Affect Management Skills Training
Affect Management Skills Training (AMST) is a structured protocol for remediating deficits in emotional regulation. Affects motivate human behavior (Izard, 1991; Nathanson, 1992). As noted, the ingestive disordered client uses the abused substance to manage disturbing affects that would otherwise be overwhelming. Beginning treatment by teaching affect management creates a win-win situation with the client and her unconscious. As the client learns these skills, she is immediately empowered and gains a sense of mastery. The client's unconscious is aware that the client is learning to manage the disturbing affects and is then more willing to relinquish control through the abused substance. The structured protocol provides a decision tree that enables the therapist to identify missing resources and to uncover covert ego states. Once recognized, the missing resources can be installed, and the ego states can be co-opted into a helping role with the therapy.

Tactile Alternating Bilateral Stimulation (TABS) increases the effectiveness and efficiency of AMST. TABS is a means of alternately stimulating the right and left hemispheres of the brain. TABS is effected through tactile stimulation provided by a battery-powered device called a TheraTapper™ It is believed that the increased flux of information through the corpus callosum stimulates the brain's information processing system allowing access to all dimensions of experience: behavior, affect, sensation, and cognition. With affect regulation in place, the client can now participate in uncovering and resolving the traumas she has been reenacting through the abused substance.