Author: Clint Matheny

  Why trauma doesn’t break identity- it builds it This is a 6 – minute video overview on the making of personality (by me):   1. The Life With No “Before” Most people think they have a personality. I don’t think they do. What I see, over and over again, …

This is a 15 – minute “Deep Dive” audio on a really deep subject:   One of the many avocations I’ve had over my 80 years was serving as the assistant funeral home director at Kilpatrick’s Funeral Homes in West Monroe, Louisiana, in 1966. Amidst the heavy silence of grieving …

My Story This is a 6 – minute video overview of  my story: It was 1996, just past 5:15 a.m., and I was driving to work at the FAA Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility (TRACON) at Houston Intercontinental Airport. Air traffic control was my full- time job and psychotherapy was …

Coping Isn’t the Goal. Healing Is. If your therapy sessions focus only on “talk therapy” (CBT), you’re limiting the potential for deep, lasting transformation. All effective therapy modalities incorporate memory reconsolidation into their processes. The best therapeutic approaches don’t just manage behaviors or regulate emotions—they dissolve the emotional charge linked …

When people hear “evidence‑based therapy,” they assume it means: “This is the treatment proven to work best.” But more often, it means: “This is the treatment someone could afford to study.” This is a 15 – minute “Deep Dive” audio: This is a 6  – minute video overview on this …

Most people think healing old emotional pain has to be complicated. All of the posts on my blog are uncomplicated. They are all based on a fairly new biological science called “memory reconsolidation”. This is a 6-minute video overview:   Our brain has a built-in mechanism for permanently rewriting the …

In their quest to alleviate suffering, medical doctors may have dulled the very instrument of healing: feeling itself. Caution: See Medical Disclaimer at the end This is a 5-minute video overview:   For the past five decades, antidepressants SSRIs benzodiazepines, or stimulants like Adderal have been prescribed as frontline treatments …

Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring has over a decade of experience as a board-certified psychiatrist and has previously served as a medical officer for the FDA. His expertise lies in a niche area of psychiatry, focusing on the side effects of psychiatric medications and strategies for their safe tapering. This is a …

Caution!: Only listen to the audios below in a safe place Shame isn’t who you are – it’s a past-based emotional learning that keeps your nervous system stuck in one moment in time. In this 10-minute self-directed process, using memory reconsolidation, you’ll go to the day before the shame event …

This is an 5- minute video :   As a therapist, our choices about treatment methods are often shaped not only by training and research, but by something deeper: lived experience and ethical grounding. I want to share two key reasons why I personally do not use Prolonged Exposure Therapy …

Have you ever wondered how the “DSM” (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) to be? This is a must watch or listen to for mental health workers! This is a 5-minute intro video on a very important subject:     James Davies, PhD has been vocal about his concerns …

In 1998, during an ordinary walk with my Uncle Red, something extraordinary happened – something neither of us recognized at the time. Before “memory reconsolidation” was a clinical term, I accidentally triggered it. And in just 35 words, his 53 years of combat PTSD dissolved. This is a 3 – …

Why Doing Non-Content Psychotherapy is Healthy for the Therapist This is a 6- minute video overview on how to avoid burnout in the psychotherapy profession :   Psychotherapy, at its core, is about guiding clients through their emotional and psychological landscapes. Traditionally, therapists delve into the content of their clients’ …

This is an introduction to a book I am writing. The PDF book is my first and most likely my last. The  link to the free book is at the bottom of this post. First: Do you know the 5 – 7 emotions that you experience almost daily? Your Emotional …

  This is a 5-minute video overview:   One of the problems I see in psychotherapy is what I call the Psychological Whac-A-Mole Game. A client comes in with anxiety. The therapist works on the anxiety. The anxiety improves, but now shame shows up. The therapist works on the shame. …

