By Marshall Burtcher, Life Coach

This article is copyrighted 2009-2010. Any use of this process in a professional or paid circumstance, as well as mass distribution of this written edition, is strictly prohibited without written permission or authorization. If you wish to use this process in your professional environment, or desire personal coaching or training, please contact Marshall Burtcher at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Thank you.

The 11 STEPS

Here are the basic steps to the Simple Clearing Process (SCP):

1. Locate the body feeling in your body
2. What is its shape?
3. What is its color?
4. Is it hard or soft?
5. What is its name?
6. What is it telling you?
7. What does it want you to do?
8. What do you think of that?
9. What are you going to do?
10. When are you going to do that?
11. How does (body feeling place) feel?

The Purpose of the Simple Clearing Process

I built this process in an effort to create an easy and reliable method understanding out body's feedback. I pieced it together through work with myself and others, as well as I read up of body-mind connection theories and experiences. Its purpose is to help you understand this powerful part of yourself - the body and subconscious mind. I recommend you use it on any body feeling and see what the real-world results are from it.

The Origin of the Simple Clearing Process

The Simple Clearing Process is derived from the three core resources cited below. I slowly pieced together a methodology that has assisted me in understanding my reactions to stimuli and discovering actions that satisfy the trigger and resolve real-world situations in healthy, responsible and productive ways.

The Resources:

1. Stuart Litchman's "Get Money for Anything Fast" eBook. This ebook contains a clearing process that contains the basic elements of discovering the shape, color, and name of the body feeling. Stu's process omits the message portion of the body feeling's feedback, as well as the simple question of "what does it want you to do."
2. "Come To Your Senses", by Stanley Block. This book describes the mind-body connection concept and its usefulness in releasing trauma and pain as well as finding your own intuitive instinct about yourself, your life and what you seek.
3. "The Book of est" ebook, by Luke Rhinehart . This ebook describes the EST program used in the 1970's for finding and clearing resistance to ourselves. It does not use all 11 steps, but was useful in understanding the need for neutrality in listening to our body feelings' messages.
4. Peter Levine's "Waking the Tiger" and "Healing Trauma" workbook. These give you a good understanding on trauma and its body-based nature and tools with which to work with the body in the release of old trauma and "freeze".

The Structure and Use of Simple Clearing Process

Step One: Locate the location of the body feeling

This is done to turn your attention to your body and help you move outside of your thoughts and automatic labeling of things. This gets you to start tuning into your body feelings and body response.

Steps Two, Three and Four

This further tunes us into the particular elements and features of the body feeling. The answers to these steps are generally not important to you as the user. Sometimes they can be enlightening about the opinion and use of this disturbance by the subconscious mind, but really is inconsequential to the understanding and release process.
More senses can be added in case you are having trouble getting clear on the body feeling's feel and nature. You can ask yourself these questions:

• Is it hot or cold?
• Rough or soft?
• Above the skin or below the skin?
• How deep or shallow is it?

Step Five: What Is Its Name?

This invites the body feeling to begin communicating to us. I've found asking the name endears respect and fosters a feeling of respect with the body feeling and your subconscious self in general. The name will come to you. It may not make any sense. It is not important what the name is.

Step Six: What Are You Telling Me?

Here we elicit the information that is causing the body feeling. It can come as a flash of an old memory, a word, a phrase, a picture or even another body feeling. In the event it is another body feeling, proceed to start the Simple Clearing Process on that new feeling. Once it is clear, proceed to Step Six to finalize this talk with yourself.
Sometimes what we get at this level isn't clear enough, especially if you can ambiguous terms like "I'm angry" "I'm tired" "I'm scared", etc. You need to request more information until you get a specific thing. This is easily achieved by using simple questions, such as:

• What are you angry about?
• What are you tired about?
• What is scaring you?

The most effective results with SCP come when we have a clear understanding of the body feeling's message.

Step Seven: What Do You Want Me To Do?

This is where we find out what will satisfy and resolve the conflict that created the body feeling. There are some guidelines with this:

1. We never act on a request that harms ourselves
2. We never act on a request that harms others

Some clients have had their body feelings respond with a violent request toward offenders that were brought up during Step Six. According to Psychologist Peter Levine, trauma has a body-primal element to it and may require a physical act of aggression or escape to help complete the release (leaving the freeze state and entering fight or flight to complete the process). It is NOT reasonable for us to act on our aggression in ways that cause harm to another. There are some options here, though:

• Use of Peter Levine's Trauma Release Practices (controlled pushing, pulling, running, etc while stimulated in the emotional memory). He released a guided book and CD with these processes called, "Healing Trauma", by Peter Levine.
• Use of the White Space Visualization to perform the desired act in our imagination
• Discussion on the event with a counselor to assist in creating a new conclusion as well as agitating any possible residual emotions or memory

Step Eight: What Do You Think Of That?

