Atlas›Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements›Guide 235
Guide XIV-235

Sedona Method

Lester Levenson, Hale Dwoskin1974Sedona, Arizona
A 18 · L 47 · M 3523 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Sedona Method as Sedona Training Associates (Sedona, Arizona) publishes it on sedona.com, in Hale Dwoskin and Lester Levenson's book The Sedona Method (SCB Distributors edition, 2020; chapter list as the publisher lists it), and in Dwoskin's own interviews, including his account of the later "five ways of releasing" and "Holistic Releasing". The releasing questions themselves are not reproduced here; they appear in outline only.

The Sedona Method is a commercial self-help programme, not a psychotherapy. It is taught through books, audio courses, live seminars, retreats, support calls and certified coaches. Its core idea is that people hold on to feelings, thoughts and beliefs as if they were who they are, and that they can choose to drop them. Dwoskin compares this to opening a clenched hand and letting a pen fall. The method sets this against two habits it says are common: suppressing feelings and expressing them. The organisation's own wording frames the work as releasing "non-love feelings". [source: sedona.com About Us; Steve Farber interview; Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript]

Origins, as the organisation tells them: Lester Levenson, described as a physicist and engineer, became critically ill in 1952 after a second heart attack. The organisation says doctors gave him a few weeks to live and that, by letting go of his non-love feelings, he reached "perfect health and perfect peace of mind" within three months and lived another 42 years. The organisation dates the method as it is now named to 1974. Hale Dwoskin met Levenson in 1976 at a seminar in Manhattan. The organisation says Levenson transferred his copyrights to Dwoskin and asked him to carry the work on. Levenson died in 1994. In 1996 Dwoskin and his wife founded Sedona Training Associates, which the organisation calls "an educational training organization". Dwoskin is also known for appearing in the film The Secret. [source: sedona.com About Us; sedona.com Hale Dwoskin bio; Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript] The recovery story is the organisation's account. No independent medical record of it is cited here [uncertain: not verified].

Claims, attributed: the organisation says the method helps with stress, emotional pain, health, money, decision-making and addiction recovery, and that hundreds of corporate executives have taken the course. It also refers to unnamed researchers at Harvard, Columbia and the State University of New York, and to studies showing lower heart rate and diastolic blood pressure. [source: sedona.com About Us] Evidence status in one line: no independent, peer-reviewed controlled trial of the Sedona Method is cited by the organisation's pages or by this guide. One secondary account describes a single small study (three groups of 20, compared with progressive relaxation) and calls the evidence limited [source: ScienceInsights; uncertain: secondary, original study not verified].

How it sits in Domain XIV: Sedona is grouped with human-potential trainings because it is sold as a seminar-and-retreat programme with a course ladder and instructor certification. It is not a confrontational large-group awareness training of the est type, and the sources here describe no attack-style exercises. Dwoskin now presents it as "a bridge" between self-help, psychology and non-duality (the teaching that separate selfhood is not ultimately real). [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript] For the psychotherapist the practical questions are therefore: (1) Is the client using releasing to process emotion or to avoid it? (2) Can it serve as a self-regulation adjunct inside evidence-based treatment? (3) Are spiritual, health or financial claims shaping the client's decisions? [synthesis]

2. Framework

The programme as the organisation publishes it. [source: sedona.com About Us; Hale Dwoskin bio; Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript; Google Books record]

  • Entry points: the book The Sedona Method, Happiness Is Free (Dwoskin and Levenson), The Greatest Secret, and a home-study audio course. The website also offers a short self-trial page.
  • Live training: the method was first taught as a seminar run over two weekends. Levenson ran intensives in Arizona from 1981. Dwoskin describes a basic programme, an advanced programme and an instructor programme, plus advanced retreats, one of them streamed online. The organisation lists live seminars in US cities and in Canada, Europe and Australia.
  • Follow-on support: free monthly support calls, a Facebook group, an online forum, a directory of instructors and coaches, Instructor/Coach Training, and the follow-on course Mastering the Greatest Secret.
  • Corporate work: custom training for groups and organisations by Dwoskin or his trainers.
  • Costs: the organisation's pages cited here give no prices [uncertain: not verified]. The organisation states a satisfaction guarantee and publishes a refund policy.
  • Session counts and lengths: none are given in the sources here beyond the two-weekend seminar format. This guide sets none.

