Mind/body therapy addressing inner child feelings and memories. Old negative patterning addressed by emotional remapping – first mapping out current experience (negative voices that denigrate or limit client) and then remapping new choices and possibilities where formerly such options felt impossible. Psychomotor therapy can be particularly helpful if memories of past losses or difficult childhood memories surface as a result of pet loss. For more information about PBSP Therapy see http://www.pbsp.org .
Highly effective modality for trauma that may have been incurred through seeing the death, accident or prolonged illness and suffering of pet. Rapid eye movements and other alternate brain stimuli such as alternating left and right audiotones or music (as in David Grand’s Biolateral work – see www.biolateral.com) or alternate hand taps are utilized to help stimulate the brain’s integration of traumatic experiences and associated memories. EMDR is very helpful in addressing symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – where intrusive images and disturbing symptoms (nightmares, flashbacks, or pre-occupation with the trauma) make optimal daily functioning difficult. For more information about EMDR see http://www.emdr.org
Brainspotting™ Therapy
Developed by renowned EMDR therapist, David Grand, Ph.D., BrainspottingTM Therapy effectively treats trauma and other difficult feelings by facilitating deep processing at the foundational core of the brain/body. Brainspots are particular locations determined by the client and therapist together from the client’s felt sense of where the eye gaze resonates best with the trauma or difficulty they are experiencing.
The Brainspot is determined first by finding which side, left or right, is more emotionally charged and produces the highest distress in relation to the trauma. Clients will alternately cover one eye with their hand, and then the other to determine the side that corresponds best to the traumatic or difficult feeling they are having. Goggles are then used with a clear lens on the distress side and a darkened lens on the neutral side. Next, the therapist moves a telescoping pointer vertically to determine the height of the Brainspot – above, below or at eye level. The pointer is then moved at this height horizontally from left to right to find the intersecting point that also resonates most precisely with the client’s distress, determining the optimal Brainspot location where the client gazes. Clients are using their felt sense – emotional feelings, sensations in the body and intuition – to determine the spot most resonant with the issue they are working on in therapy. This is termed the Inside Window approach in Brainspotting. If this sensing is difficult for the client, the therapist can utilize the Outside Window approach, watching for observable blinks, sniffs, twitches, jerks or other bodily movements which signify possible Brainspots. These bodily responses are the brain/body’s system attempting to process difficult or traumatic material – the optimal Brainspot allows for this deep processing which facilitates homeostasis again.
Biolateral CD’s, which are sound engineered by Dr. Grand, are used in the session and produce left/right alternate stimulation which facilitates the Brainspotting work. For more information on Brainspotting, Biolateral Therapy and Dr. Grand’s work go to www.biolateral.com.
At the end of sessions, clients typically report a sense of relief or calm, or that the trauma seems more like an event that occurred, but no longer produces the distressing symptoms of anxiety, pain, guilt, flashbacks or other disturbing feelings.
Therapy done in trance state (deep relaxation) is particularly effective for issues that surface in therapy that have been difficult to resolve in traditional talk therapy. Client begins with a “target” situation and finds historical antecedents to current problems, bringing to consciousness old negative patterns and ways of thinking and behaving that no longer serve them. Emotional release work in grief therapy is particularly effective in hypnotherapy – releasing suppressed emotions in a supportive environment.
