Matrix Reimprinting

1. Introduction

Version followed: Matrix Reimprinting as published by its creator, EFT Master Karl Dawson, on the official Matrix Reimprinting Ltd website (matrixreimprinting.com), with the founding book Dawson & Allenby, Matrix Reimprinting using EFT: Rewrite Your Past, Transform Your Future (Hay House UK, 2010) and the later belief-focused adaptation Dawson & Marillat, Transform Your Beliefs, Transform Your Life: EFT Tapping Using Matrix Reimprinting (Hay House, 2014). Book contents beyond the publishers' descriptions are [uncertain: not verified]; the detailed step wording of the books is therefore not reproduced, and steps below are built from the organisation's published descriptions, with clinical additions marked [synthesis].

Matrix Reimprinting (MR) is a meridian-tapping method that grew out of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). The organisation describes it as a technique that connects people with past traumas and core beliefs and turns them into supportive platforms for their lives. Where conventional EFT taps on meridian points while the person focuses on a painful memory to lower its intensity, MR aims to transform the memory: the client re-enters it, works with their younger self there, says or does what they wished they had, brings in new resources and people, and changes the picture they hold of the event. The founder's image: EFT is like watching a movie; MR is like being in a play. [source: MR official site, What is Matrix Reimprinting; FAQ; About Matrix Reimprinting]

Core idea of change, as the method holds it (attributed): painful memories are held as "pictures or holograms" in a personal energy field (the "matrix"), outside the physical body and not bound by time. At a traumatic moment a part of the self splits off and keeps re-living it; this part is the ECHO, the younger self the client meets in session. The ECHO expansion appears in secondary sources as "energetic conscious(ness) hologram" [uncertain: secondary, wording varies]. Founders hold that transforming these pictures, while tapping, changes the beliefs and the "vibration" a person emits, so that old memories "no longer cause a current day reaction", with claimed knock-on effects on physiology and on what the person attracts (law of attraction). The site frames this with references to quantum physics, Max Planck and the "New Biology". These are the method's own explanations, presented here as attributed claims, neither endorsed nor dismissed. [source: MR official site, What is Matrix Reimprinting; About Matrix Reimprinting; Penguin Random House listing; White, review of King 2015]

For the psychotherapist, MR is best understood as an imagery-rescripting style procedure delivered inside an EFT tapping frame and an energy-field explanatory model [synthesis]. It is complementary: it does not replace evidence-based trauma treatment or medical care, and it is not a treatment for physical disease, although the organisation lists issues such as allergies, long-term illness and serious disease among its application areas (attributed claims; no physical-health benefit is established).

2. Framework

The organisation publishes no formal phase model or session count; the sequence below follows its published descriptions, with stages marked where they are clinical additions. [source: MR official site, What is Matrix Reimprinting; FAQ] [synthesis for stages 0, 1 and 7]

Stage 0. Training prerequisite (practitioner). EFT competence first: a recognised EFT practitioner course or introduction to MR course, or extensive prior EFT study, before the two-day MR practitioner course. [source: MR, How to become a practitioner]

Stage 1. Assessment, consent and stabilisation [synthesis]. Goal: decide whether MR is suitable now, agree a focus, obtain informed consent (including any touch), teach EFT tapping and grounding. Move on when the client can self-tap, return to calm after a small activation, and stays present when recalling a mild memory.

Stage 2. Identify the issue, belief and target memory. Goal: link a current problem or reaction to a core belief and to an early memory where it formed. The 2014 adaptation centres the work on core beliefs. Move on when a specific memory (a scene with a moment of peak distress) is chosen. [source: Hay House UK listing; MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting]

Stage 3. Enter the memory and connect with the ECHO. Goal: the client imaginally steps into the scene and meets the younger self. Move on when the client can see or sense the ECHO and is not flooded.

