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Also link to: Effective Treatment Approaches for Poor Affect Regulation, Imaginal Nurturing, DNMS, Best Foot Forward, Overcoming Powerlessness; Sharing Power in the Family; Fat, Thin and Power; Trauma Survivors Treatment; Self Empowerment for Women, Improving Body Image, The Diet/Binge/Purge Cycles, Techniques for Treating Eating Problems; Women, Food and Beauty Group Forming in Auckland
Effective Treatment Approaches to Healing Survivors of Trauma and Childhood Abuse
PLEASE NOTE: I mention anecdotal or scientific
in brackets next
to the name of the approach to identify the degree of documentation of
effectiveness. Because Lifespan Integration is newer, it has not had time
to be studied scientifically yet, but the anecdotal evidence is quite
remarkable (see links).
1. Link to:
EMDR (Eye
Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
2.Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
3 Lifespan Integration
Link to: Effective Treatment Approaches to Healing Problems Related to Poor Affect Regulation
1. EMDR http://www.emdr.com/briefdes.htm
(scientific)
founder: Francine Shapiro
What is EMDR?
....EMDR is an information processing therapy that uses an eight phase
approach.
During EMDR1 the client attends to past and present experiences
in brief sequential doses while simultaneously focusing on an external
stimulus. Then the client is instructed to let new material become the
focus of the next set of dual attention. This sequence of dual attention
and personal association is repeated many times in the session.
Eight Phases of Treatment
The first phase is a history taking session during which the therapist assesses the client's readiness for EMDR and develops a treatment plan. Client and therapist identify possible targets for EMDR processing. These include recent distressing events, current situations that elicit emotional disturbance, related historical incidents, and the development of specific skills and behaviors that will be needed by the client in future situations.
During the second phase of treatment, the therapist ensures that the client has adequate methods of handling emotional distress and good coping skills, and that the client is in a relatively stable state. If further stabilization is required, or if additional skills are needed, therapy focuses on providing these. The client is then able to use stress reducing techniques whenever necessary, during or between sessions....
In phase three through six, a target is identified and processed using EMDR procedures. These involve the client identifying the most vivid visual image related to the memory (if available), a negative belief about self, related emotions and body sensations. The client also identifies a preferred positive belief. The validity of the positive belief is rated, as is the intensity of the negative emotions....
In phase seven, closure, the therapist asks the client to keep a journal during the week to document any related material that may arise and reminds the client of the self-calming activities that were mastered in phase two.
The next session begins with phase eight, re-evaluation of the previous work, and of progress since the previous session.... (for more details go to http://www.emdr.com/briefdes.htm)
1Shapiro, F. (2001). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols and Procedures (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
2Shapiro, F. (2002). EMDR as an Integrative Psychotherapy Approach: Experts of Diverse Orientations Explore the Paradigm Prism. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Books.
Copyright 2004, EMDR Institute, Inc
Also see: All About EMDR by Shirley Jean Schmidt
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2. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: http://www.sensorimotorpsychotherapy.org/about.html (Scientific) Founder: Pat Ogden
History of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
In the 1970's, Pat Ogden became interested in the correlation between her patients' disconnection from their bodies, their physical patterns and their psychological issues. As both a psychotherapist and body therapist, she was inspired to join somatic therapy and psychotherapy into a comprehensive method for healing this disconnection. SPI offered its first course in the early 1980's under the name Hakomi Bodywork. Influenced by leaders such as Bessel van der Kolk, Emilie Conrad, Peter Levine, Peter Melchior, Allan Schore, Ken Wilber, Onno van der Hart, Ellert Nijenhuis, Kathy Steele, Stephen Porges, and Martha Stark, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy draws from somatic therapies, neuroscience, attachment theory, and cognitive approaches, as well as from the Hakomi Method, a gentle psychotherapeutic approach pioneered by Ron Kurtz. (http://www.hakomi.com/) SPI conducts trainings throughout the world, and has gained international acclaim over the past twenty years.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy integrates both cognitive and somatic methods in the treatment of trauma, attachment, and developmental issues. It is taught internationally to psychotherapists and allied professionals who want to include somatic interventions in their clinical work.
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Lifespan Integration: http://www.lifespanintegration.com (Anecdotal) )This is adapted and reproduced here with permission from a handout written by Regina A Delmastro, RN., CEDA THTP, a registered psychiatric nurse in Bellevue Washington.
Description and Process of Lifespan Integration ( referred to as LI therapy)
Lifespan Integration is a psycho-neurological/bodymind therapy created by Peggy Pace, MA, LMHC, LMFT, based on early neural development research. LI is body-mind based in that memory is stored in the neurological system and comes forward in response to associated experiences as explicit verbal memory or in body sensations (implicit / before- cognition memory).
The LI therapy process involves first creating a Personal Lifespan Timeline of age-specific memories which is referred to, as needed, in the LI session. Often, the client may do this at home before the actual LI session. If the client has suffered recurrent, prolonged childhood neglect or trauma, (complex trauma ), there may be little or no explicit memory of childhood. For some just the creation of the timeline may trigger traumatic anxiety or flashbacks. In this case, the Personal Timeline may be done with the therapist prior to the first LI session.
In the LI Standard Protocol, the client identifies a problem, physical sensation or symptom, neurological/ body reaction (eg: nausea, anxiety) or past memory that they wish to resolve. The client then “floats back” on that body sensation, which will then locate a memory related to the current body sensation or life problem.
