Note from Fruit-Powered Magazine publisher and editor Brian Rossiter: I began having my first few Neuro Emotional Technique, or NET, sessions with Kitty Ghen in summer 2017 after having been intrigued by her work since watching her give a remarkable health presentation in spring 2014. Come December 2018, we began meeting about weekly for a few months, with these Neuro Emotional Technique sessions going deeper and deeper into my life. I am simply amazed at the ground we’ve covered and the way I felt the days after leaving Kitty Ghen’s office and the days after our sessions.
Kitty Ghen, L. Ac., is a leading guide in personal development and health services, serving Greater Philadelphia residents since 2002. She offers services in Neuro Emotional Technique (NET), acupuncture and reiki. With compassion and gentle encouragement, Kitty Ghen has helped many overcome personal, business, relationship and health challenges and ultimately enjoy freedom, joy and peace in their lives. Discover more about Kitty Ghen’s Neuro Emotional Technique offering.
How would you describe Neuro Emotional Technique, commonly called NET, to a person who’s never heard about it?
Kitty Ghen: Well, NET is a way that we can access what’s going on in the subconscious part of the brain and in certain chemical receptors. So when we experience an event, most times, we experience the event and we let it go, but sometimes when we experience an event—especially if it’s traumatic, stressful or repeated—the chemicals that are making us feel a certain way don’t release, and then they will bind or lodge at different receptor sites in the body. When they get stuck there, it causes dysfunction in the body, and it also causes us to repeat patterns that can be self-destructive or not what we want.
Is Neuro Emotional Technique a personal development or natural health modality or does it cross into both of these worlds?
Kitty Ghen: It actually crosses into both of these two worlds, and there are two ways to access it. Either way, it’s going to help the health of the body. It’s going to help the body function better because we’re removing chemicals from binding sites. Emotions are chemical and when the chemicals of emotion bind at receptor sites, they prevent appropriate chemicals from binding at receptor sites, leading to dysfunction in the body. By removing these emotional chemical patterns through the process of NET, the body becomes healthier. Organs can function better, pain can be reduced and ease of movement can come back.
It also will help us emotionally with our personal development because, sometimes, these emotional chemicals will block us from achieving things we want. If you were embarrassed as you were going up on stage in kindergarten with show-and-tell and tripped and fell, that might prevent you from being able to go up in front of people whether it’s a job interview, group talk or a similar situation.
What was your introduction to Neuro Emotional Technique and what were your early experiences with this modality like?
Kitty Ghen: I was lucky to be introduced to NET back in the beginning of its development. My children were actually the patients. They had some health issues, and the holistic practitioner we went to was a Neuro Emotional Technique practitioner, She was able to clear out certain patterns of subconscious behavior, helping my children be healthier and get along better. Then I started as a patient, and I became a better mom, a calmer mom, and was able to move forward and develop a new career after motherhood.
In what ways have your clients benefited from Neuro Emotional Technique?
Kitty Ghen: Oh, there are so many ways they’ve benefited. I’ve had a lot of women whose marriages have gotten better. I’ve had people that have wanted and interviewed for new positions within their company and just were never getting a new job. When we clear out emotional blockages to leaving their old positions and taking on new responsibilities, they’d get the job right away. I’ve had people who had pain eliminated without surgery or physical therapy. I’ve had people whose digestive problems have gotten better. Anxiety gone, allergies gone—the list goes on and on and on.
What are some of your favorite healing or breakthrough stories that you’ve been a part of as a Neuro Emotional Technique provider beyond some of the ones you just mentioned?
Kitty Ghen: I get wonderful results with phobias. I had someone who had claustrophobia. I treated her before she moved to Chicago. She called me about two weeks later, and she said, on her first week of her new job, she got stuck in an elevator with six people for 45 minutes. She said she was fine except for the last five or 10 minutes, but everybody was getting anxious then. She thanked me profusely because she said that she would have freaked out and that she would have been embarrassed and probably not have gone back to the job. Same thing with dental phobias, fear of heights, fear of flying and other phobias. I’ve helped people with all types of phobias.