This is where we exercise our ability to choose our action and outcome. This is a cooperative step to help your subconscious mind and your conscious mind find harmony and balance. This naturally aligns you will your own will and power and brings greater functionality and success over time in achieving positive, loving outcomes.
It is best when you ask yourself this question, you use YOUR name so there's clear distinction about who is responding. If you are not comfortable with the proposed option, suggest an alternative and see what the body feeling thinks. If it agrees to it, then move forward. If not, it make have a compromise or alternative as well. Remember to ask and find out!

Step Nine: What Are You, (your name), Going To Do?

This step displays and communicates the choice being made in a clear, simple fashion. The subconscious listens to this and will respond to it. A maze can be triggered here as well, so be mindful for body discomfort that may arise after the statement of the choice. Be willing to listen and clear that so greater clarity and harmony is achieved. It is most effective if this is verbally stated outside to yourself. It helps separate your voice from that of the inward voice.

Step Ten: When Are You, (your name), Going To Do That?

This steps creates accountability and a clear commitment to yourself and your subconscious. It tells this part of yourself what it can expect to happen. IT IS MOST IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO WHAT YOU COMMIT TO DO. If you do not, you will fail to earn the trust of your subconscious and will further create feelings of inadequacy, insecurity and distrust within yourself. Keeping your word is imperative in creating and experiencing lasting change and results.

Verbally state when you are going to do it. This further clarifies who is making the choice (you are, not the body feeling). The body feeling may have a suggestion as to timing, however, and I would encourage you to invite that feedback.

Step Eleven: How Does Your (body part or area) Feel?

This helps us connect the final dot in the clearing process. We quickly find that the body feeling is subsiding, if not already vanished. This keeps us in tune with our body as well.
Example: if the stomach was upset, how does it feel now that we've ran the process?

Other Elements to be Aware of

Mazes

A maze is a winding path that leads nowhere and often back to the beginning. Our memory is much a like a maze. With emotionally charged memory, it is especially difficult to find our way out of the maze to the true and real conclusion about an event because we have no idea there IS an out. The use of SCP will eventually lead you into this kind of maze. The following are distinct elements of a maze:

1. Goes more than 3 body feelings deep without gaining greater clarity or coming to a new conclusion or awareness.
2. Continues to bring up the same memory or topic. Its persistent.

Mazes are typically an indicator that there is a belief ("that's the way it is") or an identity ("I am that") governing how you perceive the event and the associated emotions. This prevents you from leaving the maze successfully. A new belief or identity is required to exit and resolve the maze successfully.

Shifting an identity or belief into a new identity or belief requires our being neutral to our initial conclusion, allowing for it to be present. Once we establish this safety zone, we will feel open to considering new information. The belief and identity can then shift through making new associations and new conclusions about "what is real" and "what is fact" in reality. Observing reality in its present state without excluding the past can be effective in achieving the new conclusion. This process is often guided through imagery or discussion, always allowing you to form your own conclusions. Navigating mazes may require external help, as sometimes we cannot see the forest for the trees.

Forcing it and Trying to Figure It Out

This process taps the feedback of the subconscious through the medium of the body, as that is theorized to be how the subconscious best communicates. Trying to analyze or figure out the response cuts you off from the organic, nearly immediate response to the 7 questions. It is recommended that you relax and let whatever comes up, come up and be acknowledged. This can be especially weird and uncomfortable when first starting the process. As you allow it to work, though, you gain trust in it and that will help you move forward in getting in contact with your body and its wisdom.

Importance of New Conclusions in Releasing Trauma

New conclusions about the memory and its meaning are critical to bringing closure to traumatic or disturbing past events. I've found the best guide in creating new conclusions is to help you objectively observe reality. Often this requires the simple act of seeing that both the negative and positive elements co-exist in one's experience (e.g. being accepted by some and rejected by others). This helps us release the unnatural responsibility we take upon ourselves for the outcome of things that are not in our control (such as other people's actions and reactions to us).

Steps 7 and 8 are where new conclusions can be installed, observed and validated by present reality and by unbiased memory recall, as well as trusted third party feedback.

An Example
This example is taken from a real client and aptly demonstrate how to use SCP for yourself.

Diana
Client: Diana (fictional name). Discomfort in the belly, just below the skin.

What is its shape?

A square

What is its color?

Orange

Is it hot or cold?

Hot

What is its Name?

Joan

What is Joan telling you?

Anger

Anger about what?

Angry about feeling trapped

Trapped in what?

Trapped in my relationship

So Joan is angry about being trapped in your relationship?

(pause)

Yes

What does Joan want you to do?

Forgive Fred and love myself and let me express myself my way

What do you, Diana, think of that?

That makes sense. Its what I've wanted to do all along

What are you, Diana, going to do?

I'm going to forgive Fred and love myself and express myself my way

When are you going to do that?

Right now.

How's the pain in your belly?

(smiles) Its gone