Using bilateral stimulation of the brain via alternating tones or pulses, the therapist guides the client through the Personal Timeline of memories and corresponding “self states”. Since prolonged focus on traumatic events reinforces trauma imprinting ,(neural pathways that “fire together, wire together”), there is only brief acknowledging of any single memory or event. The focus is to imaginally travel through the Lifespan Timeline pausing only long enough to integrate the self-states that are “frozen in time”. The autobiographical narrative which was disrupted in childhood is recreated through the active imagining of the memories as sequential “past” events.
In the successful LI treatment, the neuro pathways and “self states” frozen in time recognize that the upsetting experience or trauma is from the past and is no longer relevant in present time. Once accomplished, the neurological system can relax and function more properly, no longer hyper-reactive to the past experiences.
The completion of the LI intervention involves repetitions through the Lifespan Timeline with bilateral stimulation (helpful, but not required) until the bodymind system is clear of neurological reaction to the upsetting memories. This may require at least 3 or more repetitions depending on the complexity of the issue or memory being targeted.
The number of LI sessions needed to resolve complex trauma will vary depending on the severity of neurological and psychological disruption in the client’s system.
Please Note:
Lifespan Integration is a newly developed modality that is based on valid psycho-neurological research. The modality itself has not been researched or proven to be effective in any specific psychological condition. There is ample anecdotal information showing profound benefit in clients who suffer from anxiety, depression, eating disturbances and/or complex childhood neglect and abuse. In my 22 years as a psychotherapist and specialist in the treatment of post- trauma syndromes, I have been most impressed with the relief that LI has afforded my clients. I have seen the strongest effects in the healing of eating disturbances, depression, PTSD and dissociation-based difficulties.
Neurobiological Basis of Lifespan Integration Therapy
In the infant and young child the “self” originally exists as a series of separated emotional states. When development proceeds normally, these separated states or parts of self are integrated into a unified sense of self. “The integrating mind attempts to create a sense of coherence among multiple selves across time and across contexts.” (Siegel,1999). Though this process is not completely understood, some neurobiologists believe this integration happens as a result of the co-construction of autobiographical stories between parent and child. “The co-construction of narratives drives the integration of cognition [thought]), affect [emotion], sensation, and behavior (Cozolino, 2002).
Brain development is an active process between parent and child. Siegel (1999) tells us that “the human mind emerges from patterns in the flow of energy and information within the brain and between brains” (of caregiver and infant). Schore (1994) demonstrates the importance of the caretaker-infant dyad in which the adult caregiver contains and soothes the emotional states of the infant during critical development stages until the infant has become capable of self-regulation. For optimal neural development in the infant and young child, the parent must be finely tuned to the child and receptive to his/her changing states and needs. When the parent is prevented from providing this, or if the parent is incapable of regulating his/her own emotions, neural development in the child can be impaired.
Traumatic experiences which occur during development can have profound and lasting effects, ie: “neural networks that fire together, wire together”. Until recently, the prevailing view among neuroscientists was that the human brain continued to develop through childhood, but once completed, no further synaptic growth occurred. There is now ample evidence that neural networks are not static, but rather dynamic and changing, and that the cerebral cortex has the capacity to reorganize itself. This is called “neural plasticity’.
“Now there is no question that the brain remodels itself throughout life, and that it retains the capacity to change itself as the result not only of passively experienced factors such as enriched environments, but also of changes in the ways we behave (taking up violin) and the ways we think” (Schwartz & Begley, 2002, pp 253-254)
Research shows that learning and memory are enhanced and neural networks are more “plastic” when subjects are optimally emotionally engaged but not overwhelmed. LeDoux (2002) describes how optimal emotions contribute to neural plasticity.
“[B]ecause more brain systems are typically more active during emotional than during non-emotional states, and the intensity of arousal is greater, the opportunity for coordinated learning across brain systems is greater during emotional states.”
“Co-constructed narratives in an emotionally supportive environment can provide the necessary matrix for the psychological and neurobiological integration required to avoid dissociative reactions” (Cozolino, 2002). Lifespan Integration creates the opportunity to co-construct the autobiographical narrative that may have been disrupted during childhood development.
Childhood trauma and neglect disrupts normal neuro-emotional development, creating a bodymind system that is hyper-reactive neurologically and lacking integration of a healthy core sense of self. Lifespan Integration allows for integration of the bodymind system, thus promoting healing from complex trauma and early relational misfortunes.
Recommendations for the Lifespan Integration Session
Because the hardest work we do is brain work; deciphering, evaluating, logging, and imprinting information from all our senses every waking moment of our lives, our brain demands an extreme amount of nutrients constantly. Hard brain work that involves emotion is very tiring. Because LI involves concentrated brain/ neurological work, the following recommendations are advised.
· Bring a healthy snack and a bottle of water with you to the session as you may need nourishment after the session. Some individuals report feeling hungry after LI due to the brain’s enormous demand for glucose during the neurological work with LI. Some diabetics have reported a 20 point drop in blood sugar level after LI.
· Sleep may be altered the night of the LI session so arrange for a quiet, relaxing evening after LI. You may experience deeper sleep than usual. Some report experiencing more disrupted sleep and/ or nightmares the night of the LI session.
· Avoid verbal mental work after the session. Give your brain 24-48 hours to process the changes.
References:
Cozolino, L. (2002). The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Building and rebuilding the human brain. NY: W. W. Norton & Company
LeDoux, J. (2002). Synaptic Self: How our brains become who we are. NY: Viking Adult
Schwartz, J. & Begley, S. (2003). The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the power of mental force. NY:Regan Books
Seigel, D. (1999). The Developing Mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are. New York: The Guilford Press
Shore, A. (1994). Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
