This is an one minute Video Overview:
Speed Trace is a simple process for working with an unwanted emotional reaction. I made this post for both therapists and others looking for a self administered procedure that can desensitize an emotion in a very short period of time.
For a fuller explanation of why I use it and how it works, listen to the 21-minute deep-dive audio.
Sometimes an emotional reaction appears before you understand what caused it.
Your chest tightens. Your stomach sinks. Your breathing changes. You suddenly feel anxious, ashamed, angry, helpless, or threatened—even though the present situation does not seem to explain the intensity of the reaction.
You may not know why the feeling is there, but your body is responding as though something important is happening.
Speed Trace is a brief process for following an emotional reaction backward through time. You stay connected to the feeling, check whether it was present at earlier ages, and continue until you reach a point before the pattern began.
A memory may come to mind, but Do Not follow or analyze it; the body response is what they’re checking. As long as you stay on tracking the feeling and avoiding the memories, it has always works in desensitizing the emotion..
The Origins of Speed Trace
Speed Trace was developed by Doyle Henderson, an aeronautical engineer, and Bobby Matherne, a physicist and humanist. Henderson initially distributed the procedure on a floppy disk. Around 2009, Matherne persuaded him to make it freely available on Matherne’s website. Both men have since died.
I use Speed Trace as a memory reconsolidation process: the emotional response is activated and followed backward to a point before the pattern was learned. You can read more about memory reconsolidation here:the-biggest-psychotherapy-breakthrough-of-the-21st-century-memory-reconsolidation/
The basic question is:
“I am __ years old. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”As long as the client stays on tracking the feeling and avoiding the memories, it has always worked in desensitizing the emotional learnings.
Fill in the age, say the whole question aloud, and answer aloud. Then continue moving backward.
Step 1: Choose the Feeling
Choose one unwanted emotional reaction or body sensation. It might be anxiety, fear, shame, anger, grief, helplessness, pressure, loneliness, self-judgment, or a sensation such as tightness or heaviness.
Notice where you experience it physically. You might feel pressure in your chest, a knot in your stomach, tension in your throat, heat in your face, heaviness in your shoulders, or an empty feeling inside.
Rate the intensity from 1 to 10. You do not need to know what caused it; you only need to recognize the feeling you want to trace.
Step 2: Stay With the Sensation
Notice the sensation without trying to change it. Pay attention to its location and qualities:
● Does it have a shape?
● Is it heavy or light, warm or cold?
● Is it moving or still?
● Does it feel tight, hollow, sharp, soft, or numb?
Do not search for an explanation or force yourself to remember anything. The goal is simply to stay in contact with the feeling enough to recognize, “This is the feeling I am tracing.”
Your eyes may remain open or closed.
Step 3: Move Backward Through Time
Begin with your present age. Say aloud:
> “I am [your present age]. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
Answer aloud with the first response that comes to you. Then move backward through earlier ages. For example, a 50-year-old might say:
> “I am 50. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
> “I am 40. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
> “I am 30. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
> “I am 20. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
> “I am 15. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
> “I am 10. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
Continue whether the answer is yes or no. Do not stop to analyze an answer or figure out what happened at a particular age. Briefly notice your response and keep moving.
At age 10, begin moving backward one year at a time: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Keep a steady pace. 99.9 % of the time the answer will be “No” between ages 8 and 2 years old.
Step 4: Go Back Before the Pattern Began
Continue beyond the earliest age at which the feeling appears. Move backward through infancy, birth, and then to a point before birth or before the emotional pattern began.
You might ask:
> “I am 6 months old. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
> “I am newly born. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
> “I am before birth. Do I have the feeling? Yes or no?”
Do not invent a memory or force an answer. A simple felt sense of yes or no is enough. The process is complete when you have reached a point before the old emotional response was present.
Step 5: Return to the Present and Check
Bring your attention back to the present. Open your eyes if they were closed, take a slow breath, and notice your body, your breathing, and the room around you.
Think about the original issue again and rate the emotional or physical response from 1 to 10. Notice what changed. The feeling may be weaker, absent, located somewhere else, less important, harder to recreate, or still present but different.
Do not demand a particular result. If the feeling remains strong, do not push harder. Stop and consider working with a trained practitioner.
The Essential Rule
Stay with the feeling, say each age check aloud, answer yes or no, and continue backward without analyzing why.
An Important Safety Note
Speed Trace is not a substitute for appropriate medical or mental-health treatment.
Stop if you become overwhelmed, disoriented, detached from reality, or afraid that you may lose control. People dealing with severe trauma, dissociation, active self-harm, psychosis, or intense panic should use this process only with an appropriately trained professional.
Why isn’t this an accepted modality to treat unresourceful emotions? See link: who-decides-what-therapy-works-follow-the-money/
Clint77090@gmail.com