Stage 4. Release with tapping. Goal: reduce the ECHO's distress using EFT tapping (the client taps on themselves in the present while imaginally tapping on, or being with, the ECHO). Move on when the ECHO is calm enough to communicate. [source: MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting; FAQ]

Stage 5. Communicate, resource and transform. Goal: the ECHO says or does what it needed, receives resources and support (people, pets, places, knowledge), feels loved and safe, and the scene is changed into a new picture. Move on when the client reports the new picture feels true and settled. [source: MR FAQ; About Matrix Reimprinting; White, review of King 2015]

Stage 6. Check the present. Goal: re-test the original memory and the current-day trigger and belief; repeat on further memories (the same belief often has several). [source: MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting] [synthesis for the re-test procedure]

Stage 7. Integration and ending [synthesis]. Goal: link the change to the client's present life within the wider psychotherapy, plan self-application only for small issues, review outcomes, end or continue.

Format and dose. Individual sessions, in person or remote (the organisation notes many practitioners work by telephone or video call) [source: MR FAQ]. Typical session count and length are not stated in the sources [uncertain: not verified]. One pilot study delivered MR over two weeks [source: Boath, Stewart & Rolling 2014]. A practical default inside psychotherapy is one memory per session of 50–90 minutes after a stabilisation phase whose length depends on the client [synthesis].

Self-application. The organisation says people may use MR on themselves for small issues ("small 't' traumas"), ideally after a session or two with a practitioner, and should work with a practitioner for major trauma, deep-rooted issues or memories they cannot recall. [source: MR FAQ]

Training and certification route. (1) EFT prerequisite: a three-day EFT practitioner or introductory MR course, or a qualifying EFT level 2 (the site lists AAMET, AMT, EFT Universe level 2, or Gary Craig's certification), or extensive study of Gary Craig's EFT DVD library. (2) Two-day MR Practitioner Training with a listed trainer (Karl Dawson is named for the listed courses). (3) Register on the site, pay a registration fee and complete about 15 hours of required video training. (4) Pass an online MR test (40 of 50) to receive the MR Practitioner certificate from Matrix Reimprinting Ltd; the EFT combined level 1 and 2 course is certified by the EFT & Matrix Reimprinting Academy. Further options: Tapping Out of Trauma 1.0 and 2.0 (online practitioner webinars), supervision days, a business course. Listed practitioners have completed the training and at least 12 weeks of the webinar programme (FAQ wording); trainers are selected from experienced practitioners. The site recommends a UK insurer for UK and Irish practitioners. [source: MR, How to become a practitioner; MR FAQ] The site says no prior qualification is needed to become a practitioner; for a psychotherapist the MR certificate adds a technique, not a licence: practise MR only within your existing scope and licence [synthesis].

Professional-body positions. The organisation states that it publishes a Code of Conduct and Ethics; its contents are not summarised here [uncertain]. Positions of psychotherapy licensing boards or professional bodies specific to MR are [uncertain]; check your own body's guidance on complementary techniques, your insurer's cover for energy-psychology methods, and how you describe the method in advertising [synthesis].

Combining with psychotherapy. The organisation states MR works stand-alone or alongside other approaches and that practitioners combine it with counselling, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, EFT, TFT, bodywork and reiki; it advises a qualified practitioner for mental-health conditions [source: MR FAQ; About Matrix Reimprinting]. In a psychotherapy, use MR as a discrete, consented procedure inside an existing formulation and treatment plan, never as a replacement for evidence-based trauma care (trauma-focused CBT, EMDR) where those are indicated [synthesis].

3. Guiding principles

[source: MR official site and FAQ where marked; otherwise synthesis]

