The case of the Chalk-Eater.

"The Chalk-Eater" was published by "Annals of the APA",
Winter 2006 / volume 9, #4 pages 42-44.

by Ritchi Morris, M.D.(I), D.Sci., Ph.D., N.M.D.

Millie, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher from Jamaica, requested Chromonosis to overcome her seemingly uncontrollable desire of several years duration to eat chalk (the kind used in classrooms). She pointed out that she was careful to drink plenty of water (10 to 12 glasses daily) and eat copious amounts of fresh vegetables -- "so as not to become constipated."

Ego-State Therapy

Helen and Dr. Jack Watkins are the originators of ego-state therapy.
In order the primary premises of ego-state theories and therapy, a delineation of several of its basic tenants is necessary. Of paramount importance is Watkins' concept of "resonance." This quality is the cornerstone of the ego-state framework. In his book The Therapeutic Self, Watkins defines resonance as: "That inner experience within the therapist during which he co-feels (co-enjoys, co-suffers) and counderstands with his patients, though in a mini-form. He does this by replicating with his own ego as close a facsimile of the other's experiential world as he possibly can, considering the limits of the communication offered him by the patient (verbal; postural, gestural) and his own sensitivities in reception and interpretation of these. Since resonance is an inner experience, it may be observed directly only through introspection. Its presence in an individual, however, may be indirectly inferred by observation of his behavior."

Carl Rogers proffered what he called "accurate empathy" to explain this notion. The late Helen Watkins, probably the finest natural healer/therapist of our time, felt that resonance extends at least one step further than this toward actually feeling what another person feels. Thus, a truly therapeutic self cannot exist without this ability to resonate -- just as a woodwind musician cannot play truly fine music without the ability to create resonance between the instrument's mouthpiece and it's reed. Ergo, the greater the resonance, the better the music. So it is with a therapist and his/her patient.

This author's pioneer clinical and research work with the effects of colored light hues upon human behavior has demonstrated that each individual seems to have one particular shade of color that balances and harmonizes his/her inner eco-system and, (empowerment shade) conversely, one particular shade of color that distresses and disharmonizes that system (kryptonite). Dr. Richard Frankl employs a mirror in his imagescope to evoke a feelings, memories, etc. from patients. While baking their mirrored images with one of the eight basic color shade families. the Morriscope exposes a patient to a plethora of thousands of different color hues derived from within the 8 basic color families while measuring a patient's responses to them empirically and objectively with biofeedback or electro dermal screening instrumentation. In this way, the patient's most empowering shade can be discerned.

All too often, new therapists are taught how to identify the place of these emotions in a patient's life space and their effect upon the patient. The process fosters an objective diagnostic tone reflective of the medical model: Identify the problem, prescribe the solution. In his book Sense Relaxation, Bernard Gunther states that "social and formal education stress the cognitive and motor functions of the organism without regard for sensory development. We teach them nonsense." Watkins, in We, The Divided Self, expresses the notion that a truly therapeutic self is born; that it is possible to educate and train a good therapist, but the capacity to be a truly great therapist is innate. Little wonder that he so asserts, given our training system that actually factors out resonance! As Alexander Lowen, creator of "BioEnergetics", states in his book The Betrayal of the Body, "To know who one is, an individual must be aware of what he feels; without this awareness of bodily feeling and attitude, a person becomes split into a disembodied spirit and a disenchanted spirit."

Research with the Morriscope has established that ego states live in their own shade/hue of color. Exposure to a given shade elicits a given ego state. By bathing a particular ego state who is distressed, dysfunctional, or toxified in ones empowerment shade this ego state becomes systematically desensitized and/or detoxified. this exposure can occur in a variety of forms such as during clinical sessions on the Morriscope, tinting eye glass lenses, or surrounding oneself with this shade in clothes, linens, a room or car paint. Hence, "Chromonosis" is an amalgamation of ones empowerment shade with hypnosis.

Thus, we see that there is a crucial need for conscious and/or unconscious techniques which promote resonance between therapists and patients and, most importantly, within an individual. Another essential tenet of ego-state theory and therapy is that the use of hypnosis is not always mandatory when working with ego-states. Helen Watkins has developed ingenious techniques of conscious-level work whereby body placement is rotated (much akin to musical chairs) in order to bring out one's ego-states. Each ego-state occupies a different "space" just as it does within the individual. By the end of this exercise, the various ego-states (who are directly involved in the particular issue at hand) and the needs, wants, and desires of each, have been identified. At this point, negotiations and power-lending can occur in order to reach a resolution to the issue. In essence, Helen has developed an incredibly effective method for doing family therapy with an individual's "family within." This approach can be employed on the unconscious level while surrounded by ones empowerment shade as well.