This is a 4-minute Google video overview:   From Imperative Self Analysis to the Emotional Autopilot Reset: I am approaching 81 years of age and have practiced psychotherapy for over 41 years. Like many therapists, I have had favorite modalities. Mine have been Clean Language (what-is-clean-language-therapy/) and the Imperative Self …

We’re children pretending to be adults – most of us just don’t realize it. And the part doing the pretending? That’s your Imperative Self. Almost every emotional problem is driven by an unconscious childhood command – Do, Be, or Get — that shapes your perception, reactions, identity, and behaviors. That’s …

This is a 6-minute video overview of this event:   Recently, I was contemplating my 40 + years as a therapist, pondering the true impact of my work. Reflecting on the past, I recalled numerous clients who considered suicide, whom I’ve supported through their darkest times. Did my other client …

“The cure for pain is in the pain.” Rumi This brief 6-minute video shares my perspective on the myth of addiction—and offers a path toward healing that challenges conventional thinking:   When I was 23-years old, I asked my 48-year old father that hadn’t had a drink of alcohol for …

My Journey with Clean Language Therapy This is a 7-minute  video overview:   In 1993, I had the privilege of learning “Clean Language” from David Grove, a therapist from New Zealand. This innovative approach, known as “Clean Language Therapy,” quickly proved itself to be a powerful method for helping clients …

“Clean Language” is a distinctive approach in therapy that empowers the client by placing their own words and metaphors at the heart of the conversation. The power of Clean Language lies in its client-centered methodology. Therapists practicing Clean Language have to be meticulously attentive to the client’s language, using it as …

In 2010, a 40-year-old woman from New Zealand, one of my “Imperative Self Analysis” clients, cleared her brain fog in a single 30-minute session. With her permission, I recorded the session and have included it in this post. There are two (2) audio recordings on this post. The first one …

This is a 5-minute video overview of the negative placebo effect:   Doctors, in their unique role, possess the ability to cast spells—not with wands, but with words. Their dialogue, delivered in the clinical sanctity of examination rooms, wields immense power. Patients, in their most vulnerable state, hang on every …

“In a healing journey, pain and emotions are like transient whispers of the heart; once mended, they often fade into the silent archives of our being.” Clint Matheny Since launching my “Fear of Flying” practice in 1985, primarily using what was then called the NLP Trauma/Phobia Cure, now recognized as …

I am now 80 years old. I was born in 1945.  I sent this email in 2020, to my teenage grandkids when I was 75 years old. This is a 19 – minute Google “Deep Dive” audio:   “The most important part is in the next-to-last paragraph. I started thinking …

Catherine Pearson of The NY Times, asked nearly a dozen experts in sex and intimacy for the advice they repeat again and again. For starters, they said, don’t get so hung up on how often you have, or want, sex. More: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/well/sex-therapy-questions.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb  

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. The recognition that Perceptual Positions …

This is a short 4 – minute Video Overview:   This is a 19 – minute “Deep Dive”:   Many of us like to believe we’re entirely in control of our actions – rational agents, freely choosing right from wrong. But what if much of what we do is governed …

At the beginning of the Cold War and the emerging nuclear arms race between USA and the USSR in the late 1940s, a reporter asked Albert Einstein: “What question haven’t you been asked that you wish someone would ask?” He replied: “Is the world a safe place or a dangerous …

What if cruelty isn’t always monstrous, but simply a result of misaligned perspectives? This is a 6-minute video:   The question of what causes human evil – cruelty, indifference, and acts of harm – has haunted philosophers, mental health workers, and theologians for centuries. We’ve blamed ideology, trauma, biology, and …

This is a 17 – minute “Deep Dive” into the inner world of a man paralyzed from the neck down – a man who chooses internal peace over physical recovery:   In 1979, my next‑door neighbor in Houston, Texas was in a car accident that changed everything. I’m writing about …

In 1984, I didn’t know the term “memory reconsolidation”. No one in the psychotherapy field did. What I knew – purely from results – was that if you could get a person into the emotional state tied to a traumatic event, and then require them to perform a specific internal …