Transform, not just reduce. The aim is a changed picture of the memory, not only lower distress: do not stop at calm; help the ECHO get what it needed. [source: MR FAQ]
Not denial. The organisation says changing the picture is not denying what happened: tell clients the event stays a fact; what changes is how it is held now. [source: MR FAQ; About Matrix Reimprinting]
Work with the younger self as a separate presence. The client relates to the ECHO from the present rather than becoming them: keep the adult self in the room as helper. [source: MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting] [synthesis: the dual-awareness emphasis]
Core beliefs drive reactions. Locate the belief formed in the memory and test change against it: ask what the ECHO decided about self, others, world. [source: Hay House UK listing; MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting]
Release before rescripting. Tap to calm the ECHO before dialogue or change: rescripting while the scene is still highly charged tends to stall [source: MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting (sequence)] [synthesis: the rationale].
Client-led resources. The client chooses what and who comes into the scene: offer options, never impose a rescue. [source: MR FAQ ("say or do what they wished"); White, review of King 2015] [synthesis: client-led emphasis]
The trauma does not need to be relived. Stay with the ECHO rather than re-running the whole event: a review of an MR birth-trauma book states this directly. [source: White, review of King 2015]
Small issues for self-help; major trauma with a practitioner. Do not assign self-application for big-T trauma. [source: MR FAQ]
Explanatory model attributed. Present energy, field, hologram and quantum concepts as the method's model, and let clients relate to them as they wish: say "in this approach…", never "science proves…". [synthesis]
Window of tolerance and dual awareness [synthesis]. Keep activation workable, with one foot in the present: titrate, ground, and pause before overwhelm.
Imagery is not evidence [synthesis]. Material emerging in imagery ("blocked" memories, birth, conception or past-life scenes) is worked with as experience and meaning, not confirmed as historical fact: never confirm or suggest abuse or other events the client does not independently remember.
Consent and choice throughout [synthesis]. The client can stop, leave the memory, decline touch or any step, at any time.
No health claims [synthesis]. Do not present MR as treating allergies, illness or disease; physical symptoms go to the client's doctor.

4. Intervention inventory

Sources describe the core MR moves (enter the memory, meet the ECHO, tap, communicate, bring resources, change the picture, check the present) without publishing a full step script outside the books; the step-by-step instructions below are therefore built from the organisation's published descriptions, with in-session detail and all safety steps marked [synthesis]. Named specialist protocols are listed at the end with only what is published about them. Example language is illustrative throughout.

4.1 Informed consent and contracting (including touch)

Purpose / when: before any MR work, and again before the first memory session. [synthesis]
Steps:
1. Explain that MR is a complementary, EFT-based imagery and tapping method used alongside psychotherapy; describe what a session involves (recalling a memory, imagining your younger self, tapping, changing the image).
2. State its evidence status in one line: one small uncontrolled pilot study (18 civilian war survivors in Bosnia) reported reduced PTSD-checklist scores, and its authors called for controlled studies [source: Boath, Stewart & Rolling 2014]; evidence-based trauma therapies exist and can be offered instead or as well.
3. Explain the explanatory model as the method's own (energy field, ECHOs), and that the client need not believe it for the procedure to be used.
4. Explain touch: the default is the client tapping on their own body; if the therapist would tap on the client, name the points (the commonly taught EFT points are the side of the hand, top of head, eyebrow, side of eye, under eye, under nose, chin, collarbone and under the arm [source: Psych Central, EFT tapping]; follow your own EFT course), ask permission before, check during, and offer the hands-off alternative (client self-taps, or both tap in parallel). Never touch intimate areas; touch is never sexual; the client may stop at any moment. Record consent and any touch in the notes; follow your professional body's chaperone and documentation guidance.
5. Agree a stop signal and the right to leave the memory at any time.
6. Make clear MR does not treat physical illness or replace medical care, and that you will not stop or change any treatment.
Example language (illustrative): "This is a complementary technique. You tap on some points on your face, upper body and hands while we work with an image of a younger you in a memory, and then we change how that scene ends. Research on it is very limited. I'd normally have you tap on yourself; if you ever want me to tap, I'll ask first, and you can say no or stop at any point. Raise your hand and we pause, no explanation needed."
Watch for: agreement given to please you; strong belief that MR will cure a physical condition (explore and correct gently); trauma history involving touch (default to self-tapping only). Working: the client can restate what will happen and how to stop.

