The Sedona Method, by Hale Dwoskin, is an application of Lester Levenson’s work, which he originally called “Thought Field Therapy.” It is a psycho-therapeutic method for analyzing and releasing negative feelings. Many additional renditions of this amazingly simple releasing method have been popularized through internet marketing, including E.F.T., the Emotional Freedom Technique, or “The Tapping Cure”. The Sedona Method uses no meridian stress point tapping, as does E.F.T., however they can be used in conjunction, to further deepen and quicken the intended response.
The Sedona Method uses a series of very simple questions to allow you to let go of feelings that don’t serve you. When you encounter resistance within yourself to letting go of the feeling, then you employ a series of four different questions to ascertain why you had been unwilling to let that feeling go. Once you have identified why you didn’t want to let that feeling go, then you can ask the initial questions regarding whether you are now willing to let it go.
The second set of questions facilitates uncovering why you had resistance. Then, asking the initial questions again brings you closer to allowing yourself to let go of the feeling.
Here are the steps:
1. Allow yourself to feel the feeling. (Whatever you resist, persists!)
2. Ask yourself, “Could I let it go?
3. Ask yourself, “Would I let it go?”
4. Ask yourself, “When?”
BE TRUTHFUL WITH YOURSELF! Answering “Yes” if you really feel “No!” does NOT serve you, as it only traps that destructive energy deeper into your tissues, as you contract around the feeling (resistance is a contracting). Realize that the reason we hold feelings is that there is an underlying belief system that gives rise to the feeling! So, when you feel yourself inclined to not want to let the feeling go, analyze the “why” by asking the second set of questions.
Here is the second set of questions, commonly referred to as “the ‘wanting’ questions”, because they uncover what you are wanting to accomplish by holding on to the stubborn feeling. At a deep, unconscious level, you think it somehow serves you to hold on to it!
I call these “the “C.A.S.S.” questions” for short (Control, Approval, Security, Separation):
1. Am I wanting control (of this situation or person that the feeling is regarding)?
2. Am I wanting approval? (Sometimes called “oneness”, because we feel a sense of unity or oneness with people whom we believe approve of us.)
3. Am I wanting security?
4. Am I wanting separation?
5. So, step five would be asking the C.A.S.S. questions, if you’ve encountered resistance within yourself to being willing to let it go.
6. After you’ve analyzed your resistance by doing step five, then go back through the initial three questions, and you are going back over them regarding whatever you discovered was your reason, from step five (the CASS questions.) So, if you realized you were wanting both control of the other person, and you also realized you wanted their approval, then go back and repeat the first four steps regarding control and then approval.
It would go like this: First, allow yourself to feel like you want to control that person. Then ask yourself the three initial questions;
It would sound like this, “Could I allow myself to let go of wanting to control this person?”
“Would I allow myself to let go of wanting to control this person?”
“When?”
Then repeat that process with the questions being about winning their approval. First, allow that feeling of wanting their approval to come up. “Could I allow myself to let go of wanting their approval?” “Would I allow myself to let go of wanting their approval?” “When?”
The Sedona Method teaches the principle of “Release to Completion”. This means that you keep repeating the process until that feeling is….RELEASED!
While I am tempted to conclude by saying, “Could you? Would you, Sam I Am?”, the fact is….I think this simple method of asking yourself questions makes a daunting task….undaunting!
Happy Releasing!
Janeen J. Detrick
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