How GPs can help patients with Emotional Logic

A GP’s story

As a GP with Emotional Logic in my ‘toolbox’, I have often been able to impart one tiny bit of emotional support into a situation and see it resolve almost miraculously.

For example, the young father who interpreted his fast heart rate when his car broke down on a busy road as an impending heart attack. I helped him to see that, no, this was just his Shock reaction activating his adrenaline. Using emotional reasoning, he now knows that this reaction means ‘Stop what you are doing and find a safe place to work out what to do’. This prevents him from re-shocking himself with health worries.

Then there was the older lady who was enabled to see that her aggressive Bargaining style was compounding the difficult relationships in her family. Aggressive Bargaining could be attempting to get what you need through threats, coercion or bullying. Learning to use assertive Bargaining, seeing things from other people’s perspective and negotiating proved much more successful at resolving issues. It also improved communication and understanding between family members.

The downside if there is one is that, unlike with a shoulder injection or back manipulation, very few of these Emotional Logic micro-teaches resulted in a thank-you note. When patients returned about another problem and were asked ‘What made the difference?’, the reply was usually ‘Well, it just got better’ or ‘I sorted it out’. This should not surprise me as Emotional Logic is lifelong learning about the already inbuilt process of adjustment to change. My role was merely to be a catalyst to activate the healthy adjustment process. I am happy with that – it just makes researching the method difficult!

If you are a GP and would like to find out more about Emotional Logic training for yourself and your colleagues, please contact us.