4.2 Teaching EFT tapping as the base skill

Purpose / when: MR presupposes EFT; the client (and practitioner) need the tapping routine before MR. [source: MR, How to become a practitioner; About Matrix Reimprinting]
Steps:
1. Teach the EFT tapping sequence as taught on your EFT course (the organisation accepts several EFT lineages: Gary Craig, AAMET, AMT, EFT Universe) [source: MR, How to become a practitioner]. In common EFT teaching the round starts at the side-of-hand point and moves down from the eyebrow to under the arm, ending at the top of the head [source: Psych Central, EFT tapping]; set-up wording follows your EFT course [uncertain].
2. Introduce a 0–10 distress rating, taken before and after each round as in common EFT practice [source: Psych Central, EFT tapping; its use within MR specifically: uncertain], and practise on a mild present-day irritation.
3. Rate before and after; repeat rounds until it eases.
4. Agree the client will tap on themselves in the present during MR, while imagining tapping on the ECHO.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's practise on something small first. How strong is that annoyance, 0 to 10? Now follow me tapping while you just notice it."
Watch for: self-consciousness or ridicule (normalise, offer to tap alongside); breath-holding or rising activation even on mild material (go back to grounding, Section 4.13). Working: ratings fall and the client can tap without prompting.

4.3 Identifying the issue, core belief and target memory

Purpose / when: at the start of each MR piece of work; links a present reaction to the belief and memory the method targets. [source: MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting; Hay House UK listing (belief focus)]
Steps:
1. Take a current trigger: a situation where the client over-reacts or feels stuck.
2. Ask what the reaction says about them, others or the world, to name the belief (e.g. "I'm not good enough").
3. Ask when they first remember feeling that way; collect a few memories and choose one specific scene.
4. A secondary source describes MR belief formation in moments that were unexpected, dramatic, isolating and without a strategy to cope ("UDIN") [source: White, review of King 2015] [uncertain: secondary]; this can guide which scene to choose.
5. For a psychotherapy client, prefer a smaller, earlier, clearly remembered scene for the first memory, not the worst one [synthesis].
6. Rate the distress from a distance ("looking at it now") before entering.
Example language (illustrative): "When your manager frowned, what did that seem to say about you? … And when is an early time you felt 'I'm not good enough'? Pick one moment, like a single frame of film, not the whole story."
Watch for: a jump to the most traumatic memory (steer to a smaller one first); no memories at all (see 4.11); a belief that sounds imposed by you. Working: a clear scene and a belief in the client's own words.

4.4 Entering the memory and connecting with the ECHO

Purpose / when: the defining MR move; the client relates to their younger self inside the scene. [source: MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting; FAQ]
Steps:
1. While tapping, invite the client to picture the scene and to see their younger self there, as if they could step in beside them.
2. Help them observe from the present: where the ECHO is, what they look like, what is happening.
3. Ask the client to introduce themselves to the ECHO as their older self who has come to help [synthesis: wording].
4. Check present-moment anchors (feet, chair, your voice) every minute or two [synthesis].
5. Freeze or slow the scene if the action is distressing (the client can pause the scene) [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Keep tapping. Can you see the younger you in that room? … What are they doing? … Let them know you're the grown-up them and you're here to help. You're also here with me, feet on the floor."
Watch for: fusion (the client speaks as the child, in present tense, with rising distress, losing the observer position): bring back to dual awareness; numbing, blank, foggy, or the scene going far away (possible dissociation: stop, ground, see 4.13). Working: the client can see the ECHO and speak about them from the adult position.

4.5 Tapping on the ECHO (release)

Purpose / when: to calm the ECHO's distress before dialogue or change. [source: MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting ("release the trauma using EFT"); FAQ]
Steps:
1. The client taps on themselves in the present while imagining tapping on the ECHO (or the ECHO tapping, or the adult simply being with them) [source: MR FAQ (tapping combined with memory work)] [uncertain: exact convention]. In Sharon King's birth-focused adaptation, a reviewer describes entering the remembered event at any point, even its end, and first reassuring the ECHO that it survived and is now safe [source: Dueger, review of King 2015].
2. Ask what the ECHO is feeling and where in their body; tap on that, using the ECHO's words.
3. Check intensity often; pause and ground if it rises sharply.
4. Continue until the ECHO can talk.
Example language (illustrative): "Imagine tapping on younger you as we tap here. What is she feeling? … Scared, in her tummy. Let's tap on 'this scared feeling in her tummy'."
Watch for: rapid escalation, abreaction, or a cascade of new memories (titrate: return to the first scene, or step out). Working: the ECHO is described as calmer, softer, more able to look at the adult.

