DISCHARGING THE DECISIONAL ELEMENTS OF AN INCIDENT

Peter Graham

26 August 1993

During a traumatic experience, a person may form one or more conclusions, decisions, resolutions or similar. These "decisional elements" are part of the person's evaluation of and personal responses to the experience and play a key role in determining the lasting effects of that experience and whether it will be a completed experience or remain an incomplete experience for that person.

Effectively discharging the key convictions, decisions and resolutions (and other similar elements) in an incident can increase the effectiveness of the Traumatic Incident Reduction Procedure and can sometimes make the difference between fully resolving an experience and just reducing it.

If a viewer is running an incident successfully, there may be no need for any additional handling of specific decisions or resolutions. While moving through an incident a number of times, it is quite common for the viewer to spot one or more of such elements and for them to spontaneously discharge. If that does not occur, the viewer can be asked to specifically look for them and their identification by the viewer will often result in their discharge. Sometimes, however, the act of identifying a decisional element is not enough to fully resolve it and the charge connected with it needs to be released.

The most optimum time to ask for and discharge the decisional elements of an experience is after the incident (either a root incident or a narrative incident) has already been substantially discharged or, at least, after a thorough attempt has been made to do that. This point will usually be fairly close to an end point. Emotional responses will have cooled down and the person will be more able to view the incident directly (without "flinching"). Wait for the right time and do not jump in too early. Let the routine TIR procedure do the bulk of the work. Note: This discharging exercise is not normally done with a non-root incident, unless it is very heavy or the person's attention is fixated on it.

If the person is reacting badly to something in the incident or appears stuck at a point in the incident, it may be more appropriate to use the Stuck Point Questions (per the article "Handling Stuck Points" of 23 August 1993). If there appears to be something wrong, a remedial action (such as the TIR Correction List) would be required.

Once the incident itself has been thoroughly reduced using the TIR procedure, the main convictions, decisions and resolutions tend to become more accessible and will usually discharge cleanly. When the key decisions, etc. have been located and discharged, it will often complete the whole experience for the person.

A charged belief, decision, resolution or similar can be discharged by:

(i) Getting the viewer to identify and articulate it, and to then 
(ii) Repeat it (out loud) until it is fully discharged or until it has reduced as much as it is going to (at that point).

The following will often be enough to locate the key decisional element(s) of an incident:

"In this incident, do you become convinced about something?" "In this incident, do you make a decision? " "In this incident, do you make a resolution? "

If a wider range questions is required, ask questions such as:

"In this incident, doyou reach a conclusion?" "In this incident, do you become convinced about something?" "In this incident, do you make a decision?" "In this incident, do you make a resolution to do something?" "In this incident, do you make a resolution to not do something?" "In this incident, do you make a postulate?" "In this incident, do you form an intention? " "In this incident, do you go into agreement with something?" "Doyou assume (orform) a viewpoint during this experience?" "Do you come to believe something as a result of this experience?"

If needed, some of the above questions can be further expanded. For example, the decision question could be made into six questions by asking: "In this incident, is there a decision to be something?", "Is there a decision to do something?", "Is there a decision to have something?", "Is there a decision to not be something?", "Is there a decision to not do something?" and "Is there a decision to not have something?"

Note: Do not word a question in the past tense (eg. "Did you make a decision?") as this can inadvertently pull the viewer out of the incident.

If a fall or baseline drop (BD) occurs after a question has been asked (and before the person has answered), the person can be guided to a decisional element with a question like "What's that?" or "Have you found something? " or "Do you have a decision there?" Meter guiding should not be overdone or done in such a way that it distracts the person from the incident.

From the person's answers, select a decisional element that will be suitable for discharging, specifically, one that produced a discharge when identified or articulated by the person - at least a small fall but preferably a BD and/or an emotional response or some other energy manifestation. If no discharge, acknowledge and ask the question again.

Identifying the exact decisional element and getting it worded accurately is extremely important. A decision may not discharge well or fully until it is identified exactly. However, as a general rule, take what the person can give now and work with that. This will release enough charge to then be able to access the exact decisional element(s) that need to be viewed to resolve the experience. If a particular decisional element is rather wordy or appears important but does not read well, you can check if the wording is correct with a question such as "Is the wording of that correct?" or "Is there another way of wording that?" or "Is that the exact decision you made?"

Once a selected element has been discharged, the same question should then be asked again to see if there are any more of that same type of decisional element.

Sometimes, while going through an incident in TIR, a viewer will identify a decision (or similar) and will volunteer it. If it produces a relatively large discharge (on the meter or an emotional release or some other "energy shift"), it can be picked up and discharged (normally, when the viewer has finished going through the incident). This would only be done when it appears likely that it is a key decisional element. If the incident is very heavy, it is best to thoroughly reduce it first before doing this, but note down the element for possible handling at a later point.

The Discharging Method

Introduce the repetition exercise and then immediately get the viewer to do it An example would be, having just located a reading decision:

"OK. I would like you to repeat that decision to discharge it. Now, repeat (the decision) three times".

