Resource Therapy
Integrating and aligning inner resources and personality parts
What is Resource Therapy?
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​Resource Therapy is a targeted, short-term, parts-based therapy to identify and realign the specific inner personality parts that hold emotional pain, trauma or unhelpful reactions or behaviours. This fascinating therapy takes the best of current life regression, inner child work and parts therapy to produce a brief strengths-based approach that can produce emotional shifts, that alter reactions, feelings and behaviours.
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​​​Founded in Research and Clinical Practice The techniques used in Resource Therapy have been developed by Professor Gordon Emmerson as an evolution of Ego State Therapy, but inspired by behavioural science and client-led practice. His solution is a structured, fast and client-empowering way to treat emotional distress, behavioural stuckness, and trauma responses, without the need for hypnosis, deep cathartic sessions or long drawn out discussions. This tool is now used by clinicians and therapists.​​​
How does it work?
We typically think of the mind as a single 'thing'. In Resource Therapy and other parts-based therapies however, we view the mind as being made up of many separate but interconnected parts. Each part has its own history, its own function, and needs its own individual support. So rather than thinking of your mind like an onion and having to painstakingly peel back the layers, you can think of your mind like a single daisy. Rather than being one flower, the daisy is actually made up of hundreds of tiny yellow flowers, surrounded by an outer ring of individual white flowers posing as petals. In a similar way the personality is made up of a number of different personality parts, all separate but acting together, just like the many 'flowers' of the daisy. Within the mind, each of your personality parts is separate and self-contained and may react and respond in completely different ways at specific times, depending on which one has taken over 'the driving seat'.
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In some specific social situations for example, you may have an assertive part in the driving seat and you may be confident and chatty. In other situations, however, you may find yourself self-conscious, tongue-tied and awkward, without knowing why. This difference is caused by accessing different personality parts (or resource states) which have been formed earlier in life, typically as a result of repeating a particular behaviour (or coping skill) over and over again. Once triggered by some aspect of the current situation, the same feelings, behaviours or ways of responding automatically take over, irrespective of your efforts to stop. When these parts get triggered you don't act your age, you act the age the part was created. So, your reactions when talking to your boss may be your reactions as a 6-year old when feeling unacknowledged by care givers.
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Whilst talking therapy is always helpful, the part that intellectualises about it with a counsellor is completely different from the part that takes over the driving seat and shows up in those awkward social situations. Only by working directly with those specific parts that are triggered in those situations, can a long-term realignment of part roles occur, and relief from issues be found. In this way, each part receives precisely the attention it needs to change. Whilst this therapy won't rewrite your past, it can help you to be less held back by it.
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"When clients feel an emotion that doesn't match what is happening around them, it most likely comes from a part that is carrying unresolved feelings from the past .."
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Gordon Emmerson/Chritiane Essing
Therapist Gold. Treating fear based trauma and attachment trauma
How will a session benefit me?
Resource Therapy can be worth exploring if you are trying to resolve
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fears & phobias
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stress, anxieties or insecurities
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social anxiety, low self-confidence or self-worth
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feelings of rejection, being unlovable or not good enough
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fear of presenting, speaking up or being judged by others
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critical inner voice, guilt, shame or rumination
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burnout tendancies
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perfectionism or overachieving
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scarcity mindset (there isn't enough)
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poor performance or procrastination
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inner conflict, self-sabotage of frustration
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mental tiredness, exhaustion or overwhelm
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unhelpful patterns in relationships or in life
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avoidance behaviours/addictions such as over-eating, drinking, working, shopping, phone use etc​
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​​The aim of Resource Therapy is to regain emotional self-regulation, by utilizing healthy, mature, confident parts to take 'the wheel' in challenging adult situations. Physiologically, it is believed that new neural pathways are formed in the brain, anchoring in those new preferred behaviours, so that going forward your brain and nervous system can begin to react differently to old triggers. ​
What is a session like?
Resource Therapy sessions are typically an hour long. After a brief discussion, direct dialogue is used with your inner self to identify the parts connected with earlier sensitising events. Because such parts are usually not best suited for adult situations, healthier more appropriate parts are sourced that can be more helpful in normal life situations.
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The session is fast paced, but energising. We do not dredge up or dwell on past events and whilst there can be occasional brief moments of emotion, the feelings of release and newfound energy that come from being reconnected with healthier, more appropriate parts, can feel revitalising. Clients typically leave with a smile on their faces.
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Sessions are delivered over Zoom. You will be asked to close your eyes, but because no hypnosis is required, you can simply sit in a chair or at your desk. A series of 3-7 sessions are recommended, because in each session we work on one issue only that you are ready to change.
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​I am a qualified parts therapist, inner child and current life regressionist, currently undertaking my Clinical Resource Therapy training. I offer (UK) evening Zoom sessions and some weekday and weekend sessions, to support multiple time zones.
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​​Although Resource Therapy is used psychologists and psychotherapists, my work is aimed at healthy people without a clinical diagnosis, who are willing and motivated to work on themselves. It deliberately distinguishes itself from psychotherapy, as it does not seek to heal disease, but rather to the reorganization, realignment and strengthening of your inner resources.