Emuna Therapy

Aiming Higher

There is no limit to how holy and wise you can become in your lifetime. You MUST believe in the awesome levels perception of G-d that you're capable of achieving. Here are some practical tips to inspire you and get you started right now! - Dr. Zev Ballen.

 

Coaching At It's Best

We shot this gorgeous clip right after our sunrise prayers at the Holy Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. I'm grateful to Hashem and our super crew at Breslev Israel for putting this one together. It's a real beauty, guys!

Please enjoy it and share it with your friends!

With Blessings, Dr. Zev

 

Spiritual Logic

When you've got 'spiritual logic' you are no longer bound to regular logic. So when the events of your life don't seem fair and make no 'logical' sense, you have a way to be comfortable with the uncertainty.
Shavua Tov, Dr. Zev Ballen

 

Emuna Coaching

Breslev Israel's new Emuna-Coaching programs offer you the very best emotional and spiritual tools to transform your dream-life into a real lasting reality. Here's why in 84 seconds.  Good Shabbos, Dr. Zev Ballen

 

Sigh - Cotherapy

By Dr. Zev Ballen

Here's the question that's gnawed at me for most of my life. 
 
What, if anything, would make me happy?
 
I became a psychotherapist in the hope of finding the answer to this question.
 
As part of my training I was required to undergo a full classical Freudian psychoanalysis. I lied on the couch 4 times a week and free associated to an analyst who I never saw. She sat behind me for almost nine years. During that time, if I wanted to make emotional contact with her, I wasn't allowed to turn around.  Through her abstention from being a person, my analyst became a blank screen.  At times, my unconscious fantasies turned my analyst into a withholding childhood mother, a punitive father, or even an omnipotent G-d-like figure. As my childhood conflicts emerged, I gained incredible insights into myself and my dealings with people.  Unfortunately, despite a plethora of insight, after nine years I can't say that I was any happier than when I began.
 
Then I started banging on pillows with baseball bats and tennis rackets in an effort to release my  

pent up aggression and hurt feelings. The primal scream therapist prompted me to scream at the top of my lungs.  This procedure helped me to feel like a new person for about two days.
 
In cognitive behavioral therapy I focused on trying to make all of my thoughts positive. "I'm a happy person..I'm a happy person...I'm a happy person!" The problem with that was that I was forcing myself to be positive but my internal state had not changed. I soon saw that I could not just by-pass my internal mood I needed to deal with it.
 
Next I became fascinated with hypnosis.  I was sure that with the aid of hypnosis I would be able to go deeper into my mind and uproot the mess in my unconscious mind.  The problem with positive thinking had been that it did not deal with the skeletons that were hiding deeper down in my unconscious closet. So I hoped that by re-programming my unconscious mind with positive hypnotic suggestions that this would make me happy.
 
Unfortunately it turned out that even my unconscious mind had a mind of its own. My unconscious mind stubbornly refused to accept even pleasant hypnotic suggestions for more than a few days - after that my body seemed to reject them as if they were foreign bodies.
 
It was around this time that I discovered the fascinating world of Ericksonian hypnosis.  My Ericksonian hypnotherapist said that traditional hypnosis had not helped me because my unconscious was not some passive entity that could be bombarded by ideas however positive - he said that my unconscious demanded more respect than this. I was told  that my unconscious mind had amazing untapped resources that could be used to find creative solutions to my problems. This sounded great. I couldn't wait to start. It was truly empowering to be told that I was smarter and more resourceful than I knew I was in my unconscious mind. This was by far the most compelling psychological theory yet. If I could learn to trust my unconscious then everything would be okay.
 
The problem was that although I could now access more of my unconscious creativity, still my unconscious didn't always know what to do when I was in severe conflict.  Whenever the stress mounted I gravitated back to my core conflicts.
 
So I decided to give psychoanalysis another try but this time the interpersonal school of psychoanalysis. Instead of the emphasis on picking apart the inner workings of my mind I would now hopefully be cured through the corrective emotional experience of a "therapeutic relationship." The idea was that I had never had a healthy relationship before and having one with someone who had earned a degree in psychology would be my ticket to personal growth and salvation. 
 
