NEMO 

EMOTIONAL CLEANSING TOOL 

by Ienke Keijzer

NEMO emotional cleansing tool

An easy and extremely efficient tool to help you get rid of your excessive emotional reactivities and phobias
By Ienke Keijzer

• Do you work with clients and patients who suffer from phobias or other excessive emotional reactivities?
• Are you looking for a tool to help your clients get rid of them?
• Do you yourself have a phobia or suffer from (unexplainable) anxiety?
• Do you want to get rid of it?
• Do you wish to put an end to it, for once and for all?
• And ... do you want to know how to do so? 

     Many, or even most people suffer from phobias and other excessive emotional reactivities. Panic and anxiety are part of many, many lives and make many people suffer. So many phobias exist (check out this not exhaustive list), and there are so many different ways to emotionally over or underreact.

    I have good news for you ! With the emotional cleansing tool NEMO it is possible to put an end to this suffering. It is possible to get rid of a phobia or any excessive emotional reactivities.  Often in one session. Definitely.

     I myself used to suffer from the fear of speaking in public, like so many people do. One session was enough to get rid of it. One session. And the session didn't take long. A few minutes. Unbelievable, but true. Now I like speaking to the public. I don't go blank. My hands don't get wet. I don't stutter. I don't run away. Not anymore. I still get some shivers down my spine when I have to speak in front of really big groups, but that's normal I guess. It's a healthy stress that helps to ensure succesful achievements.

     The objective of the emotional cleansing is not to get rid of the emotions all together, as emotions are healthy and necessary in life, but to get rid of the excessive and disproportionate emotional reacting. You can read more about why we have phobias and excessive emotional reactions in the article "what is a phobia and why do we have phobias".

NEMO, A MULTIFUNCTION SCREWDRIVER

                 
     The emotional cleansing tool NEMO is a very useful tool to have on hand, like a screwdriver. You can use it, without any therapeutic knowledge, to free yourself from any excessive emotional reactivity, and as a professional therapeutical tool if you accompany people in a professional setting, when you are a therapist, a coach, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a social assistant, or a doctor or a nurse, for example.

    NEMO is an extremely powerful tool to have in your therapeutic toolbox. It is multifunctional and extremely efficient. Its efficiency may lead you to believe it is a magical tool, but please, don't think it is a magic wand able to solve any problem. Sometimes, it is just not a screwdriver you need to fix a problem, but a hammer, a saw or some other tool.

     The technique can be used as a technique in itself, as a one-shot, to treat an emotional hyperreactivity or phobia, the way you can use a screwdriver to tighten a loose screw. It can also be used within a longer and more global therapeutic process, by integrating it in your sessions and by using it alongside your own therapeutic tools.

"I work as a therapist in Brussels and accompany a lot of people suffering from phobias and other emotional overreacting.

I use NEMO almost every day, and often several times a day.

It is a very easy tool, and patients often come back to ask for more. It's very interesting that the clients don't need to intellectualize. We just do the technique and the results are immediate and definite."

Thomas, Brussels

TWO READY-TO-USE EMOTIONAL CLEANSING PROTOCOLS

    NEMO can be practised in two kinds of situation: “à chaud” and “à froid”.

These are French terms I can’t seem to find the right translation for, so I have decided to keep them as they are.

- A CHAUD : IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT

    We can do NEMO “à chaud” when we ourselves are in a state of emotional hyperreactivity, or when we are with someone who is reacting to a situation in a clearly disproportionate emotional way, who is in the heat of the moment.

    When you accompany someone in a therapeutic session, whatever the type of therapy you do, clients are sometimes overwhelmed by disproportionate or excessive emotions. When this happens, you can take out your tool NEMO “à chaud” and do the emotional cleansing on the spot to solve the problem once and for all.

    Chaud in French means hot. So, when we are in the heat of the emotional reactivity, we can do NEMO “à chaud”.

    It is important though, to distinguish healthy emotions from excessive emotions. Emotions are natural and healthy. What is not healthy or natural is reacting in a disproportionate and excessive emotional way when objectively it is not necessary to react like that.