The book's course sequence (chapter titles as the publisher lists them; content summarised in Section 4) [source: Google Books record]:

  1. Part One, "The Sedona Method Course": moving beyond the cycle of suppression and expression; a "formula for success"; a "roadmap to emotional freedom" (a map of emotional states); dissolving resistance; serenity; putting it together.
  2. Part Two, "Real-life applications": fear and anxiety, guilt and shame, habits, money, relationships and health.
  3. Further chapters: deeper releasing; letting go of the "four basic wants"; setting and reaching goals; attachments and aversions; "Power Decisionmaking"; the "Cleanup Procedure"; organisations; "Holistic Releasing"; "the 5th Way of Releasing"; next steps.

Five ways of releasing, as Dwoskin describes them [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript]:

  1. Letting go: dropping the attachment to a feeling or thought. Dwoskin says this was the original way Levenson taught him.
  2. Allowing, or "living open": letting experience pass through without sticking.
  3. "Diving in": going into the core of a feeling and finding it has no substance (he compares it to a soap bubble).
  4. Welcoming both sides of a polarity at once so that they cancel out (Holistic Releasing).
  5. Inquiry into awareness that is already present.

Dwoskin says ways 2 to 5 grew out of his work with students after Levenson.

Moving between stages: the organisation publishes no formal criteria. In its framing, the person continues until they feel the relief they want, and the method is meant to become spontaneous, done mid-conversation without the formal questions. [source: Steve Farber interview]

A clinical frame for using it as an adjunct [synthesis]:

  1. Assess what the client already does with the method, why, and how often. Screen before any retreat or intensive.
  2. Formulate what the practice does for this client: regulation, acceptance, avoidance, a spiritual path or a health hope.
  3. Integrate releasing as a between-session self-regulation skill where it supports treatment goals, alongside an evidence-based treatment for any diagnosed condition.
  4. Review the effects on mood, avoidance, relationships, money and medical decisions.
  5. Debrief and close after courses or retreats.

Move from step 1 to step 3 only once the client can tolerate the target feeling without dissociating, and only once releasing is not standing in for needed treatment.

3. Guiding principles

Principles the method publishes [source: Steve Farber interview; Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript; sedona.com About Us]:

  • Feelings are not who you are. Practical meaning: you can invite the client to notice a feeling as something they have, not something they are.
  • Letting go is a choice. Practical meaning: frame the practice as voluntary and freely chosen. Never make it a demand or a test the client can fail.
  • Allow before you release. Dwoskin says the first step with intense feeling is to allow it. Practical meaning: contact with the feeling comes first. Releasing is not a way to skip feeling.
  • Welcoming is not digging. Dwoskin says welcoming is "not forcing yourself to bring it all up" and deals only with what is present now. Practical meaning: no forced uncovering of traumatic memory.
  • Test it; don't take it on faith. Dwoskin invites people to keep what works and drop what doesn't. Practical meaning: you can run releasing as an experiment, with the client judging the results.
  • Not positive thinking, not escape. Dwoskin warns against putting a "happy face" over problems and against artificial, joyful escape (spiritual bypassing). Practical meaning: use the method's own words to name avoidance when it appears.
  • Don't dismiss suffering with spiritual talk. Dwoskin says telling a grieving person that their loss is illusory would be "really insensitive". Practical meaning: grief and trauma are honoured, not argued away.
  • Teacher and student as equals. Dwoskin says courses are not satsang (devotional sitting with a guru). Practical meaning: you can check whether a client's teacher or coach relationship matches this ideal.

