My Success and Failure With RST
and
My Discovery Of A New, More Powerful Therapy
My experience with RST (back in 2002) was extremely positive. After releasing anger for several months, I saw major improvement in my symptoms of anxiety and fatigue. This was proof that Ellie's discovery was valid. However, a problem emerged with this therapy. After about 7 months, it was no longer effective.
For the first few months, the effect of releasing anger towards past events would cause a noticeable and immediate result. That immediate 'result' was:
(1) a slightly manic feeling (feeling a little hyper).
(2) feeling more social and comfortable around people.
(3) a noticeable increase in energy that would last for several hours.
In addition to the immediate results, the core symptom of anxiety started lessoning.
However, after about seven months the immediate results were no longer occurring. Also, I no longer saw any improvement in overall anxiety levels.
When I say that RST was no longer effective, that's mostly true. There were single occasions when it worked, and I would experience the immediate results. This might occur once every couple of weeks, or about one out of twenty times I redirected anger towards the past.
But why were the results only happening occasionally?
In order to figure out what was going on, I began journaling/documenting the rare times it worked. My hope was that I would eventually see a pattern/trend that would explain why it worked sometimes, but not all the time. I was looking for the secret that would allow me to kick start the therapy again.
After maintaining my journal for a couple of years, I did in fact see a pattern. Note this is speculation, but it's all I've got. In every case when it worked, I had released anger differently, somehow. That difference could have been physical (how the body physically released anger), or mental (what type of scene I was using). It would appear that we can't discharge anger the same way, or it becomes mechanical (thus ineffective). You might get away with releasing anger the same way for a few months, but ultimately it may become ineffective. The problem is, I could never figure out enough unique ways to discharge anger to keep the therapy effective long term. I document this for others who may wish to experiment with Ellie's discovery and perhaps find a solution. I hope others who have used Ellie's therapy didn't run into the same problem I did. Since an active discussion forum was never started after Ellie passed away, I have no way to know if others were more successful then me. It is also worthwhile to note that Ellie could remember her trauma, for the most part. My trauma was earlier and couldn't be remembered. Instead, I had to rely on 'similar' events in my past to redirect my anger towards. Therefore, people who can remember their traumas may have more success.
Finally, I was on a raw food diet for about a year, hoping this would help with the therapy. The raw food diet taught me much about nutrition, but unfortunately, it didn't help with the therapy.
Now the good news.
With the long-term failure of Ellie's therapy, I continued to search for answers. In 2011, I stumbled onto a different therapy that has brought me to a near complete cure, and it's still working. Not only is it extremely effective, simple and easy - but it also discharges anger within a few minutes. In fact, what I learned from Ellie Van Winkle, I was then able to apply to this new therapy. I would call it the ultimate in anger release.
That new therapy is Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE), as developed by David Berceli. This is a profound discovery that invokes the body's natural neurogenic tremoring mechanism, the same type of tremoring/shaking that occurs when we are frightened or under extreme stress. This tremoring/shaking is the body's way of releasing the effects of trauma. It is 100% effective at releasing anger when it occurs. Below is everything you need to get started.
The official TRE website: www.traumaprevention.com
7 Minute Introductory Video of TRE: vimeo.com/103209258
The instructional video (free as of 2019): hhttps://www.youtube.com/watch
Many testimonials on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/davidberceli/videos