It wasn't.
 
Determined to cure my neurosis I tried a family therapist. He sat with me on the couch and together we drew my family genogram - a pictorial view of my family tree. He showed me how I am reliving the life of one of my ancestors who lived three generations ago. The theory is that there was some "unfinished business" in that person's life that I am trying to complete in a maladjusted way.  All of these therapies were really interesting intellectually. But no - family therapy didn't do it for me either.
 
Then came gestalt therapy. I was put in a chair and was "helped' to resolve my relationship with mom by speaking to her in empty chair across front of me. 
 
Need I say more?
 
In primal scream therapy I was taken into a sound proof room and told to scream at the top of my lungs. All that I got from this was a sore throat.
 
In paradoxical psychotherapy I was told that all of my worries and concerns about myself were absolutely true (a form of reverse psychology).  I was in fact a depressed narcissist with competitive and emotionally dependant traits. 
 
The theory behind paradoxical therapy was that my problems were rooted in repressed rage. The therapist continued to provoked me in the hope that I would break through my inhibitions and lash out at him. 
 
I couldn't really take the paradoxical approach seriously. It was easy to see through the therapist's ploys - especially since I had read about this technique in graduate school.  
 
After all this, I expressed my misgivings about traditional therapy to a clinical supervisor telling her that I was feeling drawn towards spirituality. My supervisior told me that if I abandoned psychotherapy for spirituality I would be acting out my wish to claim an oedipal victory. I was looking for a vindictive triumph over my mom who was a psychoanalyst.
 
That was the last straw.
 
I am writing this in the hope that I can save you the enormous outlay of time, money and emotional turmoil that almost 40 years of aimless wandering through the wasteland of secular psychotherapies has cost me.
 
Here are 16 reasons not to go to for secular therapy: Continue here...

It's Easy To Change

What is stopping you from having the life and the relationships that you want? What is shaping and controlling your choices and your emotions? Why do we do the things we do? If its so easy to change how we think and feel, why don't we? The answers to these questions and much more are here in this video. It's my gift to you!

 

A young woman who is frightened of many things feels better after speaking to Hashem but the relief is only temporary. You can see how I advised her in this week's copy of our parsha newsletter:  Download CSC NL Week 38 Ki Tetzei.

May you and your loved ones be inscribed and sealed in the Good Book of Life for the coming year!

Good Shabbos!

Dr. Zev Ballen

Psych Yourself Up

 

 

By Dr. Zev Ballen                                                      Image credit: GlacierTim

Is is possible to be happy all the time in every situation? Yes it is - but it is the most challenging goal in Judaism without without resorting to some extreme behaviors to psych ourselves up and get the joy into our physical selves. We need to combine speaking with Hashem with activities like fast walking, jogging, dancing, speaking loudly, singing, clapping, and jumping up and down. If you decide to do this, be prepared to not care about the opinions of some religious authorities that say this is not appropriate behavior. Just do it! We need simple non-intellectual methods to get ourselves into peak states of faith and certainty. From certainty flows the power of real joy.Its just like King David said: Nasata simcha b'lebe. We must actively bring the joy into our hearts!

Wishing you huge Blessings,

Dr. Zev Ballen

Spiritual Fitness

By Dr. Zev Ballen

Good spiritual health requires a strong belief system, a compelling vision of what is possible and the motivational tools to get there. The "Spiritual exercise" that is superior to all other methods is conversing with G-d. Join me as we discuss this in depth.

 

Time To Step Up

 

By Dr. Zev Ballen                                       Image credit: SFB579 :)

An inspired young woman is being challenged to step up and provide hope and spiritual meaning to a holocaust survivor who has been religious all of her life. Read about it in this week's edition of our parsha sheet.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Dr. Zev Ballen

Self-Control Strategies

By Dr. Zev Ballen

Self-control is essential to our success. In this lesson you will learn where the science of self-control merges and where it differs from the way of Emuna. There are many practical tips here to get your week off to a great start!

 

With Blessings,

Dr. Zev Ballen