Nice, this is a really nice framework for a useful pattern that I’ve found myself using.
So, this seems to be based heavily off of Focussing—and one of the central tenets of Focussing, is to allow a feeling to express itself in its own terms, before trying to box it into a specific narrative. Personally, I’ve found this to be very helpful, and also, the hardest aspect of Focussing. When a negative emotion comes up, it’s incredibly hard to avoid instincts to declare “this emotion is wrong, I’m going to avoid it” or “this emotion is right, I’m going to dwell on it”.
This seems to have a little conflict with HEAL—which imposes a non-trivial degree of prescribed, and rigid narrative. Particularly in the Linking step; A narrative like “The positive experience should be kept in the foreground, and the negative experience should be held in the background” is often true—but I think, trying to rush a feeling into that particular narrative, before you’ve really addressed it on its own terms, can be risky. i.e; leading to repression, or just not being able to address nuanced drivers behind where that feeling is coming from.
I think, because of this, I’d avoid using HEAL on topics that I feel I haven’t fully untangled my feelings on yet. Or at least, to be very sure to double-check any feelings of dissonance or discomfort that I have during the process.
I’m interested in whether this concern seems legitimate? You seem to have used it more, and more consciously, than I have—so I’d love to have some perspective on it.
This concern seems legitimate to me. There is often important information in negative feelings which I mostly explore with Focusing or Internal Family Systems. When my brain thinks that there is still information in that feeling but I am nevertheless applying the HEAL method, it can feel as if I am convincing myself or, as you said, repressing your emotion. That seems indeed somewhat tricky to me.
However, I also think that there is not always useful information in negative feelings. I often had times where I already explored the negative feeling or knew where it came from but it still came back. Before having heard of HEAL and reading Rick Hanson’s material I thought that you always had to fully experience and feel a negative feeling in order to overcome it. I no longer think this is the case, instead I replace it with thoughts or behaviors that are more helpful and in these behaviors also incorporate the useful bits of what the negative feeling tries to achieve.
Nice, this is a really nice framework for a useful pattern that I’ve found myself using.
So, this seems to be based heavily off of Focussing—and one of the central tenets of Focussing, is to allow a feeling to express itself in its own terms, before trying to box it into a specific narrative. Personally, I’ve found this to be very helpful, and also, the hardest aspect of Focussing.
When a negative emotion comes up, it’s incredibly hard to avoid instincts to declare “this emotion is wrong, I’m going to avoid it” or “this emotion is right, I’m going to dwell on it”.
This seems to have a little conflict with HEAL—which imposes a non-trivial degree of prescribed, and rigid narrative. Particularly in the Linking step;
A narrative like “The positive experience should be kept in the foreground, and the negative experience should be held in the background” is often true—but I think, trying to rush a feeling into that particular narrative, before you’ve really addressed it on its own terms, can be risky.
i.e; leading to repression, or just not being able to address nuanced drivers behind where that feeling is coming from.
I think, because of this, I’d avoid using HEAL on topics that I feel I haven’t fully untangled my feelings on yet. Or at least, to be very sure to double-check any feelings of dissonance or discomfort that I have during the process.
I’m interested in whether this concern seems legitimate? You seem to have used it more, and more consciously, than I have—so I’d love to have some perspective on it.
This concern seems legitimate to me. There is often important information in negative feelings which I mostly explore with Focusing or Internal Family Systems. When my brain thinks that there is still information in that feeling but I am nevertheless applying the HEAL method, it can feel as if I am convincing myself or, as you said, repressing your emotion. That seems indeed somewhat tricky to me.
However, I also think that there is not always useful information in negative feelings. I often had times where I already explored the negative feeling or knew where it came from but it still came back. Before having heard of HEAL and reading Rick Hanson’s material I thought that you always had to fully experience and feel a negative feeling in order to overcome it. I no longer think this is the case, instead I replace it with thoughts or behaviors that are more helpful and in these behaviors also incorporate the useful bits of what the negative feeling tries to achieve.