After the person has repeated it several times, then request:

"OK. Repeat it several more times" or "OK. Continue repeating it" or "OK. Do it some more" or "OK. Repeat it three more times" or "OK Repeat it another time" or similar.

The technical rule is to get the person to repeat the decision (or similar) aloud until nothing is triggered by doing so for at least three and up to six consecutive statements of it. This would include no meter responses and anything that had turned on having turned off. If no charge is being released, then three repeats without a read or other energy manifestation would be enough and another can be asked for. If in doubt, ask for a few more repeats to be done. An exception to the three times rule would, of course, be when the decision has obviously been fully discharged.

Discharging Guidelines

The viewer should be "in the incident" while doing this exercise of repeating. In this usage of repetition, the decision (or other case element) has come up in relation to a particular incident and the idea is to discharge that decisional element in this context in order to resolve the experience currently being addressed.

The viewer should have his/her eyes shut while doing this exercise. If the person opens his/her eyes, give the request to "Close your eyes". If the person comes out of the incident and into the present time while repeating a decision, direct the person to "Move to that incident" or "Move to the time when (a certain event happened)" or a similar appropriate request and then get the person to continue repeating the decision, unless, of course, it is discharged (which it may well be).

Do not push the person too hard with a decision that had a small read or that doesn't result in much discharge. A certain amount of judgement is required to determine when to cease and when to keep going and when to really drain every ounce of charge from a particular decisional element.

When a key decisional element has been identified (and assuming that the incident has already been reduced normally by running it through a number of times), it will usually discharge well with BDs accompanied by obvious relief and will often proceed to an end point for the incident. When you get a decision or similar that is discharging well, stick with it and trust your judgement that it is important enough to discharge thoroughly. Note that there can be more than one important decisional element in an experience and that looking for "the one" can be an error.

Ideally, each statement (repeat) of the selected element by the person should be individual and not be rattled off a number of times in quick succession. If the person tends to do this and little charge is coming off, get the person to do one repeat at a time or just a few at a time. Use some judgement and be flexible in this as the viewer may have a preferred way of doing it which works for him/her.

While repeating a decisional element, the viewer may temporarily re-experience parts of the incident intensely for a period, including degrees of unconsciousness and unpleasant feelings. The person should seek to experience these fully (without resistance) and simply hang in there and continue repeating it. By doing so, he/she can and will transcend and resolve such phenomena. If needed, the viewer can and should be advised along these lines. If it is heavy going, it is best to get the viewer to do just one repeat at a time.

Whatever happens, the action of repeating it will discharge it (sooner or later). Follow the rule "what turned it on will turn it off" and get the person through it regardless of what turns on through the use of firm control, clear directions and encouragement.

If something has not yet turned off (while repeating a particular element) but the element has ceased discharging, check: "Concerning (the element), is something being suppressed?" If needed, also ask: "Concerning (the element), is something being made less of?", "Is something being made nothing of?", "Is there somethingyou're resisting?", "Is something being denied?" and/or "Is there somethingyou are not accepting?" Once a discharge has occurred, assume the "block" has been resolved and resume the repeating exercise .

If the wording of a particular decisional element is suspect, the wording can be checked. It may not be quite right. While repeating a decision (or similar), the person may realize that the wording is not exactly right and will correct it, which sometimes results in a full and spontaneous discharge of that decision. If not, accept the revised wording and work with that.

While repeating a particular decision (and before it has been fully discharged), a viewer may occasionally spot another decision. If the newly identified decision results in a relatively large discharge, it can be immediately taken up and discharged providing the new decision is related to the current one and produces a comparable or larger discharge. It may have been made accessible (uncovered) by the discharging of the current one. The earlier one must be returned to and completed (or at least checked) as soon as the new one is discharged. If a new decision is not to be discharged immediately, note it down and, if appropriate, say something like "OK. I have noted that. Now, let's continue reducing (the current decision)".

It is important to keep accurate records of all decisional elements selected for discharging, including any read or lack of read from each repeat (eg. LF, F, BD, X, sF, sF, X, X, X) and their completion or incompletion, so they can be easily backtracked to (if ever required). If, later on, it is suspected or found that a decisional element has been left incompletely discharged (say, while doing the TIR Correction List), such records will facilitate the location of the element concerned.

The end point for repeating a particular decisional element is when it has been reduced or discharged ie. no more reads for three to six consecutive calls or some other indicator tells you it has been discharged (such as an FN or baseline drops have ceased and any feelings or sensations that turned on have turned off). There may be other decisional elements to also handle. However, if an FN occurs and the person comes to the present time with very good indicators, realizations and extroversion of attention, it may also be the EP for the whole incident.

After the available decisional element(s), etc. have been discharged, it may be necessary to then continue running the incident some more to finish it off. After running the incident through a number of times more, this exercise can be done again and some other beliefs, decisions and resolutions (or other elements) may then be available, which can also be discharged.