Overview
This page explains Matrix Reimprinting, a method credited to Karl Dawson that adds ideas about past-self ECHOs to EFT tapping. It covers history, the originators' terms, what sessions are described as involving, the quantum and reconsolidation claims, research, safety and training. Machipedia's Energy Psychology page covers the wider family.
Where does Matrix Reimprinting come from?
Origins in EFT
Matrix Reimprinting is credited to Karl Dawson, a trainer of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), who published the first book on the method with Sasha Allenby. A retail listing gives the title as Matrix Reimprinting using EFT: Rewrite Your Past, Transform Your Future, published by Hay House UK on 2 August 2010. The academy that teaches the method describes it as having evolved from EFT, which is why the page on EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and the family page on Energy Psychology give the wider background.
Later books and training network
Dawson's training organization promotes a later Hay House book on the method, written with Kate Marillat, and presents him as its creator. The organization describes a personal Matrix and a larger Matrix that connects everything on earth, language that places the method within a wider energy-oriented self-development culture. The sources reviewed give no independent history, such as academic or journalistic accounts, so the origin story here rests on the originators and their school.
Place among related methods
Machipedia covers the broader group of tapping and energy-based methods under Energy Psychology, which includes Thought Field Therapy and EFT. This page covers only the Matrix Reimprinting variant. Its school presents it as an addition to EFT rather than a separate lineage, and describes it as compatible with counseling, hypnotherapy and psychotherapy. Related trauma-oriented methods with separate pages include Havening Techniques and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).
What do the names and terms mean?
Matrix and personal field
In the originators' terms, the Matrix is a personal energetic field around the body, part of a larger field said to connect everything. Practitioners describe past memories as held in this field as pictures or holograms. This is the school's own vocabulary. The sources reviewed do not describe a way to observe a personal Matrix, and the term should be read as the originators' metaphor and belief rather than a measured structure.
ECHO and its changing expansions
An ECHO is described as a younger self frozen in a past event, held outside the person in the personal field. The acronym is expanded differently on the school's own pages, as Energetic Conscious Hologram on one and Energetic Consciousnesses Holograms on another. The originators compare the idea to inner child work and to soul retrieval in shamanism, and cite a clinician's phrase, trauma capsule, for stored traumatic experience. Borrowing these labels does not make them equivalent to the originals.
Borrowed quantum wording
The academy states that from a quantum physics point of view there are any number of possible pasts or futures, and uses this to explain why changing a remembered picture is not denial. This is a statement made by the school. The pages reviewed cite no physics sources for it, and the terms hologram and field are used in a descriptive, non-technical sense. Related Machipedia pages on Regression Therapy and Psychotherapy use different vocabularies for work with memories.
What does Matrix Reimprinting involve?
What practitioners describe
Practitioners describe combining EFT tapping on meridian points with attention to a chosen memory. The school says that in standard EFT the aim is to lower the emotional intensity of a memory, while in Matrix Reimprinting the person revisits the memory, interacts with the younger self, brings in new resources and changes the remembered picture. The practitioner also asks what belief the younger self formed. This page gives no scripts or tapping sequences and describes the process only in general terms.
Relationship to other care
The academy states that EFT knowledge is a prerequisite, that the two methods are often taught back to back, and that Matrix Reimprinting can be used alongside life coaching, hypnotherapy, counseling, psychotherapy and bodywork. It also says the method can be taught to people who are not practitioners. These are school statements about use. They do not show that the method is a form of psychotherapy, and it is distinct from the approaches described on the Psychotherapy page.
What is Matrix Reimprinting used for?
Conditions the school lists
The academy lists addictions, phobias, allergies, pain, anxiety and depression, illness, negative core beliefs, birth traumas and relationship issues. It adds that the method can be used with past lives and future selves and with the Law of Attraction. These are claims made by the originators' school, and no study cited in the sources reviewed tests any of them for Matrix Reimprinting.
Trauma and memory framing
The school says that changing a remembered picture fills the gap left after distress is reduced, sends a message to the body that the trauma is over, and brings the belief formed that day into awareness. Memory reconsolidation is a neuroscience concept that a 2026 theory paper proposes as one mechanism of Clinical EFT. That paper is a proposal about EFT and not a test of Matrix Reimprinting, and the school pages opened for this page do not use the term.
What does the research show?
Searches and what was found
A PubMed phrase search for Matrix Reimprinting returned no records on 2026-10-19, and the sources reviewed include no controlled trial or systematic review of the method. The academy has a research section that was not opened for this page, so practitioner case series or small studies may exist that are not assessed here. Further searches covered EFT systematic reviews, memory reconsolidation and false memory induction.
The EFT evidence base
A 2018 meta-analysis of EFT component studies concluded that the tapping element contributed beyond other components, but it pooled a small number of studies, and the authors later corrected statistical errors and reran the analysis. A 2024 commentary argues that the energy meridian premise is pseudoscientific, that tapping has not been shown to be the active ingredient, and that EFT research has serious methodological flaws. Neither paper studies Matrix Reimprinting, and evidence on EFT cannot be carried over to it.
Reconsolidation and quantum claims
The reconsolidation framing is a theory proposed for Clinical EFT and has not been tested for this method. On the physics side, one published calculation of decoherence times concluded that cognitive processes in the brain can be treated as classical, and it disagreed with proposals tying quantum coherence to consciousness. That paper does not address Matrix Reimprinting, but the sources reviewed provide no physics support for the method's quantum wording.
