Time Line Therapy® is a result of 23 years of research. Developed in the mid-1980s by Dr. Tad James, one of the leading experts in the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming, it has become widely known as one of the most effective methods for creating quick, lasting change for an individual.
Research studies into Neuro Linguistic Programming propose that the unconscious mind encodes and stores all our memories and experiences in a linear fashion which is called the Time Line.
Time Line Therapy® proposes that we store both the past and the future in our minds (our unconscious mind). The time line represents chronological memories and beliefs attached to certain events, which are not necessarily how the events and experiences actually happened, but rather a map or a representation of them through our senses.
From Aristotle to William James, Freud and Jung to Milton Erickson, M.D., people interested in psychology have been searching for a way to adequately describe the human experience of time. Time Line Therapy® has the potential to make sense out of our temporal experience and to change our understanding of how negative emotions and limiting decisions affect us. It describes how to create a meaningful future for all time to come because with Time Line Therapy® we now understand the human temporal experience and can change the basic elements that make up someone’s history.
One can imagine the Time Line as a string of ‘pearls’ (the Gestalt), whereby each pearl contains the memory of an event or experience. Each memory contains images, sounds, smells, tastes, words and feelings or emotions surrounding that event.
Whenever a new event or experience occurs in the present, our mind searches for a comparison with similar events. We search through our filter systems bringing logic and meaning to this new experience; coding it or boxing it as a similar experience to one of those previously coded memories.
At the level of the unconscious mind, memories that contain a specific negative emotion or limiting decisions or belief, such as ‟I am not good enough” or ‟I can`t be rich, successful, in love, etc.” are chained together in a sequence of events, called the Gestalt.
Rather than focusing on individual events, Time Line Therapy® releases the entire Gestalt, beginning with the very first event of the problem until the present moment. This allows the individual to completely eliminate negative emotions and limiting decisions or beliefs from the unconscious storage, including those which could not be consciously processed.
The fact that Time Line Therapy® does not require the client to remember or relive potentially traumatic events is one of the distinguishing aspects of this gentle process. In addition to the release of unwanted and unwarranted negative emotions and limiting decisions or beliefs, Time Line Therapy® allows the client to consciously remember positive learnings and a deeper understanding of the events, which supports their personal growth.
Time Line Therapy® has proven to be successful in dealing with:
- Eliminating unwarranted negative emotions such as anger, sadness, fear and guilt that may be producing negative behaviors and results
- eliminating anxiety and fears of events or situations that may occur in the future
- eliminating depression by working on the negative thought strategies created to produce depression
- eliminating limiting decisions and limiting beliefs
- setting and achieving goals
- and many other circumstances where the mind affects the body and our results