4.6 ECHO dialogue: what was needed, what they wish they had said or done

Purpose / when: after release; gives the ECHO voice and agency. [source: MR FAQ (revisit, say or do what they wished)]
Steps:
1. Ask the ECHO, through the client, what they need right now.
2. Ask what they wish they had said or done; let them say or do it in the imagery (to the other person, or simply out loud).
3. Ask what they decided about themselves then; tap on that belief.
4. Offer the adult's knowledge: what the ECHO did not know then (it was not their fault, they survived, help is available).
Example language (illustrative): "Ask him what he needs. … What does he wish he'd said to his dad? Let him say it now, as loudly as he likes. … What did he decide about himself that day?"
Watch for: the ECHO wants revenge or violent action (allow as imagery, keep it contained, process the anger); guilt or self-blame (offer adult perspective; tap on it); the client tells the ECHO what they should feel (redirect to asking). Working: belief language shifts, the body softens, the client spontaneously offers compassion.

4.7 Bringing in resources and other people

Purpose / when: when the ECHO needs support, protection, comfort or skills. [source: MR FAQ (bring in new resources and other people); White, review of King 2015 (present-day resources such as important people, pets and places)]
Steps:
1. Ask the ECHO who or what they would like with them: a trusted person, a pet, a place, a protector, a quality (courage), knowledge.
2. Bring that in; let the resource act (comfort, protect, explain, take the ECHO elsewhere).
3. If other people in the scene caused harm, the ECHO may want them to stop, understand, apologise, or leave; let the ECHO choose, keep the client's safety central [synthesis].
4. Tap while the resource is present.
Example language (illustrative): "Who would she like to have there with her? … Your grandmother. Let her come in. What does she do? … Let's tap while your grandmother holds her."
Watch for: resources that fail or turn hostile in the imagery (step out, choose a different one, or use the adult self); the therapist being chosen as the resource (fine to accept, keep boundaries, note for the relationship work [synthesis]). Working: the ECHO feels supported; distress keeps falling.

4.8 Helping the ECHO feel loved and safe

Purpose / when: core repair step in the organisation's case description. [source: MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting ("feel loved")]
Steps:
1. Ask how the ECHO could feel loved, safe, wanted or understood, whichever matches the belief.
2. The adult self (or resource) gives that: words, a hug, being heard, being taken somewhere safe.
3. Tap as the ECHO receives it; check what they now believe about themselves.
Example language (illustrative): "What would help her know she's loved? … Hug her, if she'd like that. What does she know about herself now?"
Watch for: grief at what was missing (allow, pace, tap), or the client unable to feel warmth for the child (slow down; work on that block itself; consider compassion-focused work [synthesis]). Working: positive belief emerges in the client's own words.

4.9 Changing the picture (reimprinting)

Purpose / when: the transforming step: the client creates a new picture of the scene that holds the resolution. [source: MR FAQ; About Matrix Reimprinting (change the picture; pictures held in the field)]
Steps:
1. When the ECHO is calm and resourced, ask the ECHO what new picture they would like: the scene as it is now, or a new scene, with the people, resources and feelings they choose.
2. Make it vivid: colours, sounds, sensations, positive feelings, the new belief.
3. Tap while the client holds the new picture.
4. In the method's model, the new picture is then taken back into the client's own field; the specific integration steps taught in the books and trainings are [uncertain: not verified] and are not reproduced here. A neutral alternative inside psychotherapy: have the client hold the image, notice where they feel it in the body now, and take a few slow breaths with it [synthesis].
5. Emphasise that the event still happened; the new picture holds what was needed [source: MR FAQ (not denial)].
Example language (illustrative): "What picture would she like to keep from this? … Make it as bright and clear as you like. What does she know about herself in this picture? … Let's tap while you hold it."
Watch for: a picture that denies the event in a way the client later finds hollow (keep the event, change the meaning and support); a forced positive picture to please you; the image will not stay (unfinished aspects, go back to 4.5–4.7). Working: the client reports the new picture feels right and calm, with a positive belief in their own words.