What are the safety considerations?
Trauma and care boundaries
People who are considering working with traumatic memories are generally advised to involve a qualified mental health professional. The NICE guideline on post-traumatic stress disorder recommends trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and EMDR for adults and does not list tapping methods. A search of its page text found no mention of EFT or Matrix Reimprinting. This page is not a substitute for assessment or treatment, and the method should not delay or replace necessary care.
False memory cautions
A systematic review of 59 laboratory articles found that guided imagery and suggestive statements induced false beliefs or memories in, on average, 20 to 50 percent of participants who were manipulated about false past events. The review did not study tapping or Matrix Reimprinting. Because the method invites a person to imagine and revise a remembered scene, these findings are a reason for caution about memory accuracy, though no source here measures that risk.
Claims, ethics and training
The 2024 commentary argues that EFT is incompatible with the ethical practice of psychology. Training is set by the school itself: it describes a three-day EFT practitioner course or extensive EFT experience, then a two-day Matrix Reimprinting course, with website registration. EFT International describes internal accreditation and a code of conduct for EFT but does not mention Matrix Reimprinting. No statutory regulation or external training standard was found in the sources reviewed.
Connected Entries
Showing 8 of 93 related records.
Classification and context
- Entry type
- Modality
- Practice type
- EFT-based tapping and memory-imagery method (energy psychology)
- Traditions
- Traditional Chinese Medicine, New Age spirituality
- Concepts
- Qi, Mind-Body Connection, Memory reconsolidation
- Categories
- Alternative, Metaphysical
Sources and discovery context
Research and public-health sources support evidence and safety context. Directory and discovery sources describe navigation, relationships, practitioners, and access—not clinical efficacy.
A retail listing used only for bibliographic details of the first Matrix Reimprinting book.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Supports the title, authors, publisher and date of the originators first book only. Does not support any claim about the method or its effects.
- Supports sections
- History and Origins
A first-party explanation of the ECHO concept, which also names the later Dawson and Marillat book.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Shows how the originators training body defines ECHO and the personal Matrix. Must not be read as evidence that ECHOs, a personal Matrix or a trauma capsule exist.
- Supports sections
- History and Origins, Terminology, Practice Description
A school page contrasting Matrix Reimprinting with standard EFT in the school own words.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Shows how the school presents the method. Not evidence that memories are changed or that any outcome follows.
- Supports sections
- Practice Description, Claimed Uses
The school own overview of what Matrix Reimprinting is said to involve and address.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Documents what the school states, including its quantum physics wording and listed issues. Does not show that any listed issue improves.
- Supports sections
- History and Origins, Terminology, Practice Description, Claimed Uses
The academy statement of how its practitioners qualify.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Describes the school own pathway and fees only. It is not an external or statutory standard.
- Supports sections
- Safety and Suitability
A professional association own description of its internal accreditation process.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Concerns EFT International accreditation of EFT trainers and practitioners. Do not infer that it accredits Matrix Reimprinting.
- Supports sections
- Safety and Suitability
An open-access theory paper on EFT mechanisms, not a trial.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- A theoretical framework for Clinical EFT that names memory reconsolidation among four proposed mechanisms. It does not test Matrix Reimprinting or show that reconsolidation occurs.
- Supports sections
- Claimed Uses, Research and Evidence
A published critique arguing that the EFT energy meridian premise lacks support.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- A critical commentary on EFT as a whole, responding to a systematic review. It does not address Matrix Reimprinting directly.
- Supports sections
- Research and Evidence, Safety and Suitability
A small meta-analysis asking whether tapping contributes beyond other EFT components.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Pools a small number of comparative EFT studies. Says nothing about Matrix Reimprinting. Subsequent correction noted separately.
- Supports sections
- Research and Evidence
The authors published a correction after statistical errors in their earlier meta-analysis.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Documents a correction and the authors rerun results for EFT component studies. Not about Matrix Reimprinting.
- Supports sections
- Research and Evidence
A systematic review of 59 articles on how often suggestion and imagery induced false beliefs or memories.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Laboratory studies of imagery and suggestion about false past events. It did not study Matrix Reimprinting or any tapping method; do not infer a rate for that method.
- Supports sections
- Safety and Suitability
A physics paper calculating decoherence times for neural processes.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- One physicist calculation of neural decoherence times and its disagreement with quantum-consciousness proposals. It does not mention Matrix Reimprinting and is not the last word on quantum brain models.
- Supports sections
- Research and Evidence
The NICE PTSD guideline recommending trauma-focused CBT and EMDR for adults, with no mention of tapping methods.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- A UK guideline. It states what NICE recommends for PTSD; absence of a method from it means only that it is not among the recommendations. It does not evaluate Matrix Reimprinting.
- Supports sections
- Safety and Suitability
Links to Gyfts Matrix Reimprinting page for this practice, for discovery only. The platform's descriptions and claims are not independent claims. Machipedia does not rely on them for evidence.
How this source relates
- Source link
- Exact source page
- Relationship
- Links to Gyfts' page for this practice, for discovery only. The platform's descriptions and claims are not independent evidence, and nothing on this Machipedia page relies on them.
- Supports sections
- Practice Description