- A FROID : DISTANCIATED, NOT IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT

    When we are not in a state of emotional hyperreactivity the moment we want to do the technique, or when we work with someone who is not in direct contact with his or her emotional hyperreactivity or phobia, who is not overreacting emotionally, we can do the emotional cleansing NEMO “à froid”. Which means we can do the emotional cleansing any time we chose to do so.

    Froid is the French word for cold. So, when we are not in the heat of the emotional hyperreactivity, when we are cold and rational, we can do NEMO “à froid”.

    Clients that come to see a therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist or coach in a practice, are, in general, not in direct contact with their emotional hyperreactivity. They come to work on a phobia or a problem of excessive emotional reactivity and most of the time they will calmly explain their problem and what they want to be helped with. “Hi, I am Susan, and I would like to work on my phobia of speaking in public”. In this case we will do NEMO “à froid”.

THE EASY WAY OUT ?

    The technique of NEMO “à chaud” is extremely easy to carry out.

NEMO “à froid” is a bit longer and involves some extra steps as we launch the process of NEMO “à chaud” in a more artificial way. Even though it is a bit longer to carry out, NEMO “à froid” is still a very easy-to-use tool.

    Some people say that the easiest thing to do to apply NEMO would be to always trigger the phobia so as to be able to do NEMO “à chaud”. I am not very much in favour of this, as, in my view, NEMO “à froid” is a much more elegant way to help someone get rid of his or her emotional hyperreactivity or phobia. Triggering a phobia and the emotional overreaction that goes with it, just to be able to work on it, is in general effective but rarely pleasant.   

TWO READY TO USE PROTOCOLS TO GET RID OF A PHOBIA

    We can practise the two protocols of NEMO both on ourselves to get rid of our own emotional hyperreactivities, as well as to help other people get rid of theirs.

     We can use it in our personal environment with friends, colleagues or members of our family, or in a more professional setting when you are a psychotherapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, doctor, physiotherapist, coach or any other professional working in the field of personal development, well-being and mental health.

    So, there are four ways to practise the emotional cleansing tool NEMO:

• Self-NEMO “à chaud”
• NEMO on someone else “à chaud”

• Self-NEMO “à froid”
• NEMO on someone else “à froid”

    Thus, if for example you suffer from a flying phobia, you can do NEMO on yourself while on the plane, panicking and feeling really bad, as a self-NEMO “à chaud”, or you can do it at any other moment, when you are fully composed, as a self-NEMO “à froid”.   

   In the same way, you can do a NEMO “à chaud” with someone who is with you and who panics badly, for example because he sees a spider in your kitchen, or with a client you work with in therapy who is overwhelmed by a disproportionate emotion. Or you can do it calmly  “à froid” when the person is not in direct contact with his phobia or his excessive emotional reaction. 

    There is no difference between the protocol of a self-NEMO and the NEMO we practise on others. Therefore, I will content myself with one protocol for each of the two ways of practising. We will see one protocol for NEMO “à chaud” and another for NEMO “à froid” : two ready-to-use protocols. You will see, these two protocols suffice.   

THE BOOK NEMO EMOTIONAL CLEANSING           

     If you want to know more about the emotional cleansing NEMO and learn to use it, check out the book NEMO emotional cleansing - how to get rid of excessive emotional reactivities and phobias.

     The book's objective is to provide you with a tool that is ready to use, both for those of you just wishing to get rid of your own emotional hyperreactivities without having any therapeutic affinities, as well as for those of you who accompany clients and patients in your therapeutical or coaching practice.   

    The book is written with the intention of giving you all the information you need to be autonomous in both cases. After reading it, you know all there is to know about the emotional cleansing technique NEMO, and you will be able to put the technique into practice.

     If you prefer doing a NEMO session with a therapist, try to find one doing so. And if you are a therapist and want to master the technique and use it in your practice, you can register for one of my NEMO emotional cleansing trainings for therapists and all people working in the field of mental health and personal development.

- To order the book, click here : NEMO emotional cleansing, the book

- To find out what the training consists of and how to register, click here: NEMO Emotional Cleansing Training for Therapists

     I hope this article has been of use for you. Feel free to share your experience(s) with the NEMO emotional cleansing tool, whether you are a client or a therapist. It is always a pleasure to hear from you!
 
Ienke Keijzer

Neuro Psycho Practitioner - Trainer of therapists and coaches - Author
Grandis Ose