The Procedure

Phase 1
The initial sessions were devoted to a cognitive-style recapitulation of her symptoms and her prior year of therapy. Millie revealed that her compulsion to eat chalk had begun sometime after she migrated to the U.S.A., despite a good knowledge of and appreciation for correct nutritional practices and a regular weight training and jogging schedule. She had discovered in therapy that it seemed to be associated with guilt from living with her boyfriend and having had "sexual flings" with women. She had hoped to resolve her chalk compulsions by dissolving this guilt, but her habit became even worse!

The first step was to validate or eliminate the possibility of a biochemical bases for Millie’s chalk addition. Analyses of Millie's blood, urine, hair, nails, stool, and saliva was ordered. She demonstrated no physiological allergy to the chalk (which is calcium carbonate) but, as expected, she showed an excessive amount of calcium and abnormally low levels of magnesium and trace minerals. As the calcium/magnesium ratio is of critical importance in humans, the appropriate naturopathic and homeopathic remedies were employed to restore that balance.

The next session was spent familiarizing Millie with the mechanics of Chromonosis and the ego-state approach, and in the following session I played excerpts from tapes of the Watkins' at work and sessions I had conducted. Millie's attitude was positive, and her susceptibility quotient was measured via administration of several standard hypnotizability scales "Field"; the M.O.S.S. - MORRIS OPPORATIONAL SUSCEPTIBILITY SCALE; Spiegel Eye-Roll; and the Harvard, which is the gold standard of trans-depth testing. This type of empirical testing is conducted by this author prior to most hypnoses treatment. It loomed indispensable in this case. As it appeared that which ever ego state’s were responsible for her chalk addiction, were deeply rooted. Moreover, the necessity to determine the color shade in which this or these ego states exist heightened greatly. Because she had prior experience with Transcendental Meditation and Yoga, Millie showed a high capacity for hypnotizability. A trance strategy predicated upon her susceptibility test profile and Morriscopy profile (empowerment shade equals Key West Sunset Orange; Kryptonite shade equals Lilac Purple.) was formulated and discussed with her.

The next few sessions were devoted to inducing progressively deeper trances and eliciting friendly ego-states who were aware of Millie-the-Whole's chalk compulsion. Finally, I gained the trust of enough of her friendly ego-states that they divulged the identity of the culprit and even helped to bring it forth. Its name was "Filthy" and it lived in Magenta. "Filthy" was elicited in the classic Watkinsian way: First, gaining acceptance within Millie's supportive ego-states; second, establishing resonance with them, which is then transferred to the target ego-state(s); and finally, fostering negotiations between the various friendly ego-states and the target ego-state until a satisfactory resolution of the power-sharing is established. The following excerpts illustrate these principles:

Dialogue
R: Now that you are deeply relaxed, please search your body for sources of tension. When you are aware of where any tension is, simply place your right hand on that part of your body where you feel the most tension.
M: (Places hand on chest, near her heart).
R: Good. Now tell me what your hand feels from this area. Tell me what this area is for you.
M: This is my soul. It is hurting a lot.
R: OK, thank you. I'm going to relax you even deeper so you can perhaps allow this part of you to come out and talk to me. (Deepening technique used at this point).
R: Concentrate on        your     soul part .... keep on concentrating .... concentrating .... allow this entire experience to take place in your Key West Sunset Orange.
You are in the theatre of your mind, where you alone are in control of the video screen.
Now slowly make the entire screen backdrop into your empowerment shade. Signal me when you have accomplished this to the point where you're feeling safe, secure, and powerful. In a few moments I'm going to ask your soul to talk .... to talk about what's making you so uptight and nervous. Soul, will you please come out and explain yourself to me.... I'd like to help you.
M: OK, OK, I'm here!
R: Well, thank you for coming out to talk with me.
M: Sure, sure. What do I have to do to get all of you to stop bugging me?
R: Express yourself. Tell me what's bothering you. First of all, do you have a name?
M: Well, she and all of them call me a soul. I'm supposed to be her guide.
R: You mean, you're the social conscious part?
M: Yes. She calls me that, and I'm Magenta, but it's not my real name -- not according to the rest.
R: Oh, you have a name for yourself that's different from what M calls you -- why is this?
M: Yes, because of the way she is; they make me feel filthy by their behavior.
R: What name is that? How do they make you feel? M: Never mind all this. I know what I have to do.
R: So, your job is to regulate M's behavior -- to insure that she behaves like her mother and father raised her to behave.
M: Yes.
R: And you're very upset by the things M has been doing because she's not following her parent's rules.
M: That's right! She makes me feel dirty, cheap, filthy! Her and those other loose lusties!
R: Ah, so you feel degraded and promiscuous by M's social and sexual experiences.
M: Yes. She's filthy -- a blackened-up soul. And I'm supposed to keep her clean, and there's only one way I learned to cleanse her out.
R: So, you learned a long time ago that the way to clean up M's black errors is to eat some white chalk?
M: That's the only way -- my job has always been to correct their black deeds. Only chalk will erase the black deeds, thoughts, and desires and make everything snowy pure again!

