In a RIM session, we’re not just “remembering” things and talking about them - we’re stepping into a kind of inner virtual reality, where your deeper emotional mind can show us exactly what it needs to heal.

In person, or on the phone, you’re usually sitting comfortably with your eyes closed. We often start with slow breathing and simple body‑sensing: noticing tension, heaviness, fluttering, tightness - whatever your nervous system is already broadcasting. That body sensation becomes the doorway into the right material, not just the story you think is important.

Instead of me deciding, “Let’s work on your relationship with your mom,” your inner system decides where to go. I follow and you lead.

Recently, I worked with Carol, a divorced empty-nester mom who reported being highly triggered by her ex sending her flowers for her birthday. She couldn’t understand why he triggers her even when he was trying so hard to be kind. Once she closed her eyes and settled into her “inner landscape”,  the feeling toward her ex easily shifted into memories of her mother from when she was a little girl. Mom was forever trying to get Carol to be the way mom wanted her to be.

Wear the pretty little dresses, play quietly inside, spend time with her in the kitchen, help take care of her little brother. Carol would have none of it – she wanted to be barefoot playing outside in the dirt. Mom showered her with gifts (that mom thought she should like) and was forever being “nice” to her. As an adult, Carol stays silent, but Mom is still “being nice” while she subtly expresses her disappointment in Carol not being the daughter she wanted.

Carol had been talking about her ex for years, but when her body took her beneath her spinning thoughts into emotional memory, the real issue that plagued her sense of freedom to be herself with permission to be joyful was her relationship with her mother. Her childhood “redo” landed as a felt new experience in her body. As if she has a new history now and more freedom to feel safe and happy being herself.

Being in the memory, not talking about it

Two‑Minds Theory and RIM research make something very clear: the thinking mind and the emotional mind are not the same, and they don’t store or change memory in the same way.

• The thinking mind is great at talking about your life: analysis, timelines, meaning‑making.
• The emotional/intuitive mind is where your emotional memories, body reactions, and protective patterns actually live. It runs your reactions in real time.

The thinking mind can’t directly rewrite what’s stored in that deeper emotional system. You can spend years talking intelligently about your past and never touch the actual stuck moment—or the slow drip of many experiences that built a belief like “I’m not enough” or “I’m not safe to feel.

RIM works differently ( RIM Creator Dr Sandella calls it the Dip/See/Do method):

• First, we help you dip into body sensation and spontaneous imagery—your deeper mind starts surfacing what truly matters.
• Then, we see: you find yourself inside an inner scene, like a 360° emotional virtual reality space. It might be a single memory, a composite of many, or even a symbolic scene your system creates to represent years of experience.
• Finally, we do: you move, speak, act, and re‑experience that situation in a completely new way - one where you have safety, voice, and agency.
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The key is: you’re in the experience, not outside of it describing it. Neuroimaging research shows that imagining yourself in an activity lights up brain patterns similar to actually doing it, and very different from just talking about it. That’s why RIM’s “inner VR” can genuinely change emotional memory in the nervous system.

The “redo” or do‑over: changing the past in a way your nervous system believes. I think that the big lie in therapy is “you can’t change the past.”

With RIM, you can’t change the actual historical facts, but you can change what your nervous system remembers as the emotional truth of what happened.

In the inner VR of a RIM session:

• Your imagination can safely time‑travel to the perfect moment when something went wrong for you - whether it was one incident or a whole childhood atmosphere, and whether it was a paper cut or near-death experience. (Note: Certified Facilitators are trained to insure emotional safety as you move at your own pace and you always remain in charge of your experiences).
• You get a do‑over: you can bring in safety, support, boundaries, your own voice, and the ability to stand up to the person or situation that made you feel unsafe, small, invisible, or not enough.
• You get to anchor the new feeling for your body to register: “This is what it feels like when I’m safe / seen / powerful / allowed to feel.”
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Because the emotional mind responds to lived, embodied experience (including vivid imagination) more than to intellectual insight, it treats this do‑over as a real event. As far as your nervous system is concerned, something new has now happened, so future triggers don’t hit the same “I’m helpless” button.

This mechanism applies to both:

• Seemingly “small” stuck emotions (like that gym‑class humiliation you still feel in your body).
• Very serious, traumatizing experiences that have kept parts of you frozen or bracing for years.

In both cases, the science is the same: when you’re in the scene and your emotional mind reorganizes how it ends, your system can finally update its responses.

The facilitator’s role: neural witnessing, not directing.

Another big differentiator: in RIM, the facilitator is not the director of your inner movie - they’re more like a skilled guide who trusts your inner operating system.

Research on RIM describes this as “neural witnessing”: the facilitator follows the client’s inner experience without imposing hierarchy or choosing the memory, until the client arrives at the root‑cause material. Then the facilitator gently supports you as you speak, move, and transform the scene from the inside.

That means:

• We don’t build a list of “top 10 stressful events” and march through them.
• We don’t decide, “This is the trauma we’re going to work on today,” from the outside.
• We trust that your intuitive mind will surface precisely what needs attention right now, even if your thinking mind had other ideas.

This client‑led, body‑centric way of working is part of why RIM often feels faster and more surprising than other approaches: you’re finally collaborating with the part of you that has always been running the show underneath your conscious thoughts.

Most people don’t come to RIM saying, “Hi, I’d like to work on my attachment wounds and unconscious emotional imprints today.”

They come because something in real life isn’t working. They’re tired of feeling stuck, reactive, or blocked in ways they can’t fully explain.

Sometimes they know the deeper issue.

Often, they don’t. They just know they want to stop feeling this way, stop repeating the same pattern, or finally move forward in some part of their life.