4.10 Checking the present: memory, trigger and belief

Purpose / when: end of each memory; tests whether the memory "no longer causes a current-day reaction". [source: MR, What is Matrix Reimprinting]
Steps:
1. Ask the client to think of the original memory now; rate distress.
2. Imagine the current-day trigger; rate the reaction.
3. Rate how true the old belief feels and how true the new one feels (simple 0–10 ratings) [synthesis].
4. If charge remains, look for another aspect of the same scene or another memory linked to the belief; plan the next session.
5. Re-check at the next session and between sessions (diary) [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Think of that day now. What happens? … And picture tomorrow's meeting with your manager. 0 to 10? … How true does 'I'm not good enough' feel now?"
Watch for: relief in session that does not carry over (common; work further memories, practise new behaviour in the trigger situation [synthesis]); new memories surfacing (list them for later rather than starting now). Working: lower distress on memory and trigger; behavioural change reported between sessions.

4.11 Working with memories the client cannot recall

Purpose / when: the organisation says practitioners can help uncover blocked or pre-conscious memories and that this should be done with a practitioner for safety and wellbeing. [source: MR FAQ]
Steps (psychotherapy-safe version) [synthesis]:
1. Work from what is present (a feeling, body sensation or image) without asking for a historical event.
2. Treat whatever imagery appears as imagery: work with the ECHO, feelings and needs, not with facts.
3. Never suggest or confirm specific events, especially abuse; do not interpret imagery as evidence; record the client's words, not conclusions.
4. If the client becomes convinced of a newly "recovered" event, slow down, explore uncertainty, and keep decisions (confrontation, legal action) out of the session's emotional peak; seek supervision.
Example language (illustrative): "We don't need a memory to work with this. Let's start with the tight feeling in your chest and see what image comes, knowing it may be more like a symbol than a record of what happened."
Watch for: suggestibility, high hypnotisability, dissociative clients, and pressure from others to find a cause. Risk: imagery-based recall can create confident but inaccurate memories [synthesis]. Working: distress reduces without the client needing a fixed story.

4.12 Self-application and home practice

Purpose / when: for small issues only, after the client has done supported sessions. [source: MR FAQ]
Steps:
1. Agree in advance which issues are suitable (small, everyday upsets) and which are not (major trauma, abuse memories, anything that brought dissociation in session).
2. Rehearse a short self-session in the room: tap, notice the younger self, offer them comfort, check the present.
3. Agree a stop rule: if distress rises past a set point or a big memory appears, stop, ground, write it down for the next session [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "For small stuff, like feeling silly after a meeting, you can try this at home. If anything big comes up, stop, do the grounding, and bring it here."
Watch for: home use on major trauma; avoidance dressed as practice; dependence on tapping to escape all discomfort. Working: client reports brief, contained self-sessions.

