What Clinicians Using Gentle Reprocessing™ Are Saying:
Hi Diane, “I continue to do Gentle Reprocessing often. One of my extremely anxious and depressed clients who had ECT treatment and lost her memory can remember Gentle Reprocessing and did it on her own before walking down the aisle at her daughter’s wedding. She has a lot of social anxiety and Gentle Reprocessing really helps her to take a mental break when she has to/ needs to be with people.
She has married off 3 daughter in 2 years and now her son announced that he’s getting married in Sept. so she told me yesterday that she plans to do Gentle Reprocessing to get her through. Another client (9 years old) used it to help him with a needle phobia. Thanks so much for inventing this awesome technique. You may quote me! All my best, Pam” –Clinician
“Well, it’s been over a month that I’ve been using and adapting Gentle Reprocessing internal and external techniques in my practice. I also continue to use them for my own personal growth. Very simply, these techniques have transformed my 24 year practice, taking it to a new level of effectiveness with nearly all of my clients, ranging from 10 year old kids to people in their 70s, and even couples. With the combination of powerful visualization, bilateral stimulation, yogic breathing, and crayon-based work, clients are achieving levels of resolution and relaxation I’ve simply never seen before. Some of the issues I’ve addressed using these methods include depression and anxiety, trauma (recent and old), life stressors, OCD, substance abuse, relationships (I’ve even helped couples go on a visualized “date” in session, sharing the tapper paddles and visualization!), ADD/ADHD.
For example, I have a client (ADD, trauma, heroin recovery) with whom I’ve worked for many years on a variety of issues. She’s always had a hard time ‘locating’ the sources of her resistance to being productive, eg, doing her online college work. The other day, I handed her the tapper paddles, commenced with visualization (@ her favorite beach), ‘invited’ her inner child to join her, and she swiftly learned that she needed to appease herself with some little reward as incentive to do necessary work @ at the adult level. Simple, Gentle. Thank you again for your good work!” –D.N Clinician
“Hi Diane, I wanted to thank you for the huge gift you have given me. Gentle Reprocessing is shaping how I work in such profound ways, and it is inserting itself into my life and inner workings with such significance, that I need to communicate this to you. I have a few gems to share. I am working with a 15 year old girl with Arthrogryposis (fusing and shriveling of the limbs…) and had just begun to dip in with her into traumatic emotions and tried out the Gentle Reprocessing metaphor for the first time last weekend.
There are no ends to my appreciation of “gentle”, and of having something that involves the imagination in such a wise and long-term-yielding fashion. The way you created it, it taps old and potent stuff, but wraps it in such contemporary features that it is just beautiful. Thank you!” –Tali Silver (Clinician)
“Dear Diane, Yesterday I had occasion to use Gentle Reprocessing with a client who was having a phobic reaction to an anticipatory phobia. This client is a DID and she was able to bring all parts with the Adult Wise Self to the island in the river. We turned on the tappers.
With some help from the Wise Self each part was able to unburden the fear, sadness and shame that was connected to the phobia and the traumatic memory feeding the phobia. She was able to clear the strong emotional charge and move to a calmness so that when she put her attention back on the object of the phobia there was no reaction. She was able to give all parts positive cognitions including that they are safe now, they have choices now, the abuse is over and they can stay in the present trusting the Adult Wise Self.” -Pat Thatcher LICSW
“I love this approach! It uses the strength of EMDR without the risks of re-traumatizing. This takes EMDR to a deeper level.” –S. Schwartz LICS
Use of Gentle Reprocessing in treating phobias: A 21 year old female complaining of depression and anxiety due to trauma and contracting three sexually transmitted diseases. Depression symptoms were lifting when client complained of having phobia of trains. She could not go into a train station while the train was there or drive/walk by train tracks when train was going by without experiencing intense fear. I used Gentle Reprocessing on the fear connected to trains. Fear resolved and client on longer experienced any discomfort regarding trains.” –Lori Miller-Freitas, LICSW
“Diane, After using Gentle Reprocessing with my most fragile anorexic client, she said, “I feel better. Maybe I could eat.” This demonstrates the power of Gentle Reprocessing and the value of working with metaphor to reduce the intensity of the affect connected to trauma.” –Barbara Gangemi, LMHC
“Dear Ms. Spindler, After having attended your workshop on ‘Gentle Reprocessing’ sponsored by NASW at Boston University a few months ago, I left with great hope that I now had a new tool with which to help people heal. I had Level I EMDR training in 2002 and had been invigorated by that addition to my skills. However, this form of the bi-lateral modality seemed to be able to reach a wider population than I was willing to engage with the traditional model. I had attended a conference in the Fall of 03 where Belleruth Naparsteck, LICSW, had offered the healing power of ‘Guided Imagery’.
She had spoken of the research indicating that EMDR and Guided Imagery appeared to be the most successful modalities in helping people to heal their trauma. You had been able to combine these two very effective aspects of healing and several of my clients are benefiting from your endeavors. I wanted to thank you for your work. The results have given me a great opportunity for clients with whom I would likely have continued to offer only traditional psychotherapy. Having completed my MSW at Boston College in 1977, I have offered decades of traditional psychotherapy and certainly treat my share of trauma working so often with co-existing diagnosis throughout the years.
I would like to offer a couple of examples of some of the work that has been done. One middle-aged female who had had multiple hospitalizations having been diagnosed with Bi-Polar II, PTSD, and Alcohol Dependence had begun work with me in 1999. Much of the PTSD centered around years of incest. She went from hospitals to homelessness to rest homes, etc. She was struggling with a form of Karsikoff’s from the alcoholism. Though she had been recently clean and sober for over a year, we rarely touched upon the trauma issues until ‘Gentle Reprocessing’. It was a couple of days after session #4 where an aspect of the incest had been targeted that I asked her how it had been for her. She said, “It’s weird.” She went on to say she felt as though she had “been purged”. She also reported “it felt like a cleansing of my soul”. Few people would have imagined this woman alive at this point let alone feeling this kind of relief from her past.
I have also used your modality on those with mental health disorders combined with Methadone treatment as well. It has been well received and it is making sense to people to rid themselves of levels of stored up feelings in this way in order to move forward free of their weight and limiting effects.
I would enjoy keeping you posted as I utilize Gentle Reprocessing with my various clients. Again, I feel it is a wonderful tool to help people shift the trauma experience via metaphor and bilateral stimulation.” –Ginger Montenegro Hadley, LICSW, LAD I, CADAC II
“The emotions of the target are reprocessed using guided, client generated metaphors. Clients can then neutralize disturbances without all the painful re-witnessing of the traumatic details.” –Star Potts, LICSW
“As a clinical social worker of 30 years, much of my practice has been working with those impacted by various levels of trauma. Over the past few years, I have been seeking a training that would address the needs of my clients as traditional psychotherapy has not been that effective.
After attending the Gentle Reprocessing Workshop I in May of 2012, I have been able to utilize the skills learned in this two days workshop to help my clients recover from longstanding trauma issues. It is not a quick fix but a process that shows increasing results over a relatively brief amount of time. The workshop was well organized and appropriate to the various levels of experience of the clinicians attending. The trainer was very engaging and interactive with the group of clinicians. I would highly recommend the workshop to anyone working in the field with clients with trauma.” –F. White Clinician