There was a young boy whose parents had a sailboat, and he was anxious every time he was on the boat, whether on water or dry-dock. There were subconscious emotional triggers about being safe on the boat that were able to be released. After the session was over, he was able to be on the boat and enjoy the boat ride without any problems.
How have you achieved shifts in your life from Neuro Emotional Technique sessions?
Kitty Ghen: Professionally, I’ve been able to overcome business challenges such as just being “OK,” meaning neutral, with being a business owner, hiring new people and being comfortable asking patients for referrals. NET has helped me overcome health issues. I used to get bronchitis or pneumonia every November. I had acupuncture and all kinds of modalities, and still, I would get sick every November. I had been subconsiously holding on to emotional grief. My mother died on November 4. My lungs, the organ that holds grief, loss and sadness, were reliving the physiology as if the loss was happening presently. The “loss” weakened my immune system, as traumatic events have a way of doing, and I would end up being sick. Once we cleared the emotional component wrapped around the death of my mother, I never got bronchitis or pneumonia again.
Will you describe how muscle testing in Neuro Emotional Technique helps reveal what our subconscious brain believes?
Kitty Ghen: Sure, muscle testing is scientific yet I’ll explain it in easy-to-understand terms using a person’s outstretched arm as an example. Anybody can keep their arm strong when I push down on it in a muscle test if I ask them to, Now if I touch a part of their body—say the liver, for example—and their arm goes down while I’m applying the same amount of pressure to their outstretched arm, that tells me is that the liver is not getting enough energy flow. As soon as I touch the liver point, the subconscious brain says: “Oh, the liver. What’s going on there?” If there’s not enough energy flowing to the liver, the body can actually take some of the energy from the arm and move it to the liver or the liver acupuncture meridian. The liver function is more critical to the body than keeping the arm up for the muscle test so the body reallocates the energy flow to the liver and/or liver meridian. This is a simplistic way to look at it, obviously. When I touch the liver, and the arm in the muscle test goes down, we know there’s something going on.
Through NET, we can query whether there is an emotional stressor, toxicity stressor, biochemical stressor and structural stressor contributing to the problem. Once we determine the nature of the stressors, we can move forward with the treatment.
It’s fascinating to me that you, with your patient, are able to drill down to events at specific times in their lives, pulling off the cover on how these events have affected them their whole lives. Will you talk more about the science of Neuro Emotional Technique and how these events can lead to patterning in us through biochemical blockages in our bodies’ receptor sites?
Kitty Ghen: The subconscious brain is what we’re communicating with in muscle testing. It’s the subconscious part of the brain that holds memory and emotion. Even though, consciously, we may want something in our life, if the subconscious brain does not feel it’s safe or has memories of it not being good for us, it will prevent us from doing or having that which we consciously want. NET is structured in such a way that, with specific questions, we can whittle down to an actual dynamic that is surrounding an issue in our lives.
For example, if someone has a pain in the neck, we can muscle-test it. If the muscle test indicates an issue, and we check for a concept that is connected to the pain. There are three main areas in life that can cause stress of this sort. These are love, being anyone you have ever loved or anyone who has ever loved you; money and resources, being finances, material things, time or energy; and you, in one of the roles you play in life such as a sister, daughter, employee and other roles. Using statements such as “Let’s check the concept of love” and muscle-testing for a change in muscle test strength, we can determine which stressor category is related.
Once the category is found, it can be further defined. If the love category is what is found to be the trigger, we would then muscle test “The concept of family member or friend,” “male or female,” etc. until we get to an individual concept.
Once the subconscious brain narrows that down for us, then I cross-check, with muscle-testing, different acupuncture pulse points to find out which meridian or organ is holding the emotion relating to the issue. Then, again with muscle-testing, we find out which actual emotion is being held in the body and contributing to the problem. For example, if someone comes to me with neck pain, I would muscle-test to see if there is an emotional component, toxicity component, biochemical component or simply a structural component.
