Working in the Emotional Field

Working in the Emotional Field

Formerly: Working in the Emotional Field

By Barbara Janelle M.A.

Previously Unpublished

Excerpt from a Letter

March 21, 1994

. . .

First, let us deal with the case of the horse with the unusual energy field (“very light, thick and muddy”). I assume:

a) that you have developed a reasonable skill at sensing the energy field. It might be useful, however, to scan the fields of plants and cut flowers to develop a sense of the vibrational feel of energy fields. Cut flowers are in the process of dying and with them you will feel a static field. This is very different from the light, active fields of healthy, growing plants. In developing this sense, you will pick up the thick, stuck field of cut flowers but also the lack of activity in the field. With healthy growing plants, there is a sense of vibration or life pulse. Once this is within your “vocabulary,” check the horse again to see what the vibrational sense of the field is like.

b) that you are scanning the horse within the “physical” field, that is within four inches or so from the skin. Try scanning the emotional field, which is further out. To do this, use one hand initially, and hold it about five feet from the skin. Slowly move in until you catch the edge of the emotional field. This is often a very distinct place-distance within the field. Scan the entire body this way, starting the check of each 12-inch-square area, five feet out and coming in to find the edge of the field. This edge can be from about 18 inches to as much as six feet from the skin.

The emotional field is sometimes easier to pick up than the physical field, and work with it is extraordinarily helpful to physical problems. Clear this field with downward and perpendicularly outward strokes. “See” the edge almost dissolve, as it grows lighter. Energy can be offered to the system through the emotional field, just as you would with the physical field.

The horse will show the same kinds of responses to your work that you get by working closer to the body–the relaxation, lowering of the head, half closed eyes, slowing and deepening of respiration, and trust in you.

c) that you are thoroughly grounding the horse as you work. Getting the grounding often changes the feel of the field. I ground by holding each foot and seeing roots growing deep, deep into the earth. Another thing that changes the feel of the field is to unruffle the field before you begin to scan. This removes or uncovers a layer, and the underlying layer is easier to pick up.

This also happens while you work. Each movement through the field exposes another “layer,” so that the field is always changing in response to your work. It is this process which makes TT seem almost like an ongoing game of exploration.

I have some other thoughts to offer as well. I have found that some animals are not fully present energetically in their bodies.

Some years ago, I worked with a horse that was very unpredictable in its behavior. The trainer would be working quite happily and quietly with the animal and suddenly, for no apparent reason, it would be 20 feet away–the result of a sudden spook. When I scanned the field on this horse, I could only get a reading within the physical field on the left upper neck. I could not pick up the field in any other part of the body.

I suggested that Penelope Smith, an animal communicator, be asked to check with the horse. She told the trainer that the being was floating above the body and only connected to it at the upper left side of the neck. Penelope did not know of my TT scan findings. We dealt with this animal by doing a lot of downward hands-on stroking, grounding and TTEAM (Tellington-Jones Equine Awareness Method) Touch work. We were successful in getting the being into 3/4 of its body. However, it never became fully present.

I believe the cause of its being out of the body was a response to pain. Early in its life, it developed a problem with locking stifles and a vet cut part of the stay mechanism in that area. This is a very painful procedure, and one that is no longer recommended by the veterinary colleges here. The horse couldn’t cope with the pain and simply left its body. Often when I find this lack of field, it is because the being is not fully present in the body. Often, the reason is that it is escaping from pain.

I am writing a book on Therapeutic Touch for animals. Some of my material appears as articles in the Ontario Therapeutic Touch Newsletter, In Touch. Enclosed are some articles as well as information on receiving this newsletter and that of the Nurse-Healers Professional Associates. There is a bibliography from the Nurse-Healers and a recent book report that I wrote for In Touch. As well, I am including some material on TTEAM work.

I have trained in and used both TT and TTEAM for over ten years and find they are a very effective set of tools to have in working with a wide range of animals.

I hope this offers some useful ideas to you. Do keep in touch. It is very exciting to receive a letter from another part of the world!

Best wishes, Barbara Janelle

I no longer use the term emotional field because emotional and physical aspects are not separate and distinct. In our desire to categorize we have created artificial divisions and begun to believe they are real. Instead I refer to working with edges in the field that are further out from the skin. BJ-1/03