The Value of the Metapsychology Curriculum

This article originally appeared in the TIRA News & Views Newsletter, Vol. IV, No. III (July 2001)

Life Stress Reduction (LSR), using the mode of facilitation known as unburdening, addresses those issues the client (viewer) comes in hoping to handle. These issues may be many or few, complex or relatively simple. They will usually require a variety of techniques: Exploration, Unblocking, TIR and short unlayering techniques for example. Consultation, including education and action steps, as well as viewing/facilitation may be needed to reach resolution.

The viewer may come up with additional issues during the course of Life Stress Reduction, necessitating extension of the case plan. Once the viewer reaches the end point of Life Stress Reduction, including extroversion, cheerfulness and improved confidence in his or her ability to handle life, both viewer and facilitator feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Some facilitators base their entire practices on this work. (Given its effectiveness this is hardly surprising.) In this case the viewer goes happily off to tackle life anew. When s/he runs into additional charge in the normal course of life s/he can call the facilitator for some more sessions to resolve the new issues that have arisen.

Though there is nothing at all wrong with this mode of operation, the Curriculum is designed to take the work to a new level. The Curriculum puts to use the method we call discovery. While stress reduction addresses material already in restimulation, discovery intentionally brings up deeper areas of charge: issues not necessarily currently in restimulation or in the viewer's awareness, in order to discharge them. Discovery not only follows the principle that removing charge produces case progress, but also produces the advantage of moving forward into life without these charged areas lying in wait to trip a person up.

Discovery can bring up Traumatic Incidents (TIs) to be discharged of which the viewer had previously been unaware (even while addressing a topic not obviously tied to trauma, such as help or communication). In addition, use of the Curriculum helps the viewer to find charge from other sources than TI's: upsets, problems and regretted actions, for example.

Besides the value of finding and relieving charge, the Curriculum allows the viewer to exercise abilities s/he already has, such as the abilities to communicate and to solve problems for instance, in order to significantly improve them.

By addressing major life abilities through use of the Curriculum (which may be cycled through several times) a facilitator can enable the client to achieve life-changing results. Viewers who have been through the whole Curriculum one or more times commonly report that life is easier, more fun and more rewarding. This significant piece of work stabilizes and strengthens the viewer and increases resilience and flexibility in life.

Neither LRS nor the Curriculum work is better than the other. LSR is necessary in almost all cases to address and handle current life concerns and bring a viewer to the point of extroversion and lack of restimulation necessary for the Curriculum to be undertaken.

Typically we expect to use unburdening (more LSR) at various points during the course of the Curriculum, (which contains 8 sections.) as restimulation may occur in life and require attention. Discovery (the Curriculum) is resumed once the viewer no longer has attention on the area that required unburdening.