumi wrote, “the cure for pain is in the pain”. The “FreeSpoting” self help technique is an easy to learn technique that is highly efficient and effective. It will defuse almost any unwanted emotion in a very short time (less than 5 minutes). Any unwanted emotion! …

A trauma is not an experience. It is an emotional response to an experience. A trauma is something that happens to you and that makes you so upset that it overwhelms you. What is a trauma to you, might not be a trauma to others. It all depends on our …

This article discusses a highly successful method for treating PTSD, in existence since 1980. It has only recently received funding for research to assess its efficacy and potentially recognize it as an “Evidence-Based Practice.” Over the past 44 years, this technique has been known by various names, including the VK …

This hour and fifteen minute 2020,  documentary concedes that psychiatric medications can provide relief for some patients. Nonetheless, it’s believed that among the 20% of Americans on these drugs, approximately one-third experience severe adverse effects from the treatments intended to aid them. “Medicating Normal” sheds light on the struggles of …

Matthew Perry, a famous actor who starred in the TV sitcom “Friends”, had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. He spent over nine (9) million dollars and half of his life in and out of treatment or sober-living centers, had 14 stays in rehab, and detoxed 65 times beginning …

In 1993, a thirty-three year old woman embarked on a significant journey to overcome her “Major Depression,” which led to a reflective interview nearly three decades later. The audio recordings provided below document this life-changing experience. “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)” identifies eight depression types. This …

This is my second posting with follow ups on healing “Depression” with “Clean Language”. The first posting was using Clean Language on Metaphors to heal depression (see the link at bottom of page) will give you a better understanding of the intervention. Could it be that 99 % of our …

I did a 4 year followup video with Jay in 1999. On August 1, 1995, Jay was in a horrendous vehicle accident. For over 6 months after the accident Jay was blind in his left eye, the eye was bloodshot in a fixed position towards his nose, and he was …

“Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me you built a time machine?” More than likely you have never thought about the origins of the emotions you experience. Over 99% of our emotions originated before we were seven years old.  To reiterate, the emotional reactions we encounter after the age …

To better understand this client session with a three year old, see the Part 1  post on this subject. Both clients had their younger selves “frozen in time”. What does that mean? Our psyche protects us by stopping the worst moments of a traumatic event from happening to protect our …

This session on depression took place in 1985. There are two other post on this blog dealing with depression: https://clintmatheny.cdn-pi.com/healing-major-depression/ &  healing-depression-disassociation-using-clean-language-16-year-follow-up/ A 28 year old man I will call “Bill” came to see me for depression. Bill told me that he had been depressed since age 5. I asked …

  This intervention shows the power of “Clean Language Therapy” by healing a middle age woman’s panic attacks in one 25 minutes therapy session. https://clintmatheny.cdn-pi.com/what-is-clean-language-therapy/ Asthma is a serious condition that can cause death. Stress may cause asthma or acerbate the condition. Many times doctors misdiagnose panic attacks to be …

This video has two follow up interviews on Deborah’s two “Clean Language metaphor”sessions with me. https://clintmatheny.com/what-is-clean-language-therapy/ During the first session in 1995, Deborah’s Esophagitis, Spastic Colon (IBS), and Gastritis were healed. I wasn’t aware of her medical conditions at the time of the session and the session was not directed …

“The Havening Technique” was developed in 2013, by the two Ruben brothers, Ronald and Steven . This technique is great for relaxing and the healing of painful emotions (to include PTSD). This 18 minute YouTube video by Tam Johnston gives an outstanding biological explanation of the science behind this Mindbody …

Sigmund’s Psychoanalytic Couch Sigmund Freud got two things right: almost all adult psychological problems are rooted in childhood and he allowed his clients to avoid making eye to eye contact during the therapy session by placing himself behind the client. When you require the client to maintain the western social norm …

After my previous post, I had many request for more air traffic controller emergency stories. This somewhat violates my  purpose for the blog, so these are my last posts on this subject. Maybe someday I might make a separate website for my other FAA experiences. I am also a licensed …

The Trigger Of My PTSD Nightmares On April 16, 1998,  I was working as a radar air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at Houston International Airport (IAH). I was fifty-three years old. The ceilings and visibilities were very low in the area. I was very busy working …

  Some individuals are skeptical about the existence of “repressed traumatic memories.” However, within a span of two years, I encountered two traumatic events that had been suppressed for over three decades. These memories resurfaced when certain events triggered my subconscious, bringing these experiences to my conscious awareness. Initially, I …

