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HOW DOES CORE TRANSFORMATION GET SUCH LIFE-CHANGING EMOTIONAL HEALING RESULTS?

Core Transformation results in deep-level emotional healing, and has been shown to make a positive difference with a very wide range of client difficulties. In addition to helping to resolve symptoms, clients report a profound sense of well-being that isn’t typically experienced with other methods. (Click here for a brief summary of Core Transformation research.)

  • “As a Licensed Psychotherapist (LCSW), I was the Eating Disorder specialist in my community for the past 35 years, working with hundreds of clients presenting with a wide variety of issues around food. In my experience, people with issues around food (and other addictions), come in to Therapy with deep ambivalence, due to wanting to be in control of food/other substance, while feeling an urgency to hold on to using these substances as a deep survival mechanism: as an attempt to meet underlying emotional needs. My primary method of intervention is Core Transformation, because of its effectiveness with a wide range of issues, helping to find other better ways for people to get their needs met, so they do not need to keep using the unwanted behaviors.”  –Betsy Koos, Licensed Psychotherapist (LCSW)

How Are These Profound, Life-Changing Results Possible?

CT is a “parts work” methodology. It can be called the “premium version” of parts work. To understand how Core Transformation is able to get exceptionally good results, it’s helpful to understand what parts work is, and how we’re different from other parts methods.

What Is Parts Work?

Several methodologies are based on a model that we can think of human experience in terms of parts. For example, if I’m at a restaurant and the wait person brings around a dessert menu, I may experience wanting a dessert. Then, I may have an opposite response: “Wait, that’s not healthy!” or “I don’t want to get fat!” 

In this situation, I could say “there’s a part of me that wants the dessert” and “there’s another part of me that wants something else,”  such as health or weight maintenance. 

In other situations, we might say “a part of me gets angry,” or “a part of me feels sad about this.” Perhaps “there’s a part of me that wants to leave my spouse, and another part that wants to stay.”

A parts-model methodology uses this metaphor of parts to accomplish change. There are many kinds of parts work, which can yield very different results.

How Is Core Transformation Parts Work Unique?

There are several factors that, together, make Core Transformation distinct from other parts work:

  • Parts are integrated with the whole.
  • Parts are experienced at a level of “being,” not just behavior or intentions
  • We work through what the part wants, with no forcing, pushing, convincing, or tricking

Let’s take these one by one:

Parts are Integrated with the Whole

Most parts methods we know have a goal of helping people communicate better with their inner parts, and helping parts communicate better with each other. They may involve acknowledging parts and negotiating between parts. They may involve being nicer and more respectful to our inner parts. This is very helpful, but it doesn’t take us to the deepest possible resolution. 

Although being respectful to inner parts is useful and important, if that’s all a person does, the person still ends up split into various parts, rather than being an integrated, whole person.

Core Transformation goes way beyond this. We actually help inner parts that had “split off” to integrate with the whole of the person. 

This is a very important distinction. Even if inner parts aren’t in conflict, it’s still stressful on the system to have inner divisions. It takes energy and tension to maintain those divisions. And it’s a short step from there back to inner conflict. 

When people integrate parts that had been split, they often notice a sense of greater relaxation and relief. Even if they hadn’t been aware of the effect of the inner split before the integration, they notice as it naturally melts away.

In addition, it’s freeing to make choices and act in the world as a whole person, rather than a committee of parts. 

Now, some forms of parts work do integrate some parts, but the practitioners tell us that “some parts can’t be integrated—you just learn to communicate better.” That hasn’t been our experience with Core Transformation, and the next section explains why.