The psychotherapist's principles [synthesis unless cited]:

  • Respect the meaning; assess the function. Explore what releasing means to the client in their own language, using the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions [uncertain: DSM-5-TR wording not verified]. Practical meaning: you can be curious about the belief and still assess what the practice does.
  • Adjunct, never replacement. No releasing is presented as treating physical or psychiatric disease. Practical meaning: diagnosed conditions get evidence-based care, and medical decisions stay with the client's physicians. Never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine.
  • Processing versus avoidance is the key distinction. Practical meaning: track whether the feeling is felt, understood and acted on, or quickly dismissed and then returns as symptoms, avoidance or relational fallout.
  • Pace for trauma. Practical meaning: work inside the window of tolerance, keep grounding available, and take a dissociative "nothing there" as a signal to slow down.
  • No guru, no coach role. The therapist does not act as a releasing coach or teacher inside therapy and does not approve courses or attend them with the client. Practical meaning: keep a separate, professional frame. If you are also a Sedona coach, keep the roles separate and refer out.
  • Informed consent and ethics. Practical meaning: explain the evidence status of the method and your own role, and get consent before using any of its procedures in session. [synthesis; APA Ethics Code, Standard 3.05 (Multiple Relationships), https://www.apa.org/ethics/code]
  • Watch money and recruitment. Practical meaning: review course and retreat spending, coaching and certification costs, and any pressure to buy the next level.

4. Intervention inventory

This inventory has two parts. Part A sets out the method's own procedures as Sedona Training Associates and Dwoskin publish them, in outline only: purpose and structure, with no question sequences, scripts or timings. Use Part A to understand and assess what a client is doing, or with consent as a self-regulation adjunct. Part B covers the psychotherapist's own work around the method. In both parts, all example language is the guide's own wording.

Part A. The method's procedures (outline, as published)

A1. Basic releasing (the "first way": letting go)

  • Purpose and when used: the method's core move. It is used in the moment, for an upsetting email, a dreaded call or a stuck problem, and in the formal course. [source: Steve Farber interview]
  • Structure (outline): the course teaches a short guided sequence for letting go of a feeling that is present, repeated until the person feels the relief they want. The wording and order of the questions are the course's own and are not reproduced here. [source: Steve Farber interview] With practice, the published aim is to release mid-meeting without the formal questions, like opening a fist. [source: Steve Farber interview]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You've said you sometimes use releasing when your manager emails. Before we look at whether it helps, could you tell me what you notice in your body right before you start?"
  • Watch for: relief that comes within seconds every time and is followed by the same feeling coming back. Also watch for "no" answers being treated as failure, and for releasing used to shut down anger that points to a real problem, such as mistreatment at work. Signs it is working: the feeling is acknowledged and its intensity drops, the person can then act on the situation, and they report less brooding afterwards. [synthesis]

A2. Allowing and welcoming (the "second way": living open; the "triple welcoming")

  • Purpose and when used: letting experience pass through without resisting it. Dwoskin presents allowing as "the balancing point" between suppressing and expressing, and as the first step with intense feelings such as grief. [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript]
  • Structure (outline): noticing and welcoming what is present now, without judging it and without digging for buried material. Dwoskin describes the welcoming in layers (the "triple welcoming"); the layers are not set out here. [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript] He says this makes experience "less overwhelming, not more". [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's stay with the sadness for a moment, just as much as feels manageable. If at any point it feels like too much, tell me and we'll come back to the room."
  • Watch for: in clients with trauma, "welcoming" can tip into flooding or into numbing. Check grounding and the client's sense of the present. Working looks like this: the feeling is tolerated, it changes, and the client stays oriented. This part of the method is the closest to the acceptance-based stance of mainstream therapies, although the method's sources draw no such link. [synthesis]

A3. "Diving in" (the third way)

  • Purpose and when used: going into the core of a feeling, or of the sense of self, to find that it has no substance. Dwoskin's image is a soap bubble. [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript]
  • Steps: the published steps are not set out in the sources here [uncertain: not verified]. Do not improvise a version in session.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you 'dive in' to the fear on your own, what happens next? Does it ease, or does everything go far away and flat?"
  • Watch for: depersonalisation or derealisation ("nothing is there, including me") that lingers after practice, and use with unprocessed trauma memories. Treat lasting unreality, panic or confusion as a clinical issue that needs assessment (see B9). [synthesis]

A4. Holistic Releasing (the fourth way: welcoming both sides)

