Example 1: I was out hiking with a friend, Lucia Thornton, who had had surgery two years earlier to repair her hamstring muscles, after tearing them off the bone while windsurfing. I noticed that she was limping and obviously in some pain. She agreed, somewhat skeptically, to use WHEE as we continued to trek along the beautiful California mountain trails.

I invited Lucia to repeat out loud, "Even though my leg hurts and feels tight and constricted, I love and accept myself, wholly and completely." She later revealed that initially she felt sill rather silly, walking through the woods reciting the WHEE affirmation out loud, but after each repetition, when she assessed the pain level on a scale of 1 to 10, it decreased from its initial level 6, down to a 4, then to a 2, and after about 20 minutes, the pain had completely cleared.

WHEE was born out of my personal frustration as a psychiatrist. I trained when psychiatry was all about the practice of psychotherapy - helping people to understand themselves and to sort out their problems. Over the years, it became harder and harder for me to practice psychotherapy, as psychiatry has shifted to become all about prescribing medications. This is not what I signed on to do!

In my searches to provide psychotherapy within the very limited time frames allowed by insurance coverage for a medication visit, I came upon two brief interventions that seemed to fit the bill: Eye Movement desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). However, for various technical reasons, each proved to be non-functional in my practice. However, by combining elements of each, I developed WHEE, which has surpassed all my expectations.

The WHEE technique is so simple that it can be learned in minutes by adults and children, yet profoundly and rapidly releases pains, along with the stress, distress and insomnia that often accompany pains.

Example 2: 'Sam' suffered intermittently from sciatica. He woke one night with a level 4 pain (on a scale of 10) shooting down his leg, and was unable to fall back asleep. He had recently learned WHEE and to his pleasant surprise was able to eliminate the pain completely and fall back asleep immediately. He also found that he could much more quickly and easily fall back asleep at night when he woke to urinate due to his mild but annoyingly persistent prostate problems.

The rapid responses to WHEE are often startling and can even be unsettling to people who have had their pains for a long while. Much as people want to be free of their suffering from pains, it can take some adjustment to learn to be a person without pain. Many have reported that their pains, even when present for decades, completely disappeared in minutes. Some of them took weeks to adjust to being their 'new self.' They were surprised to realize their pains had actually become their friend and assistant, helping them duck out of having to do certain things they would otherwise found it difficult to avoid - such as stressful work situations, having to visit their un-favorite in-laws, or declining sexual relationships. WHEE was then helpful to them in dealing with the stresses for which had previously been 'helped' by their pains.

People also learn that pain is frequently a messenger from our inner self about disharmony in our lives. It is the way our unconscious mind calls our attention to something we have been ignoring or avoiding.

Example 3. I taught Lucia to listen to her body more carefully and to notice when it begins to feel uncomfortable. "This way," I said, "your body won't have to start screaming with pain to get your attention." So now, when Lucia begins to notice her leg whispering with a slight ache that it is uncomfortable, she heeds its warning that she is stressing or overdoing her physical exertions, and taps on her body and repeats the affirmation to herself. With one or two repetitions, the discomfort is gone and her leg again feels fine.

WHEE provides profound relief for emotional traumas and pains. Even issues that have been buried for years can often be released very rapidly, sometimes in minutes. With severe or repeated traumas, it may take longer.

Example 4. 'Ramona' suffered severe abuse in early childhood. More than five decades later, at a WHEE workshop, in about 40 minutes she was able to release angers, fears and hurts that had resisted a variety of previous interventions.

Children release their issues much more quickly than adults. Even with the most severe traumas, they may be able to release the bulk of their emotional pains in just minutes.

Example 5. Mary Jo Bulbrook, a nurse who does a lot of humanitarian volunteer work, found 30 destitute children in Peru who had all suffered brutal traumas. Working through a translator, she was able to help them release their emotional pains of the traumas - many of them with just a single round of WHEE, and the remainder with a maximum of three rounds.

With regular use, WHEE can transform our attitude towards pain from suffering to curiosity, to eagerness for new lessons and readiness for personal growth. Not only does WHEE help us to overcome pains and stress, it also works on deeper levels, teaching us that we don't have to be afraid of stress or pains. What had previously been negative experiences in our lives are now alerts to look inside and clear whatever is asking for attention.

WHEE along with other, related forms of self-treatment, is shifting the prevailing models for psychotherapy. We do not have to suffer when we have physical pains, nor do we have to continue to carry our emotional burdens of buried hurts. We need not rely on a therapist to 'fix' us, nor do we have to wait till we are in the therapist's office for relief of our pains. Once we know how to use WHEE, we can use it at any time that we need it.

See book by this title, an expanded versions of the case examples, and more on WHEE on my website.