4.13 Trauma-safety steps: preparation, dissociation, titration and grounding

Purpose / when: whenever MR is used with trauma. The sources state that the trauma need not be relived and that major trauma and blocked memories belong with a practitioner [source: MR FAQ; White, review of King 2015]; the steps below are [synthesis].
Steps:
1. Assess before memory work: trauma history, current safety, PTSD and complex-trauma symptoms, dissociation (structured screening with a validated dissociation measure if indicated), self-harm and suicide risk, substance use, psychosis, current crisis.
2. Stabilise first for complex trauma or dissociative presentations: grounding, emotion regulation, safe-place or container imagery, and EFT practice on present-day material; delay memory work until the client can come back to the present reliably.
3. Titrate: begin with smaller memories; work one moment, not the whole event; keep the client as observer-helper beside the ECHO; pause the scene; step out when needed.
4. Monitor dissociation: watch for glazed eyes, long latencies, flat voice, losing track of time, the scene becoming unreal; stop memory work, orient (name the date and place, describe the room, feel the feet, hold a cool object), and return only when present.
5. Close safely: leave no memory open; if unfinished, put the scene in a container image, ground, and plan.
6. Between sessions: offer a contact plan and crisis numbers for high-risk clients.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's step out of the memory for now; leave younger you with your grandmother. Look around this room and tell me three things you can see. … Press your feet into the floor. What's today's date?"
Watch for: stabilisation needs that make MR premature; sessions running over without closure. Working: the client stays present and leaves calmer.

4.14 Closing the session

Purpose / when: every session [synthesis].
Steps: finish or contain the scene; re-rate; ground; brief review of what changed; agree what to notice before next time; document the memory worked, ratings, consent and any touch.
Example language (illustrative): "Before you go, how is it now, 0 to 10? What do you want to remember from today? If anything stirs this week, write it down and we'll look at it."
Watch for: activation at the end (extend grounding), spacey or drowsy state before driving (wait). Working: the client is oriented and calm at the door.

4.15 Linking MR to the wider psychotherapy

Purpose / when: to keep MR inside a coherent treatment plan [synthesis; the organisation says MR combines with psychotherapy and counselling: source: MR FAQ].
Steps: place each MR target in the case formulation (belief, trigger, maintaining factors); follow up imagery change with behavioural experiments, relationship work or skills; review outcomes with standard measures; switch to an evidence-based trauma treatment if MR is not helping or the client prefers one.
Example language (illustrative): "That memory feels different now. Let's see how 'I'm good enough' holds up when you speak in Thursday's meeting."
Watch for: MR becoming the whole therapy without review; the relationship being bypassed by technique. Working: outcome measures and real-life functioning improve.

4.16 Named specialist protocols (published by name only)

The organisation lists protocols for addictions, phobias, allergies, negative core beliefs, birth trauma, relationship issues, past lives and future selves, and work with the law of attraction; the 2010 book description adds trauma, the early years, accessing blocked memories and considerations for long-term illness or serious disease. [source: MR, About Matrix Reimprinting; Penguin Random House listing] Their step-by-step contents are [uncertain: not verified] and are not reconstructed here.

Purpose / when: a psychotherapist may meet clients who ask for these; apply the core sequence (4.3–4.10) within scope and the cautions below. [synthesis]
Steps (cautions) [synthesis]:
1. Birth and early-years work: a secondary source describes an MR-based birth approach (Sharon King, 2015) working with the self as a baby in the womb, pregnancy, birth and postpartum experiences, and parents' experiences [source: White, review of King 2015]. Treat birth and pre-verbal imagery as imaginal, not recalled fact; with pregnant or postpartum clients, coordinate with midwifery or perinatal mental-health services.
2. Past lives and future selves: these are spiritual concepts held by the method; work with whatever the client brings as meaning and imagery, without confirming or dismissing it.
3. Allergies, long-term illness, serious disease: these are the organisation's attributed claims; MR is not a treatment for any physical disease. Work only on emotional aspects (fear, grief, coping), with the client's doctor managing the condition; never touch medicines or medical decisions.
4. Addictions: use within an established addiction treatment plan with medical oversight of withdrawal.
5. Law of attraction: avoid implying the client attracted trauma or illness through their beliefs or "vibration"; this can feed shame and self-blame.
Example language (illustrative): "In this approach, some people work with images of birth or past lives. We can work with whatever comes up as an image and see what it means for you, without deciding what it 'really' was." / "I can help with the fear around your illness; your doctor stays in charge of treating it."
Watch for: stopping or delaying medical care, self-blame for illness, unverifiable "memories" being taken as fact. Working: the client gains emotional relief while medical care continues unchanged.