  • Purpose and when used: welcoming a problem and its opposite, or a problem and its solution, together so that "they dissolve each other". The book has a chapter on it. [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript; Google Books record]
  • Structure (outline): works with the two poles of a polarity, for example liking and disliking. The book's sequence is not reproduced here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You seem to hold two pulls at once: wanting to leave the relationship and wanting to stay. Before releasing either, can we spend some time understanding what each one is protecting?"
  • Watch for: using "both sides dissolve" to avoid a needed decision, such as leaving an abusive situation. Make sure safety questions are answered on their own terms. [synthesis]

A5. The "fifth way": inquiry into awareness

  • Purpose and when used: turning attention to the awareness that Dwoskin says is already present. It is a non-dual ("not-two") spiritual practice, and the book has a chapter on it. Dwoskin links releasing to dissolving the "seeds" that he says block recognition of non-duality. He uses yogic terms: samskaras (impressions) and vasanas (tendencies). [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript; Google Books record]
  • Steps: these are not given in the sources here [uncertain: not verified]. This is a spiritual practice. The therapist does not teach it.
  • Example language (illustrative): "This sounds like an important part of your spiritual life. Would you like it to be something we talk about here, or would you rather keep it separate?"
  • Watch for: spiritual emergency versus psychosis or mania, and persistent depersonalisation. Ask about sleep, function and dangerous behaviour, not about whether the belief is true. Dwoskin himself warns against using non-dual language to avoid life. [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript; synthesis]

A6. Letting go of the basic wants

  • Purpose and when used: the book has a chapter titled "Letting Go of the Four Basic Wants". The organisation's materials refer to wanting approval, control and security [source: Google Books record]. The fourth want, and the exact structure of the procedure, are not set out in the sources here [uncertain: not verified]. Dwoskin speaks of welcoming the wanting to "fix it, to change it, to control it". [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript]
  • Steps (outline): the person traces a feeling back to the underlying want and releases the want rather than the surface feeling. No question wording is given here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You noticed the anxiety before the meeting seemed to be about needing their approval. That's useful to know. Shall we look at where that need for approval comes from, and also what you actually want from the meeting?"
  • Watch for: a client who "releases" wanting safety when they are in fact unsafe, or who releases wanting approval in a way that slides into self-neglect. Basic needs are legitimate. In therapy, link the want to the client's history and values. [synthesis]

A7. The emotional-states "roadmap"

  • Purpose and when used: Part One of the book includes a chapter titled "Your Roadmap to Emotional Freedom", which presents a map of emotional states. [source: Google Books record] The list of states and their order are not verified here [uncertain: not verified].
  • Steps: the client identifies which state they are in and releases on it [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "On your map, where would you put today? And what would someone who loves you notice about you today?"
  • Watch for: the map being used as a ladder for self-judgement ("I'm still stuck low down"), or labelling replacing a fuller look at symptoms. For persistent low mood, screen for depression and risk with standard tools. [synthesis]

A8. Setting and attaining goals

  • Purpose and when used: the book's goal chapter, and Dwoskin's description of goals as a programme area alongside relationships and well-being. The book presents releasing as a "formula for success". [source: Google Books record; Steve Farber interview]
  • Steps (outline): state a goal, then release the feelings and wants that come up about it until action feels easier. The book's goal wording is not reproduced here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you write the goal down, what comes up first: excitement, doubt, or pressure? Let's notice each one before we plan the first step."
  • Watch for: magical expectations, especially about money. The organisation links the method to financial security, and Dwoskin appears in The Secret. Watch for spending or debt taken on in the belief that releasing will produce income. Keep goal work tied to concrete, testable steps. [source: sedona.com About Us; synthesis]

A9. Attachments and aversions ("Likes/Dislikes" process)

  • Purpose and when used: the book's chapter "Beyond Attachments and Aversions", plus a process the book's Google Books record lists among its key terms as the "Likes/Dislikes Process". The structure is not verified here [uncertain: not verified].
  • Steps: not reproduced here. As the titles suggest, the client works on both what they like and what they dislike about a person or situation [uncertain].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned doing the likes and dislikes process about your sister. What did you learn about the relationship, apart from feeling calmer?"
  • Watch for: relational problems such as abuse, boundary violations or betrayal being treated only as the client's internal attachment. Name what is relational. [synthesis]

A10. "Power Decisionmaking"

