Anger

2:1 Starting from normal breathing, on the back, knees up, ask the explorer to imitate anger. They may frown and concentrate the eyes, or they may open the eyes or stare. Note to yourself: do they look really angry, or do they look frightened?

2:2 Begin with the caution that in this exploration of anger no one is going to get carried away. You are not staging a confrontation. There must be two basic rules: the explorer stays on the mattress at all times. And the explorer does not touch the guide during this exploration.

2:3 Now you will ask them to close the eyes tight and breathe out sharply. Ask them to scrunch the eyes tight and forehead down tight and to draw the cheeks up to squeeze the area of the eyes. At the same time ask them to clench the fists each time they breathe out and make a sharp sound.

2:4 On breathing in each time ask them to relax eyes and open the fists. Emphasize: breathe out sharply— make sharp sounds—clench fists tight—squeeze eyes tight. Encourage them to get into this expression quite vigorously, but to relax it each time they breathe in. Continue for some minutes.

This may turn out to be quite deeply felt. The expression is like that of a frustrated child about to have a tantrum.

2:5 Now take a break for a few moments and return to normal breathing: there is no need for discussion at this point.

2:6 Now you are going to encourage the explorer to explore a more adult anger, with the eyes open. Give them a towel to hold in both hands, the hands so close together they are touching. Ask them to twist the towel hard, the hands turning in opposite directions.

2:7 Ask the explorer to breathe out and make a sound as they twist the towel.

2:8 At the same time ask them to frown and focus the eyes on the towel where they are twisting it. This is very important: encourage them to knot the brows and frown.

2:9 At the same time ask them to stick the jaw forward while still making a sound. It may become a roar or a growl.

On each out-breath the explorer should: narrowly focus the eyes—knot the brow in a frown—stick the jaw forward—make a loud sound (growl or roar)— twist hard on the towel.

2:10 Take a break for a few moments, as soon as the exploration seems to have lost its impetus, usually after nine or ten breaths.

2:11 A variation of this is to put the towel aside, and make fists. Then breathe in fully while raising the fists high in the air, and hold the breath while clenching the fists tightly for 10 seconds or so. Then release the breath and thump both fists down on the mattress by the sides of the body and yell: "No!" Make sure the person keeps their head back on the mattress, and they keep their eyes focused on a point on the ceiling. Also make sure that the arms are moving not merely from the elbows but from the shoulders, the fists going right back over the head before being slammed forward and down.

2:12 Now see if the explorer can show the anger in the eyes. Ask them to direct it to your own eyes. If you feel comfortable, eventually you may find it useful to work through personal conflicts in this way: to have the person look at you and focus a personal anger on you. But at this stage, have them express anger about a third party or an outside problem, shouting out something like "I hate him," or "I've had enough!"

2:13 Pause for a few moments.

2:14 Ask the explorer to stick their jaw forward and with your thumb press firmly against the chin, between the point of the chin and the lower lip. Ask them to keep pushing against your thumb and say to you "I won't!" Each time they say this, you push back firmly (but not roughly) and say "You will!" Do this five or six times then stop.

2:15 Again take a break for discussion of the explorer's experience. Did they really feel angry? Was it all acting? Did they feel angry but mechanical or wooden or cut off in some way from the feeling? Did they feel scared? (For reasons discussed later, fear and anger may become mixed.) Did you, as the guide, notice anything incongruous and did your impressions of the explorer correspond to what they are telling you now?

Grief

3:1 Start by asking the explorer to imitate grief. See what they do in their face: do they frown and turn down the sides of their mouth? They may even make a drooping down expression at the sides of the forehead and eyes. The lower lip may be stuck out sulkily. Or there may be some resistance to acting the expression: the mouth may be fixed in a grin, the eyes look defiant or frightened.

3:2 Ask them to look around the walls, longingly and slowly, head motionless, stretching their vision to the sides, continuing for several minutes. Ask them to change direction occasionally. Remind them to stretch their vision to the utmost, to search the walls as they move their eyes slowly.

3:3 While continuing to have them stretch their eyes around the very edges of their vision, ask them to sigh out on each out-breath, with a long ooooh sound, while keeping the head back.

3:4 Ask them to squeeze the eyes tight on each out-breath. Make sure they really squeeze hard so that the lids shut firmly and the upper cheeks are also squeezed upward.

3:5 Give them a pillow to hold or hug and encourage them to squeeze the pillow as they breathe out.

3:6 Ask them to roll over on their side with their back to you and to draw up their knees.

3:7 Encourage them to breathe out fully and at the end of the out-breath say to them "don't breathe in" several times, so that they linger at the end of the out-breath.

3:8 Massage the back of the neck gently, with your thumb on one side and the fingers on the other, of the two chords of muscle which connect to the base of the head.

3:9 Try pressing gently along the sides of their spine each time they breathe out.

To sum up, they should simultaneously: sigh out with an ooooh—squeeze the eyes tight—squeeze a pillow—pause at the end of each out-breath—let the body fold forward—let the head fall back.

3:10 Now ask them deliberately to imitate sobbing from the chest. The sound is something like aho-aho-aho-aho-aho-aho-aho. In other words the sigh is being interrupted spasmodically and the chest let down in steps. Imitate with them, to remind them to let go in the chest. Encourage them to act sobbing.

3:11 It may help to take their shoulders and rock them gently back and forth.

3:12 It may help to reach around and make sure the mouth is well open and the lips forward, by pressing gently with your thumb or fingers on the cheek on one side just behind the mouth. This breaks the fixed grin which people may use to defend against feelings of sorrow.

3:13 Use your hands to make sure the neck "gives" and the head comes back. With the trunk folding forward and knees pulled up, and the head back, the body takes on a wave-like position.

3:14 If the explorer begins to cry or sob, comfort them gently but respect the fact that they need to be able to close the eyes and hide their head.

3:15 Ask the explorer to come back when they are ready, to roll back toward you and make eye contact through the eyes. Ask how they have been feeling. Genuine sadness? Nothing? A sense of having to fight against and control sad feelings?

Joy

4:1 Ask the explorer to stand up and find a path for walking around the room in a regular path. This can be a circle, or back and forth.

4:2 Ask them to walk slowly and go with gravity.

As they keep walking you are going to ask them to do several things: wait until each move you will suggest is well established before proceeding to the next. The idea is to talk them progressively toward a depressed kind of walking.

4:3 Ask them, progressively, to: let the head hang forward—let the mouth hang open—keep sighing out audibly—let the shoulders droop forward—let the arms hang down—let the chest collapse inward—let the pelvis come forward—let the heels drag on the ground—walk more and more slowly.

By this time they should be acting the very picture of depression. Check that they are drooping down in all the ways mentioned above. Now you will start to encourage them, again step by step, to unfold and come up again.

4:4: Ask them, progressively to: begin to put a spring into the step—begin to bounce slightly as they walk— begin to straighten up the pelvis and lower trunk— begin to breathe in more—bring the shoulders back-pull up to full height—begin to swing arms and open hands—bring head up (as if pulled by an imaginary string from the vertex, the back of the head at the top)—smile! Let the corners of the mouth come up-look around the room with open eyes—breathe fully in and out and say "Ha!" on each out-breath—do anything else that comes to mind—tell you how they are feeling.

4:5 Discuss how they have felt during this. Of course it has been an act. But did it feel good, or fun? Some people have real problems even acting joy. Did they feel anxious? Silly? Embarrassed?