Let’s say there is an emotional component and the testing indicates it’s related to the love category, revealing it to be related to the person’s boss. I’d next index, through muscle-testing, to find the related emotion. Let’s say it’s resentment. Then I would ask the patient to give me a sentence putting resentment and their boss together in a way that makes sense to them. It could be something like, “I resent that my boss doesn’t appreciate all the good ideas I offer.” Then I’d ask, “What’s the worst part of that?” The worst part of that might be, “Well, I feel unrecognized and unappreciated.”
The next step would be to index for the original event in their life when there was a feeling of resentment to an authority figure that left someone feeling unrecognized for unappreciated.
For example, “Let’s check the concept of conception to 10 years old, concept of from 10 to 20 years old. OK, 10 to 20. Let’s check the concept of 10 to 15. Ten years old, 11 years old, 12 years old.” Once the subconscious brain narrows down to a specific age, I ask the patient, “When you were 12?, where were you, and what were you doing?” They might say something like, “Hmmm, I remember when I was 12, my brother just kept putting me down. I was really upset about that because I felt disrespected.” Bingo—there it is! So that chemical pattern locked in physically at 12 years old. Those “resentment” chemicals attached to the liver when she was 12, and she keeps reliving that pattern over and over.
When we can clear the chemical emotional patterns out of her body, the relationship with her boss will become better, and she is more likely to feel recognized and appreciated. This can happen in one session. Since it’s a chemical pattern in the body, clearing the pattern and issue with the boss will actually help her in many relationships in her life where she felt unrecognized and unappreciated.
There’s a whole subconscious communication that takes place between people. Let’s say, for example, a woman’s husband comes home, and he does something that annoys her. She may think, “Ouch—that didn’t feel good.” She many not say anything, but there’s an emotion that comes out subconsciously. Maybe she’s angry that he did that, and she doesn’t say anything. That emotion, which I call an emotional ping pong ball, goes over and hits a button in him—we’ve all heard that expression—and from all his childhood patterning, and again, whether he says something to her, there’s this emotional ping pong ball going back and forth between the two people.
If she can clear out whatever it is that his behavior triggered in her, the dynamic will change. He’s not doing anything on purpose to upset her. It was just that, whatever he said, triggered a memory. Once the NET on that issue is cleared out, the next time he comes home and does that, and that emotional ping pong ball comes at her, it won’t upset her as before. It’s not an issue anymore because it’s not a chemical pattern within her from her childhood patterning. So it’s no big deal, and it just flies right by her. What emotion she sends back toward him and his subconscious is different. It’s not defensive; it’s not angry; it’s not upset, so it’s not pushing the same button in him. His response verbally or subconsciously to her is different. The whole dynamic can change in a relationship. Over and over again, I have seen marriages and relationships get better using NET. It’s a beautiful thing.
What kind of emotions do most people hold onto that you see released in Neuro Emotional Technique sessions?
Kitty Ghen: A whole host of emotions. I would say some of the major ones that come up are anger, frustration, resentment, fear, a sense of impending doom or dread, feeling lost, not knowing what to do or not understanding a situation. Others are grief, sadness, shame—a lot of people have shame and have just been locked in it—guilt, low self-esteem, being worried, being distrustful and despair. There are so many.
How much has Neuro Emotional Technique grown as a personal development and natural health modality over the years? How has the modality itself evolved as a practice in terms of the application of new techniques?
Kitty Ghen: NET, Neuro Emotional Technique, has evolved a lot over the 30 years it’s been around. Drs. Scott and Deb Walker, who invented the technique, continually develop new ways to utilize NET. Whether it’s eliminating allergies, fixing digestive problems, balancing blood sugar, alleviating PTSD and anxiety, correcting structural imbalances, reducing pain, helping regulate blood pressure, helping relationships get better or eliminating self-sabotaging behaviors, there’s usually an emotional component to the problem that NET can help clear out of the body so people can have a better quality of life. That’s what it’s all about: having a better quality of life. NET can help you with that.