  • Purpose and when used: a chapter title in the book on making decisions [source: Google Books record]. The organisation says the method helps people "make sound decisions". [source: sedona.com About Us] The procedure is not verified here [uncertain: not verified].
  • Steps: not reproduced here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Releasing helped you feel calmer about the decision. Shall we also list the facts, the risks and the people who'd be affected, so calm and information go together?"
  • Watch for: big decisions, such as leaving a job, ending treatment or spending savings, made on a feeling of release alone. Encourage time, information and trusted advisers. [synthesis]

A11. The "Cleanup Procedure"

  • Purpose and when used: a chapter title in the book [source: Google Books record]. Its content is not verified here [uncertain: not verified].
  • Steps: not reproduced here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What does the cleanup procedure do for you? When do you tend to reach for it?"
  • Watch for: any procedure done for hours at a time, or compulsively, to neutralise distress. That pattern can resemble OCD-style neutralising or reassurance-seeking (see Section 5). [synthesis]

A12. Releasing in daily life ("spontaneous" releasing)

  • Purpose and when used: the stated end point of practice, letting go in the middle of ordinary life without the formal questions. Dwoskin also warns against acting out of fear or excitement, since both can distort judgement. [source: Steve Farber interview]
  • Structure (outline): the published aim is that letting go becomes spontaneous in ordinary life; no procedure is given here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "This week, could you notice one moment when you let go and one moment when you couldn't, and jot down what happened next in each?"
  • Watch for: constant monitoring of one's own emotional state, or using spontaneous release to get through conversations that need assertiveness. Signs it is working: fewer reactive escalations, and problems still get addressed. [synthesis]

Part B. The psychotherapist's work

B1. Exploring meaning, using the Cultural Formulation Interview

  • Purpose and when used: at intake, or whenever a client mentions releasing, Sedona, Levenson, Dwoskin or The Secret. The aim is to learn what the practice means to the client, in their own words, before judging what it does for them. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Ask how the client came to the method: a book, an audio course, a seminar, a coach or a friend.
    2. Ask what they hope it does. Is it emotional relief, success, health, or spiritual awakening (the non-dual "fifth way")?
    3. Use the Cultural Formulation Interview's questions on cultural identity, explanations of the problem, sources of support and help-seeking. Add its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions if releasing is part of a spiritual path [uncertain: DSM-5-TR module wording not verified].
    4. Note the client's own terms, such as "releasing", "welcoming", "the wants" and "non-love feelings". Use them back where accurate.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you say you 'released it', what was that like from the inside? What did it change, and what stayed the same?"
  • Watch for: debating whether the method is valid; the therapist's own scepticism or enthusiasm; shame about having spent money on it. It is working when the client describes the practice openly and you can see what it does for them. [synthesis]

B2. Helping a client decide about a seminar, retreat or intensive

  • Purpose and when used: before a live course, an advanced retreat or an instructor or coach training. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Get the published programme: the format, the days, what is taught and the costs, and any screening forms or the published health-conditions disclaimer. Read them with the client.
    2. Screen for current or past psychosis, bipolar disorder (especially recent hypomania), PTSD or complex trauma, a dissociative disorder, recent bereavement or another major loss, suicidality, an active eating disorder, substance use and pregnancy. Then weigh the timing.
    3. Ground this screening in the large-group training literature. Two psychiatric case reports in the American Journal of Psychiatry (1977) describe five people who developed psychotic symptoms after Erhard Seminars Training (est); only one had a prior psychiatric history. A second report adds two further cases and proposes vulnerability factors ("defective ego boundaries") and the influence of authoritarian leadership. [source: Glass, Kirsch and Parris 1977, American Journal of Psychiatry 134(3):245; Kirsch and Glass 1977, 134(11):1254; abstracts] A 1982 Annual Review of Psychology review is reported to say that psychologists advised people with borderline or psychotic conditions not to take part [source: Finkelstein, Wenegrat and Yalom 1982, as summarised on Wikipedia; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
    4. Note that these findings concern confrontational est-type trainings. No court ruling, regulator action or peer-reviewed case report specific to the Sedona Method was found in the sources consulted. Apply the screening by analogy to any intensive, emotionally evocative format.
    5. Agree on a plan: a contact person, a session soon after the course, early-warning signs, and the right to stop or leave at any time.
    6. If there is current suicidality, defer the course, follow standard risk assessment and safety planning, and give crisis lines: 988 (US), and Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).
  • Example language (illustrative): "It's your decision. I'd just like to go through a few things that help people get the most out of an intensive and stay safe: how you've been sleeping, how your mood has been, and what support you'll have when you get back."
  • Watch for: pressure to sign up now; a client attending to "fix" a crisis; reduced sleep beforehand; a plan to stop medication around the course. Never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine yourself; refer the client to the prescriber. [synthesis]

