Change History

Purpose of the Technique:

**Change History** is a format that addresses negative past experiences and aims to dissolve the emotional charge associated with those memories.
This technique is *not* suitable for traumatic or deeply formative experiences that have led the client to develop negative beliefs about themselves—those are best handled using the **Re-Imprinting** format.
Change History works with experiences that still trigger negative feelings but are not severely distressing. The client uses a timeline to revisit the situation and transforms it by applying new resources.

Coaching Process

Step 1:

Define the Problem:
The client recalls a past experience that still triggers negative emotions. If the client slips too deeply into the negative state, the coach should interrupt with a **separator**, bringing the client’s attention back to the present and helping them relax.
Next, a timeline is created in the physical space to represent the client’s life path. A **floor anchor** is placed at the location representing the event.

Step 2:

Identify and Deliver Resources:
From the **meta-position** (observer perspective), the client views the event dissociated from it. They consider what resources their past self would have needed to handle the situation more effectively.
The client then imagines sending those qualities or abilities—ones they now possess—to their past self. If the client still lacks those resources, they can imagine a person (real or imagined, present or not) who possesses them and has that person send the needed resource.

Step 3:

Re-experience the Situation:
Next, the client steps into the situation, fully associated, reliving it as if it's happening now. With the added resources, the situation feels different, allowing the negative emotional charge to shift into something more neutral or even positive.

Step 4:

Check the Outcome:
The client should now feel neutral—or ideally positive—about the previously troubling experience.

Variation

Step 1:

Define the Problem:
The client chooses an unpleasant experience from the past to work on.

Step 2:

Relive and Anchor the Situation:
The client creates a physical timeline and places the event on it. They step onto the anchor and fully associate into the experience.
At the emotional peak of the experience, the client sets a **physical anchor** (e.g., touch or gesture).

Step 3:

Dissociation:
The client steps off the anchor, leaving the situation behind.

Step 4:

Activate and Anchor Resources:
The client now identifies a useful quality or ability that would have helped in the original situation. They fully associate with that resource state and anchor it physically.

Step 5:

Transfer the Resource:
While holding the anchor for the resource, the client steps back onto the timeline, walking from the present into the past until they reach the problem event.
They relive the event while maintaining the resource, allowing them to reprocess it in an empowered way.

Step 6:

Integrate the New Experience:
The re-experienced, transformed memory is stored as a new internal reference, and the client returns along the timeline to the present.

Step 7:

Verify the Change:
Finally, test whether the client’s perception of similar situations has shifted. The original problem anchor is reactivated, and the coach observes the client's physiological and emotional response.