DR. HOLT'S THERAPY TECHNIQUES

In her healing practice, Dr. Jennifer Holt uses four primary techniques that are extremely powerful at changing negative habits and beliefs for clients: EMDR, NLP, reparenting, and forgiveness work. These form the basis of nearly all of her individual work, because this combination has been so effective at permanently changing the lives of hundreds of her clients, who are now living happy, successful lives. More information on these techniques, as well as others, can be found below. Dr. Holt also works with couples, using a number of additional techniques including Heart Communication, Conflict Resolution with the TIPS and Unconditional Honesty to transform the couple's connection to each other.

1. Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR has gained a well-deserved reputation for working ‘magic’ with many stubborn client issues that appeared to be unresolvable, such as traumatic events, deep grief and loss, feelings of being ‘stuck’ and a host of psychological maladies. EMDR works by enabling the reprocessing of specific disturbing events across the right and left lobes of the brain and thereby creating healing. You can find out more about it at emdr.com.

2. Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). NLP is often used in conjunction with brief therapy, because the results can be very rapid. With NLP, the client is given the opportunity to "reprogram" his/her core beliefs and long-standing but hidden "sentences" about life. For example, someone with an addiction may have been unconsciously operating from the assumption that the addiction protects them from something traumatic (this is their old 'sentence' or old 'programming'). By using NLP, we can reexamine this assumption and change the focus to a more healthy one. Often, the addiction disappears.

3. Reparenting. Reparenting is a loving, deep and extremely effective way of healing past wounds from dysfunctional upbringing. Most of our parents made many mistakes, even though they may have been doing the best that they could. Unfortunately, the negative beliefs and images from being punished, for example, have a way of staying inside our psyches forever. Unless, that is, we reparent ourselves. In reparenting, a healthy, loving adult self is created within the client, who then goes back into the past and provides love, support and protection for the memory of the younger self who was hurt, with Dr. Holt's coaching. For most clients, this reparenting is done in conjunction with EMDR, after trauma has been cleared about a particular upsetting event. Usually, the 'young one' is able to completely alter their experience and feel happy and secure. Once the inner child is able to feel at peace, the client's sense of well-being is profound and permanent regarding the particular incident. In psychological terms what we are doing is providing attachment. As more and more memories are reparented, the client begins to feel happier, more secure and at peace in their current life. 

4. Forgiveness Work. Forgiveness--being able to forgive our perpetrators and let go of the resentment and victimization of the past--is perhaps the 'crown' of the work Dr. Holt engages in with clients, and is not attempted until a great deal of healing has already taken place with regard to a particular abusive or traumatic episode in the client's life. But once the client is able to forgive, deep healing occurs. The resistance and resentment that was eating the client alive is finally able to be put to rest. By 'paying it forward' -- choosing to heal and forgive those that have hurt us instead of waiting for them to take responsibility -- we create more peace and harmony for ourselves and others. Truly, to forgive is to move into the divine human.

5. Visualizations. Dr. Holt uses visualizations and imagery to allow the client to operate in a deeper state of consciousness, through which we can often find ways to heal ourselves. Clients are taught to create their own "safe place" which is used as a sacred place for healing, recreating experiences in a more positive way, and moving into work on a spiritual level, if desired.

6. Gestalt therapy. The gestalt process involves becoming aware of bodily signals and nonverbal information. Gestalt therapy employs such practices as the "empty chair technique," where the client imagines someone they need to confront is sitting in the chair in front of them, with Dr. Holt then coaching the client through the process. Gestalt therapy also utilizes drama therapy, or acting out past difficult or traumatic experiences, then creating a new and healthier "ending" to the experience. This process is described in detail in Dr. Holt's book, Sacred Gateway of Grief and Loss: Freeing the Imprisoned Soul (http://www.jennifersalimaholt.com). Gestalt therapy also involves role plays, when a client needs to work through a challenging situation with another person. Dr. Holt begins by taking on the role of her client, to teach them a new ways of communicating. Then the client follows suit. This helps the client work through issues hypothetically, which often results in amazing shifts in the relationships. In other cases, the client is able to use this technique to practice an important dialogue prior to the actual event. 

7. Rogerian. Carl Rogers was a very wonderful and famous psychologist who believed that the most important ingredient in any successful therapy session was to hold an "unconditional regard" for the client. He believed that therapists should create a safe space for each client, through which every client could self-actualize and heal. Dr. Holt very much agrees with this. Like Rogers, she does not see the human spirit as innately 'bad,' permanently damaged or flawed, but as beautiful and loving, yet simply suffering due to past traumas and current unhealthy habits. There is hope for all of us! 

8. Behaviorism. Behaviorism embraces the idea that to change old, unwanted behaviors or thoughts, we basically substitute new behaviors or thoughts. It sounds simple, but putting it into practice can be more difficult. Given the difficulty of changing our old habits, Dr. Holt often gives "homework assignments" to clients, such as reading books, journaling, trying out new behaviors, or drawing, in order to continue the gains made from the therapeutic session. Interestingly, it seems once the human being has maintained a "new habit" for about two weeks, we are more inclined to follow this new habit, rather than the old one. Dr. Holt also uses systematic measurement to enable the therapeutic process to be more precise. For those clients who remain in therapy until their goals are met, nearly all of them are able to successfully complete their original therapy goals, using this measurement tool. In the initial two sessions, clients measure the level of disturbance they have about particular issues in their lives, on a scale of 1 to 10. Periodically, and at the close of therapy, all of the issues are measured again. This is a powerful way of showing clients just how much they have progressed, because once we heal something, we tend to forget how disturbing it really was. Hundreds of times, Dr. Holt has heard clients say at the end of their work with her, "I completely forgot how much these issues were bothering me. They are totally gone now. I feel so, so much better--I am happy!" 

9. Existential. Existentialism maintains that we are basically living in an original state of meaninglessness, and the only way to make sense of our lives is to CREATE meaning, rather than trying to find it through some other outside force. It also embraces the idea that pain and anger and difficult emotions are not "bad" or "wrong" but valuable, and to be respected and embraced. Paradoxically, by embracing the pain or negative emotion, we are often able to move through it. For example, if someone has been abused as a child, there is no reason for this — it makes no sense. To release it, first Dr. Holt works intensively with clients to heal the trauma and abuse memories. Then Dr. Holt coaches clients to let go of the old story, to stop saying "why?" and create a new approach to life with chosen values and beliefs, rather than living from the place of original victimization.