B3. Informed consent before using releasing in session

  • Purpose and when used: before adapting any part of the method, such as allowing or welcoming, as an in-session or between-session skill. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Explain that this is a commercial self-help method with limited independent evidence, and that you are not its instructor.
    2. Explain what you will use: the client's own published practice, or a generic acceptance step drawn from your evidence-based model.
    3. Get explicit consent, and agree how the client can stop at any point.
    4. Record the consent in your notes.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Releasing isn't something I'm trained to teach, and the research on it is limited. If you'd like, you could use it here the way you already do, and we'll watch together what it does. You can stop at any time."
  • Watch for: the client hearing your consent process as approval of the organisation, or as a promise that it works. [synthesis]

B4. Processing versus avoidance: a functional analysis

  • Purpose and when used: this is the central clinical question. Dwoskin himself warns against suppression, "happy face" positive thinking and "joyous escape". [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript] Use it when symptoms persist despite heavy releasing. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Pick three recent episodes of releasing.
    2. For each, map: the trigger; the feeling; how long the client stayed in contact with it; the release; what happened next to mood, behaviour and the relationship; and whether the feeling returned.
    3. Compare these with episodes where the client stayed with the feeling, talked about it or acted on it.
    4. Agree a working rule. One example: name the feeling and its message first, decide on any action, then release.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's be curious about the anger at your partner. When you released it, did the thing that made you angry get dealt with, or did it go underground?"
  • Watch for: fast "release" before the feeling is named, avoided conversations, symptoms showing up in the body, sudden irritability, and grief that keeps coming back. It is working when feelings are named, needed actions are taken, and releasing is used after contact with the feeling, not instead of it. [synthesis]

B5. Trauma-paced welcoming with grounding

  • Purpose and when used: with clients who have trauma histories and use welcoming or diving in. Dwoskin describes a retreat participant's long-standing abuse-related feeling dissolving "in just 10 minutes". [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript] Treat such rapid accounts as testimonials, not as a treatment model. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Establish grounding first: orienting to the room, feeling the feet, paced natural breathing without holding the breath.
    2. Agree a stop signal and a subjective intensity scale.
    3. Welcome only a small part of the feeling, for a short time, with eyes open if the client prefers.
    4. Return to the present and check orientation.
    5. For PTSD, use a trauma-focused evidence-based therapy (for example prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy or EMDR, as indicated), with its own consent and safety steps. Releasing should not be the trauma treatment.
  • Example language (illustrative): "We'll only touch the edge of this. Let's keep one foot in the room. If you notice things going foggy or far away, raise your hand and we'll come back."
  • Watch for: dissociation (flat voice, staring, loss of time), flashbacks after sessions, and self-harm urges. If these occur, stop, ground, assess risk and slow the pace. [synthesis]

B6. Releasing as a between-session adjunct

  • Purpose and when used: when the client values the method and it is helping with stress or reactivity, and no needed treatment is being displaced. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Agree which situations releasing is for, such as everyday irritability, and which it is not for, such as a safety concern or a medical symptom.
    2. Keep a brief log of the situation, the feeling, what was done and the outcome. Review it in session.
    3. Combine it with your model's active ingredients: behavioural activation, problem-solving, communication skills or values-based action.
    4. Review whether it stays helpful, and how much time and money it takes.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Releasing seems to take the edge off the evening worry. Let's keep using it there, and still do the planning we agreed, so the worry has somewhere to go."
  • Watch for: more and more time spent releasing; treatment goals stalling; reliance on courses and products. It is working when stress drops, function improves and treatment goals are met. [synthesis]

B7. Debriefing after a seminar, retreat or "peak"