So, here we see that an ego-state, "Filthy," is the mother-interject and embodies her strict moral code. It was born to enforce this code within M. Because other ego-states have had the power to satisfy M's libidinal/carnal needs, "Filthy" reacts to counter these "black deeds." It feels that the others are not recognizing or paying attention to her needs and has enacted the same stringent steps to punish M that her parents took when she committed grossly disobedient or "black. evil deeds" as a child.

Summary
By employing J. Watkins' "vertical exploration" technique in the hue of Key West Sunset Orange, the genesis of Millie's problem was unearthed: When she was very young and committed moral violations of her parents' and folk groups' behavior code, her mother would make her chew some chalk to "whiten your black deeds," thereby cleansing and "white-washing" away her terrible actions. Millie's sexual behaviors in recent years have caused an ego-state to feel guilty, dirty, promiscuous. Thus, "Filthy" was activated in order to cleanse away Millie's "black sins."

By utilizing Helen Watkins' technique of performing family therapy with Millie's "family of ego-states," "Filthy" agreed to loan her power to the others and to me in order to resolve Millie's psycho/sexual dilemmas. By integrating this during exposure Key West Sunset Orange, during subsequent sessions, Millie's ego-states become more integrated. in this way Millies guilt was greatly assuaged and she began acting in a more acceptable and stable manner sexually and socially. Her unhealthy consumption of chalk ceased.

The aforementioned illustrates Morris' technique of Chromonosis. Herein lies the value and the efficacy of the multi-modal therapeutic approach of Ego-states and Colored Light Hues Therapy. Conventional cognitive-behavioral techniques had not been powerful enough to penetrate this patient's defensive layers. Since E-S and CLT operate at the cellular level deep within a patient, the root cause(s) can be accessed. Through this "family systems within" framework, which includes the particular hues/shades in which each ego-state exists, it is possible to facilitate communication with those "parts" of an individual which contain deposits of toxicity(dysfunctional materials) and the more balanced , functional "parts". Then, vis-à-vis this approach's techniques tantamount to the democratic processes of negotiation, mediation, and majority rule there is hope to effectuate a harmonious accord. Another major positive therapeutic aspect of this methodology is that an individual can generalize that which has been learned and experienced to other present and/or future situations in his/her life without external help. In effect, the introspective knowledge one's parts/ego-states engenders self-reliance and self-confidence as it did in Millie’s case. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Ritchi Morris, M.D.(I), D.Sci., Ph.D., N.M.D. is an Integrative Medicine psychotherapist. He has pioneered several forms of vibrational medicine/healing( or energy psychology) , most notably C.L.T., "Chromobiotics", Chromonosis, and the B.A.T.. Helen Watkins before she passed away recognized his contributions to Ego-State therapy via his tenets that each ego-state exists in its own shade of color. In some of his books/publications Dr. Jack Watkins cited Dr. Morris' work and confirmed that he was the first to apply ego-states to the sports and peak performance arenas. He is a main protégé of and  was a student and patient of the Watkins.

     Dr. Morris is well known as one of America's original sports psychologists and peak performance specialists. After serving as a US Army officer in Special Ops overseas during Viet Nam, he returned to initiate and evolve his work with many members of various  professional and/or Olympic teams for over three decades and is now turning his talents to the Special Olympics. He has been a life-long competitive athlete in several different sports,  winning hundreds of trophies/awards, contests on the state, regional, national , and world levels while setting over one hundred records during his many decades of championship quests. He still competes to date as a drug-free Power lifter( a sport that he helped to pioneer and establish) in the Masters'  category.

     The APA recently awarded him their coveted "Service to Society" and "Master Therapist" honors in recognition for his pioneer work with PTSD and SADS as well as  his tireless and selfless trauma relief efforts at the scenes of  many major disasters/traumas such as the Oklahoma bombings, Columbine High School, the Arkansas school shootings, 9/11 NYC, the Tsunami, and hurricanes David( in Fla.) and Katrina.  His website is : www.Vitalquests.org. and phone # is: 914-333-9455.