The Affect Bridge

The Affect Bridge is a term we use in regression. It's the way Dave Elman used to go back to the first time the problem arose. For example, the other day I had someone with a fear of dogs. For years he had been running around whenever he saw a dog and it interfered with his freedom on a daily basis. What can you do then

The Psychology

In psychology, they go back through an idea. You have a fear and then the idea is that that came from somewhere in your childhood. You then go back through all the patterns and relationships you had with your mother, your father, your friends and situations from your childhood.

Somewhere, in fact, there is a cause and through questions they then go on to find out where it may be coming from. All patterns are looked at and analyzed. In addition, they work with the idea that it is only a thought and

Of course, my client also tried to think that it was just a dog and that it was nothing to be afraid of. However, when emotion comes into play, reason immediately lets you down. Emotions always win out! But in psychology they assume you can think them away.

This is the thinking in psychology and sometimes this works well, don't get me wrong, but it can be done faster and more effectively. Hypnotherapy has been proving that much longer than psychology after all ;-)

The Affect Bridge

The affect bridge is a way to go back to the first time the problem arose. When you have a feeling, such as a fear for example, you can also follow that feeling back. You can then go back through an affect bridge in hypnosis.

You then use the "affect," or what is the influence of the problem. The affect or what affects you the most is the feeling you have with it. So you start following that feeling back to a previous time you had that feeling. You make a bridge through that which most grips you, often the feeling. With my client, we came to a situation where he was 8 years old and saw a dog on the street coming towards him.

Through that previous time, you go back further and further, using the same "affect" to the point that you are at the first time you had that same feeling. That first time is the imprint, or that's where the pattern was created.

After going past that situation that he was 8, we came to a situation that he was 6. He was hunched over and didn't notice that suddenly there was a dog next to him and he was startled and got scared. To someone 6, a dog looks much bigger than to someone 40, and yet you keep that image of when you were 6.

In hypnosis, you can then extract your insights there or even clear the emotions. You take out the learning moments, only you remove the emotions. That's what we did and also with the situation that he was 8 years old. After the session we went outside and coincidentally there were 3 dogs walking there. He petted them all and still feels very relaxed around dogs. The fear was gone in 20 minutes!

An affect bridge is the most ideal way to go into regression. They also use this technique in NLP in the Change Personal History. It is a technique to go back to the first time and resolve it to break the chain. You will discover these techniques in a good Hypnosis practitioner of course and you too can then free people from a lifetime of fear.

You yourself can do the same when you train in it. I solved years of anxietyin myself this wayby working with an affect bridge. In self-hypnosis you then go back to the first time and change the first time there by looking at it now as an adult. It is one of the most amazing methods there is and regression belongs as a technique in my top 3 favorite techniques.

I hope you'll experiment with it yourself and let me know how it goes! Of course, you can always make an appointment to get rid of your anxiety fast.