People often come to RIM because they want to:

Feel less overwhelmed by their emotions

• They may say, “I’m too reactive,” “I cry too easily,” or “I get triggered by the smallest things.” What we often discover underneath is a nervous system carrying old emotional pain, fear, or beliefs formed long before the current situation.

Get better at sales calls, visibility, or putting themselves out there

• This is such a good example because people often think they have a business problem when they really have an emotional safety problem. Many of my clients are referred by their coach because they freeze on sales calls, avoid marketing themselves, or can’t seem to be visible without shutting down. In a RIM session, they may discover that being seen, asking for money, asking for a higher price, or risking a “no” lights up old feelings of rejection, shame, criticism, guilt, or not-enoughness they didn’t even realize were running the show.

Stop the inner critic, perfectionism, or not-enoughness spiral

• People may say, “I’m exhausted from overthinking,” “Nothing I do feels good enough,” or “I know I’m capable, but I keep doubting myself.” Sometimes the deeper issue isn’t confidence at all - it’s an old emotional blueprint built around earning love, avoiding criticism, or staying safe by getting everything right.

Heal grief, heartbreak, anger, or unresolved pain

• Some people know exactly why they’re coming. They want help with a loss, a divorce, a betrayal, a job ending, or anger they can’t seem to release. In those cases, RIM can help with the pain they already recognize and reveal the older layers that may be amplifying it.

Change relationship patterns

• They may not come in saying “attachment wound.” They come in saying, “Why do I keep choosing unavailable people?” “Why do I lose myself in relationships?” or “Why can’t I set boundaries without feeling sick about it?” RIM helps uncover the emotional learning underneath those patterns so change becomes more than just a good intention.

Find a healthier job, partner, or next chapter

• Sometimes the presenting issue is very practical: “I want a better relationship.” “I want to stop sabotaging my career.” “I want to leave this situation but something in me won’t move.” RIM helps when the surface goal is clear, but the deeper emotional blocks are hidden.

They’ve done everything else.

• Many people who find RIM are not new to healing or growth. They’ve done therapy, coaching, reading, courses, spiritual work—the whole personal-growth buffet. They’re not lacking insight. They’re just still bumping into the same wall. RIM is often what helps when the conscious mind has done a lot of beautiful work, but the emotional root still hasn’t shifted.

What's needed for success

One of the reasons RIM is so effective is that people do not have to correctly identify the root issue before they come. They only need an honest doorway: the pattern, pain point, or stuck place they’re living with now. From there, the body and inner system can lead us to what’s actually driving it.

That means someone can come in because they hate sales calls, feel stuck after a breakup, want to stop exploding in anger, or can’t seem to find a healthy relationship—and the session can still reach the deeper emotional material that needs healing. That client-led process is part of what makes RIM feel so precise, even when the presenting problem seems vague or misleading at first.

RIM tends to be a good fit for people who are self‑aware enough to notice their patterns and open enough to try something more experiential than talking and mindset work alone.

It’s especially for you if:

• You’ve already done some inner work, and you’re still stuck.
• You might have done therapy, coaching, somatic work, spiritual practice, or all of the above. You’re not starting from scratch, but a few key reactions, fears, or patterns haven’t budged, no matter how much you “understand” them.
• You’re curious (or at least willing) to close your eyes and follow your inner world.
• You don’t need to be “good at visualization” or have any special skills. You just need to be willing to notice sensations, images, and inner scenes as they arise, even if that feels new or a bit weird at first.
• You care more about real change than about staying in familiar formats.
• You’re open to the idea that a process where your deeper emotional mind leads might unlock more than staying in pure conversation or strategy.
• You’re tired of fighting yourself and want a kinder way to shift.
• You’re done with “just push through it,” and “beat yourself up until you change.” You want a way of working that is compassionate, body‑aware, and respects your pace.
• You’re willing to feel - but you don’t want to be re‑traumatized.
• You understand that healing involves contact with emotion, but you want that contact to be structured, supported, and as gentle as possible—not reenacting old pain without relief.
• You’re open to the idea that your system knows more than your thinking mind.
• You’re willing to tap into the vastly unused parts of the brain and let your inner wisdom lead, even if your rational brain doesn’t fully understand why a certain image or memory is showing up.

Situations where RIM may not be the right fit right now

It’s important to be honest about this, too. RIM may not be the best choice when:

• You’re looking for a quick behavior hack without touching emotion.
• If you mostly want scripts, advice, or step‑by‑step behavioral rules—and you’re not interested in the emotional side, then other approaches may serve you better.
• You’re in a crisis that requires immediate, intensive, medical or psychiatric care.
• If your safety is at risk, you’re in active addiction, or you’re experiencing severe symptoms that need hospital‑level support, RIM is not a substitute for emergency or crisis care.
• You’re uncomfortable with any inner‑world / imaginal work.
• It’s totally okay to be skeptical or new to it. But if the idea of closing your eyes and noticing inner scenes feels intolerable or unsafe right now, we’d need to address that first—or choose a different kind of support.
• You want someone to tell you what your problem is and what to do.
• RIM is collaborative. Your inner system leads; the facilitator doesn’t diagnose and prescribe from the outside. If you mostly want clear external directives, you may prefer a more advice‑driven format.
• You have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness especially where there is potential for having breaks with reality.
• RIM is not for clients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Psychosis, Schizophrenia, or Borderline Personality Disorder. 

RIM alongside other support

RIM doesn’t have to replace other things you’re doing.

It can sit alongside therapy, coaching, medical care, spiritual practice, or business support. Often, it’s the missing piece that lets all that other work finally land at the level where your reactions and choices actually change.

If you’re not sure whether RIM is a good fit for where you are right now, a short conversation or consultation can help us look at:

• What you’re dealing with
• What you’ve already tried
• What kind of support your system is actually asking for next

From there, we can decide together whether RIM belongs in your current season—or whether something else should come first.