5. Handling problems

The organisation's published material gives only three problem rules: self-help is for small issues; major trauma, deep-rooted issues and unrecalled memories need a practitioner; mental-health conditions need a qualified practitioner [source: MR FAQ]. Everything else below is [synthesis] unless marked.

Flooding or abreaction in the memory. Stop the scene (freeze it, turn it to black and white, move the client to watch from a distance), keep tapping, orient to the room, lower the target to a smaller moment next time. If repeated, return to stabilisation (4.13).
Dissociation (blank, numb, far away, losing time). Stop memory work; orient with senses and date; do not push to "get through". Reassess for a dissociative disorder; MR only after stabilisation and with a trauma-specialist plan, or not at all.
Cannot see or sense the ECHO. Accept a felt sense, a word or a symbol; work with a photo of the younger self if the client has one; or use standard EFT on the memory first and try MR later.
The ECHO will not engage, or rejects the adult. Respect it: ask what the ECHO needs before they could trust the adult; bring in a different resource; tap on the ECHO's mistrust. Explore parallels with the client's present-day self-relationship.
Contempt or disgust towards the younger self. Treat as a target in its own right: tap on the adult's feelings first; consider compassion-focused or schema-mode work; do not force warmth.
Endless new memories ("opening a can of worms"). Note each for later, finish or contain the current scene, and choose targets deliberately. Pace by the client's window of tolerance.
Change in session does not hold. Look for other aspects or earlier memories of the same belief; add real-world behavioural practice; check maintaining factors (current abuse, ongoing stressors) that imagery cannot change.
Resistance or scepticism about tapping or energy concepts. Do not argue the model; offer the procedure as imagery plus a calming routine, or switch to a non-tapping method (e.g. imagery rescripting, EMDR, trauma-focused CBT). Do not use MR with clients who find it alienating.
Over-enthusiasm: expecting MR to fix everything, including physical illness. Correct gently, attribute the organisation's claims, keep the doctor involved, and keep MR as one part of the plan. Watch for clients stopping or delaying medical treatment: discuss directly and, with consent, coordinate with the doctor.
Non-adherence to homework. Make home practice optional and small; ask what gets in the way; never set home MR on major trauma.
Rupture: the client feels pushed into a memory, or touched without wanting it. Stop, acknowledge, apologise for your part, re-contract (self-tapping only, smaller targets, more control to the client). Record the rupture and repair.
Recovered-memory risk. If imagery produces new "memories" of abuse, do not confirm or deny; explore uncertainty; avoid decisions based on them in the heat of the session; seek supervision and follow your professional body's guidance on memory work. Safeguarding duties apply to any current risk to children or adults.
Self-blame through law-of-attraction ideas. If a client concludes they caused their trauma or illness by their "vibration" or beliefs, address the shame directly and separate responsibility from blame.
Suicide or self-harm risk emerges. Pause MR; follow standard risk assessment and safety planning; involve crisis services as needed; resume only when stable.
Children and young people. Not addressed in the organisation's FAQ [uncertain: not verified]. Use only within your competence and child-safeguarding framework, with parental consent and the child's assent, self-tapping or parent-tapping by default, and no work on unrecalled memories.
Clients who learned MR from a non-clinical practitioner and were harmed. Assess for symptom worsening, false-memory distress or financial pressure (tiered courses, upsells); support informed choices; do not sell courses or sessions as add-ons to your own clients; complaints can go to the practitioner's certifying organisation or to consumer bodies [synthesis].
Conflicts of interest. If you are also an MR trainer or practitioner-listing holder, keep training and therapy roles separate and do not recruit clients to courses [synthesis; check your profession's ethics code].

Sources

Web sources

Books cited (contents described from publisher descriptions [uncertain])

Dawson, K., & Allenby, S. (2010). Matrix Reimprinting using EFT: Rewrite Your Past, Transform Your Future. Hay House UK.
Dawson, K., & Marillat, K. (2014). Transform Your Beliefs, Transform Your Life: EFT Tapping Using Matrix Reimprinting. Hay House.
King, S. (2015). Heal Your Birth, Heal Your Life. Silverwood Books (cited as described in the White review).

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