Parts are expierenced at a level of "being", not just "doing", "feeling", "having", or "thinking"

Initially, as with other parts work, in Core Transformation, we access parts through behaviors and other surface qualities. For example, we can work with:

  • The part that makes me over-eat
  • The part that feels vulnerable
  • The part that criticizes me (inner critic, or critical voice)
  • The part that gets attention 
  • The part that manages my life
  • The part that believes I am worthless
  • Almost endless other possibilities for parts to work with

However, we don’t stay at this surface level. We have a specific “guided interview” that takes these inner parts quickly to a deep inner experience.  It isn’t an inner communication at a mental level. Instead, this precise line of questioning quickly and reliably leads each part to a profound state of being that might be called “peace,” “presence,” or even “oneness.” In this work, we call these states “Core States.” They are powerfully transformative inner resources, not just ideas. And then, the method systematically guides the inner part (and the person) in a process of healing, as the Core State naturally enhances and transforms every level of the part’s experience.  Reaching this Core State experience, and then knowing what to do with it, are major keys to the effectiveness of Core Transformation. These keys are the reasons that Core Transformation routinely results in an ongoing sense of well-being, not just resolution of symptoms. It’s also the secret to the deep integration we experience through Core Transformation: many parts can’t integrate fully without first reaching the Core State level of experience. This is the reason Core Transformation can help even the most difficult parts, that haven’t changed using other methods. Now, this might sound impossible, given some of the parts we know we have in ourselves, or given the parts we’ve helped our clients to get in touch with. Yet it’s exactly what happens with Core Transformation. You can watch our free video and it will give you a glimpse of how this works.

We work through what the part wants, with no forcing, pushing, convincing, or tricking

With Core Transformation, we have a way to assist the part in the transformation it already wants to make but doesn’t know how.

We get to the Core State by exploring what the part already wants (not just at the surface level, but also at deeper levels.) Once we reach the Core State, the part is in a profoundly resourceful experience, and naturally tends to want what’s harmonious with the whole person. We never push or force the part to do anything it doesn’t naturally want to do. 

This may seem impossible, but our experience is that even the most negative parts are transformed in this way. We don’t need to convince these parts to change their ways, and we don’t need to trick or manipulate these inner parts into giving up their old patterns. This happens naturally, when the Core State is invited to transform every level of a part’s experience, through a specific sequence of steps.  

Many therapists tell us Core Transformation has become one of the methods they rely upon, because it can be used with a wide range of issues, bringing about significant positive change.

Important Key: We’re Dealing with Experience, Not Just Intellectual Understanding

Many psychological models are based on the assumption that if only we understand our problems well enough, they’ll change. However, many, many clients have been through a great deal of therapy that has helped them understand themselves much better—without experiencing the changes in their behaviors, feelings, and thought patterns that they’re seeking.

Core Transformation helps us access new resources in our experience, rather than new mental understandings. Many people already know that, for example, seeking approval from others doesn’t lead to the deepest, truest happiness. Or that binging on sugary foods won’t make them more fulfilled. Or that getting the latest gadget won’t bring them inner peace. 

It’s one thing to understand why our behaviors, thoughts, and responses aren’t actually leading to a fulfilling, happy, peaceful life. It’s another thing to have a simple, reliable, step by step process that can help us experience a deep ongoing sense of wellbeing, so that we can easily drop our ineffective or even self-destructive patterns. 

Where to start?

There’s a pathway to learn more, all the way from free resources to a Core Transformation Coach Certification course. (Although it’s titled “Coach Certification,” it’s designed for both coaches and therapists, and we already have certified some therapists through this course.)

Here are the basic steps. Do as many as you like:

Benefits for your Clients, Benefits for Yourself

Our trainings include hands-on exercises, so that you’re both guiding and being guided through the processes. This can deliver personal benefits for you, as well as helping you become a better guide! It’s a very gentle, supportive experience. If you’re like most helping professionals, you probably spend so much energy helping others, it’s important to also receive benefits for yourself.

Find out more about how this works in this article,  Core Transformation Training Brings Balance for Therapists.

Articles in This Series

  1. Core Transformation Coach Certification for Therapists 
  2. How Does Core Transformation Get Such Life-Changing Emotional Healing Results? 
  3. Core Transformation Training Brings Balance for Therapists