You can spend hours talking about a problem, understanding it, analyzing it, and even feeling very smart about it… and still change absolutely nothing.

If you have ever wondered why some issues seem to improve temporarily and then mysteriously return, or why a client has great insights but no lasting shift, the answer is usually not more technique. It is that the real core issue was never actually treated.

Let’s talk about what the core issue really is, why symptom chasing fails, and how to make sure you are working where real change actually happens.

Why insight alone rarely creates change

Many practitioners are trained to explore the story of the problem. They talk about it, analyze it, reframe it, and explain it.

That can feel productive. It often creates relief and understanding. But insight is not the same thing as resolution.

The biggest mistake therapists and hypnotists make is working with the part of the person that understands the problem instead of the part that feels it.

A client can clearly explain why they are anxious, why they sabotage relationships, or why they cannot follow through. That does not mean the part of them holding the emotional charge is involved at all.

Mike often uses a simple metaphor that lands immediately. Working on a problem without activating the emotional state that holds it is like sending your sister to therapy and wondering why you still do not feel better when she comes home healed.

The wrong part showed up.

The core issue always lives in a specific ego state

Every real problem is held by an ego state. Not a concept. Not a belief. Not a story.

An ego state is a real neurological configuration. One part of the personality becomes executive and takes control of perception, emotion, and behavior.

You use many ego states every day. The part of you that drives without thinking. The part that knows when you are tired. The part that teaches, competes, comforts, or focuses.

Problems are no different.

When fear, anger, sadness, or trauma is involved, one specific ego state is invaded by that emotional charge. That is the state that must be treated. Clearing surrounding symptoms without addressing that state is like trimming leaves while the root remains intact.

This is why working on ten different aspects of a problem often fails. You do not need to clear everything. You need to clear the glue holding it together.

When the primary ego state releases the emotional charge, the secondary symptoms often collapse on their own.

Why emotion must be activated in the body

Emotions are not intellectual. They are physiological.

If a client is not feeling the emotion in their body, the ego state holding the problem is not executive. It is not present. And if it is not present, it cannot be healed.

This is where many well-meaning practitioners go wrong. They talk about fear instead of allowing fear to be felt. They discuss trauma instead of activating the emotional experience safely and intentionally.

Without that activation, you are talking to the wrong part of the person.

When the correct ego state is executive, the client can point to where they feel it. Tight chest. Heavy stomach. Pressure in the throat. That physical signal tells you that you are finally working with the right system.

Anything else is preparation or distraction.

How to know you are working with the correct state

There are a few reliable indicators that you are on target.

First, the emotion is present in the body right now. Not remembered intellectually, but experienced.

Second, the response feels immediate and alive. The client is not describing something abstract. They are inside it.

Third, once that state begins to shift, other related issues often soften without being addressed directly. This is one of the clearest signs that you have found the core.

You do not need to hunt for every memory or analyze every detail. The nervous system already knows which state holds the charge. Your job is to bring that state forward and work with it directly.

Techniques like deep trance, ego state dialogue, ideomotor signaling, timeline approaches, or mindscaping are not competing philosophies. They are different ways of getting the correct state into an executive position so real work can happen.

Why symptom-based work feels busy but goes nowhere

Trying to fix behaviors without resolving the emotional driver is exhausting for both practitioner and client.

Addictions, avoidance, anxiety, procrastination, and self-sabotage are not the problem. They are solutions the system created to prevent a painful state from becoming executive.

Remove the behavior without resolving the emotional charge, and something else will replace it.

Resolve the emotional charge, and the behavior often disappears on its own.

This is why precise work matters. Not more work. Not longer sessions. Just better targeting.

The real question to keep asking

When progress stalls, the question is not “What technique should I use next?”

The question is “Which part of this person actually has the problem?”

When you consistently work with the ego state that holds the emotional charge, change stops being fragile. It becomes stable, integrated, and surprisingly efficient.

That is what treating the core issue really means.

A quieter way of thinking about change

One of the defining ideas behind the MMHA approach is that change does not come from force, persuasion, or piling on techniques. It comes from precision.

When you stop trying to fix everything and instead work with the part of the person that is actually holding the emotional charge, the process becomes calmer, cleaner, and more respectful of the nervous system. There is no battle to overcome resistance because resistance usually disappears once the correct state is involved.

This way of working trusts that the system already knows where the problem lives. Your role is not to convince or correct, but to invite the right part forward and allow it to let go of what it has been holding onto.

When that happens, change often feels less like effort and more like relief.