  • Purpose and when used: within days of a live course or retreat, or after a dramatic experience such as an "awakening" or a sense of total freedom. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Ask the client to tell the story of the course: what happened, what they felt and what they decided.
    2. Check sleep, energy, speech and spending, and any new beliefs about special powers or mission.
    3. Ask about commitments made: next courses, coaching, instructor training, recruiting friends.
    4. Separate what they want to keep from what felt pressured.
    5. Plan re-entry with work and family, and pace any big decisions.
  • Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like a powerful weekend. Before you act on the big changes, how have you been sleeping since you got back, and has anything felt different in a way that worries you or the people close to you?"
  • Watch for: hypomanic signs (much less sleep, racing ideas, grandiosity, spending), psychotic symptoms, a crash into low mood after the high, and conflict at home. Arrange urgent psychiatric assessment for psychotic or manic features. For suicidality, follow risk protocols and give 988 (US) or Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland). [source: AJP 1977 case reports for psychosis after an intensive training; synthesis]

B8. Reviewing health claims and medical decisions

  • Purpose and when used: the organisation lists better health among the method's benefits, and its founding story is a recovery from heart disease. [source: sedona.com About Us] Use this review whenever a client with a physical or psychiatric illness is relying on releasing. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Ask directly whether releasing has changed any treatment decision.
    2. Affirm releasing's possible role in coping, without endorsing any claim that it heals disease.
    3. Encourage the client to talk with their physician or prescriber about any change. Do not advise on medicines yourself.
    4. Point out that the organisation publishes a disclaimer page on health conditions, and invite the client to read it with you [uncertain: its wording not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm glad releasing helps you cope with the diagnosis. Decisions about treatment belong with your cardiologist, and I'd encourage you to tell them what you're doing."
  • Watch for: missed appointments, stopped medication, and guilt ("I got ill because I didn't release enough"). [synthesis]

B9. Differential assessment without pathologising belief

  • Purpose and when used: when a client reports unusual experiences linked to diving in, the fifth way, or a non-dual "awakening". [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Assess function, distress, sleep, insight, risk and the duration of the experiences.
    2. Consider depersonalisation or derealisation disorder, psychotic disorders, mania, dissociative disorders and grief reactions.
    3. Consider a spiritual problem that is not a mental disorder (DSM-5-TR "Religious or Spiritual Problem", coded Z65.8) [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8; DSM-5-TR wording uncertain: not verified].
    4. Involve the client's teacher or community only if the client wishes.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people find these experiences freeing, and for others they become frightening or hard to switch off. Which is it for you, and how is it affecting your days?"
  • Watch for: experiences that are persistent, distressing and impair function, especially if the client loses the ability to tell inner from outer experience. These need psychiatric referral. [synthesis]

B10. Reviewing money, coaching and the course ladder

  • Purpose and when used: the organisation offers home-study courses, books, live events, advanced retreats, coaching, instructor and coach training, and follow-on courses. [source: sedona.com About Us; Hale Dwoskin bio] Use this review when spending is a concern. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Tally actual spending and debt.
    2. Ask whether the client is being encouraged to buy the next level, become a coach or bring in others.
    3. Note the organisation's published satisfaction guarantee and refund policy, and help the client read the terms.
    4. Set a budget that fits the client's values.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's look at what the courses have cost this year, and whether that sits comfortably with what matters to you."
  • Watch for: borrowing to attend, a hope of income from coaching that rests on the method's promises, and secrecy from a partner. [synthesis]

B11. The therapist's own boundaries

  • Purpose and when used: when a client asks you to attend a course, approve the method, coach them in releasing, or join a support call. The same applies if you are a Sedona coach yourself. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Decline joint attendance and any endorsement role.
    2. Keep any other role you have outside therapy and refer out if needed.
    3. Think before any self-disclosure about your own spiritual or self-help practice.
    4. Draw on spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists (Vieten et al. 2013) [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'd rather not come along. My role is to help you think about how it fits your life, and that works best if I stay outside it."
  • Watch for: the client seeking your approval as a stand-in for their own judgement; a drift toward guru-like roles on either side. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The method's sources mostly address being "stuck" as resistance to let go and recommend more practice. Dwoskin notes that the method is simple but takes practice, because holding on is a long habit. [source: Steve Farber interview] Everything else in this section is clinical guidance [synthesis] unless cited.

