LAKE OCONEE — About twenty years ago I had a very interesting experience.  A client I was working with asked me to join him while he was having a massage. An unusual request to be sure. After some thought, and consultation with the massage therapist, I decided to do it. It was worth the effort.  It opened my eyes to a technique that helped bring out repressed emotional memories that were affecting the well being of my client.

More specifically, this person was a pill and alcohol addict.  He was using “uppers” and “downers” to make it through each day.  He had a lot of emotional pain that was eating away at him.  In therapy he and I were able to get to and understand some of his pain and various aberrant behaviors that were becoming more prevalent. He was not very good at remembering and identifying the early painful experiences that had been buried in his subconscious and were now affecting his life so painfully.

So there I sat behind the massage table, in a dimly lit room, while the therapist gently massaged his body.  About half way through the massage he started to weep.  When the therapist touched a certain area of his back the weeping turned to anger as he lashed out at his mother.  These emotions were emanating from a stoic professional who was very bright, left brained, and emotionally disconnected.

The intense trapped sorrow and anger at his mother, unleashed by the competent masseuse, was enlightening and helpful for our further therapy. I was able to understand where much of his pain was buried in his body and towards whom much of the repressed feelings were directed.  Our therapy progressed at a much faster pace with these revelations.

There appears to be substantial evidence that says that all of our emotional experiences are contained in the cells of our body. Every person has a bank of collected emotional experiences, many of which are blocked from consciousness.  It is important for emotional healing and well being that these blockages be found and opened.

Emotional retentives are the primary candidates for such work.  They tend to bury painful memories more so than the emotional expressives.  Retentives generally are going to have more addiction problems because of this emotional brain response of burying. 

 My therapeutic modalities include a number of techniques to unveil these repressed emotional memories.  Most of the time they accomplish the goal.  There are, however, those people who have so buried these painful emotions that they cannot be reached.  In such cases I have productively worked with massage therapists who can facilitate such an opening up.  You may want to explore that modality of well being.

Massage relaxes the body and lowers stress and defense mechanisms. Brain waves change and access to buried crippling emotions is facilitated.  Emotions are the driving force of behavior, whether felt or not.  Therefore conscious access to emotional memories is vital in understanding and changing behavior. 

I invite you, respected reader, to do whatever it takes to be in touch with any repressed memories that are, in fact, affecting your life and various behaviors.  Everyone has some.

Examine yours.



— Dr. Stathas is a counseling psychologist, licensed marriage and family Therapist, in the Lake Oconee area. He is the founder of the Stathas Life Development Center. He can be reached at (706) 473-1780. E-mail: Stathas@plantationcable.net Web site: drstathas.googlepages.com.