Three and a half decades ago, a client approached me with a question: could she retrieve memories of her mother from before she was four years old? She had lost her mother to pneumonia at that tender age and retained no conscious recollection of her, save for the funeral. She …

I am going to teach you a few techniques to interrupt a panic attack. First you should get a diagnosis that you were actually experiencing an emotional panic attack. First see your primary care provider to determine if you are having panic attacks, panic disorder or another condition, such as …

This recording should only be played only in a safe place where you can use your complete focus of attention. After listening to the recording the first time you can use progressive relaxation from memory to go to sleep, or just relax, and I’m sure you will find other uses. Make sure …

Over 13 % of women in the United States will get breast cancer in their lifetimes. In May 2021, my wife Laurie, found she had a cancerous tumor in her left breast. While radiation therapy does play a crucial role in treating breast cancer, it can cause incidental damage to …

“People like people like themselves or people they would like to be like.” Author unknown  In 1985, I attended a twenty day communications and therapy workshop in Houston . The course was spread over ten weekends and on the first day we spent a few hours on “Rapport”.The definition of …

In 1988, I attended  a five-day advanced Ericksonian hypnosis workshop in New Orleans. One morning we were asked to get into groups of three and to use both hands on the body of the client to push up and down to match the client’s breathing. I ended up with a group …

Whitney Houston’s song, “The Greatest Love of All” was a big hit during the 1980s. The song basically said that to love yourself was the greatest love of all. Unfortunately Whitney was never able to feel this love for herself and died from an overdose of drugs trying to escape …

Have you ever asked yourself that question? Most people have not and the answer to that question has a great impact upon relationships. My wife, Laurie, introduced me to a best selling book called “The 5 Languages of Love” by Gary Chapman. This book opened my eyes to the evidences that …

Tom Stone started using this very effective therapy modality that he calls,  “ The In Technique ” over twenty years ago on painful emotions (PTSD, grief, anxiety, etc). I have used it for over ten years. Tom and I both believe that when we were infants we learned to avoid …

This procedure when used can desensitized almost any emotional feeling. EMDR was discovered by Francine Shapiro over thirty years ago. Read all of the post before continuing with the procedure! I believe EMDR can  be self administered on mild traumatic events and problems. There are hundreds of thousands of therapists …

I started using the Eye Movement Integration procedure (EMI) around 1991. It is a brief therapy technique that is effective in treating acute and post-traumatic stress, also phobias, the symptoms associated with addictions and negative or self-limiting thoughts. EMI is a neuro-therapeutic method for accessing and integrating traumatic memories and …

By using the Dynamic Spin technique, you can free yourself from negative thinking or self-criticism. You can also reduce or eliminate any physical discomfort, self-doubt, or emotional barrier that prevents you from achieving your goals in a short time. The best way to test this technique is to apply it …

I have found this procedure to be a very effective cure for PTSD traumatic flashbacks. It also works well on simple phobias and visual intrusive memories. This procedure was originally called, “The Fast Phobia Cure” in the late 1970s, then in the 1980s it was called “The NLP Trauma/Phobia Cure”, …

Transforming Your Inner Dialogue – Practice Compassion Towards Yourself And Be Your Own Best Friend: Many of us experience a constant stream of inner dialogue, while others may have very little. Let me guide you on how to refine this inner conversation. Let’s begin with a narrative. Back in 1986, …

Perceptual positions are the ways we perceive ourselves and others in any situation. There are three main perceptual positions: self, other, and observer. Each position has its own advantages and disadvantages, but they can also be misaligned or distorted, leading to confusion, conflict, or dissatisfaction. In this article, I will …

Are people at any given moment in time doing their best? Maybe they are ! Have you ever been so angry that you did or said something that you regretted five minutes later? At the time that you said or did what you regretted five minutes later, that was the …

The title is true. First I have to explain the two (2) most important perceptual positions in which we experience the world. 1st Position: being in our body, seeing what we see now/or what we saw then through our own eyes, hearing what we hear through our ears, and feeling …

My language patterns are going to be very unusual in this post. Most likely you have never heard/seen anyone write this way. It might be helpful to have a pen and paper to write down the location of these “identity parts”. When we are learning something new, it can be …

This question that you are always asking yourself will determines how successful you will be as you move through life. This most important question you are always asking yourself is usually outside of your conscious awareness.This question you are always asking yourself is called the “Virtual Question”. From my experience …