  • "It won't release" (the stuck client). The client feels like a failure because a feeling keeps coming back. Response: treat the returning feeling as information, not failure. Explore what it is signalling, and whether a situation, loss or relationship needs action. Dwoskin's own guidance is that grief can drag on when people don't feel what they feel [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript]. Shift from releasing to understanding. [synthesis]
  • Releasing as avoidance (spiritual bypassing). The client releases every flicker of anger or sadness, and conflicts at home go unaddressed. Response: run the functional analysis in B4. Use the method's own warning against "joyous escape" [source: Buddha at the Gas Pump transcript]. Agree to name the feeling and its message before releasing. [synthesis]
  • Compulsive releasing or "releasing anxiety". The client releases for hours, or feels they must release every "negative" thought, or else it will attract bad outcomes (a form of manifestation anxiety). Response: assess for OCD or scrupulosity. If present, use exposure and response prevention, in which the urge to release is treated as a neutralising response that the client gradually resists, with consent and a graded plan. Refer to an OCD specialist if needed. [synthesis; ERP as described by OCD clinical organisations such as the IOCDF, uncertain: not verified]
  • Overwhelm or dissociation in session. Response: stop the welcoming, ground and orient, check safety, and resume only with slower pacing (B5). If depersonalisation persists between sessions, assess it (B9). [synthesis]
  • Euphoria, grandiosity or unusual beliefs after a retreat. Response: assess for hypomania, mania or psychosis the same day where possible. Involve family with consent, and arrange psychiatric review. Do not argue about spiritual meaning. Case reports after intensive trainings describe psychotic episodes, including in people with no prior history. [source: AJP 1977 est case reports, abstracts; synthesis]
  • Suicidal thoughts. These may come after a "crash", after a feeling the client believes they "should" have released, or in the context of debt. Response: standard risk assessment, safety planning and lethal-means counselling (safe storage and removal). Involve emergency services if risk is imminent. Give 988 (US) or Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland). [synthesis]
  • Self-blame about health. "I'm ill because I haven't let go enough." Response: separate coping from causation. The organisation's recovery story is its own account, not medical evidence. Re-route medical questions to the physician. [source: sedona.com About Us; synthesis]
  • Non-adherence to evidence-based treatment. The client prefers releasing to homework, exposure or medication. Response: explore the preference respectfully. Present releasing as compatible with treatment, not a rival to it. Agree on a trial of the evidence-based element with clear outcome markers. Medication questions go to the prescriber. [synthesis]
  • Rupture: the client feels judged. This can happen if the client hears your questions as an attack on the method or on Dwoskin. Response: name it, apologise for anything that felt dismissive, and restate that the meaning is theirs and your focus is effects. [synthesis] The opposite rupture also happens: the client feels the therapist is too "in the head" compared with releasing. Response: invite the client to bring in the experiential, here-and-now elements they value. [synthesis]
  • Pressure to enrol others, become a coach, or buy the next level. Response: use the money and course-ladder review (B10). Explore the client's motives and finances before any instructor or coach training commitment. [synthesis]
  • Family members' concerns. A partner may complain that the client "releases instead of talking", or worry about spending. Response: with consent, hold a joint session focused on communication and agreements, not on the method's validity. [synthesis]
  • Former participants and disillusionment. A client may feel the method promised too much, or feel shame about money or time spent. Response: validate, explore what was useful and what was not, address any grief over lost hopes, and treat any underlying condition the method did not address. [synthesis]
  • Requests for the therapist to teach or lead releasing. Response: decline the teacher role (B11). Point the client to the organisation's own instructors if they want more training, and keep therapy focused on the client's goals. [synthesis]
  • Children and adolescents. A parent may want a child to "just release" anxiety or behaviour problems. Response: ensure a proper assessment for anxiety, ADHD, autism, trauma or depression, with the young person's assent. Apply safeguarding procedures if needed care is being refused. [synthesis]

Sources

← Previous · XIV-234AvatarNext · XIV-236 →Ontopsychology (Meneghetti)