Maximize Your Healing Process
The other day, after a good session with a long-standing client, she said she was thinking about a couple of people to refer and wanted to know more about the type of person who would be a good fit with my work. She teased, "I'm sure you'd like someone who rarely changes their appointment, comes and goes on time and remembers their checkbook."
I agreed that while those things are much appreciated, the ideal client brings so much more to the healing alliance, such as:
• a basic faith that one's body and mind--though hurting--are beautifully equipped to overcome past injuries and trauma.
• a willingness to participate as a full partner in one's own healing.
• a commitment to change conditions which were often years in the making.
• a curiosity about the work we're doing and how it's helping them.
• open, respectful communication and feedback.
• a desire to embrace the incremental shifts of a session and apply them in daily life.
• clarity to notice when something improves and welcome it as real: we can get better.
I thought a moment and added, "sometimes change, even for the better, can feel scarier than what we're trying to overcome. Obsolete, negative paradigms can be stubborn. It's lovely working with people who are willing to gradually relinquish the stuff of old traumas and get acquainted with their happier, healthier, more fulfilled body, mind and soul."
These are a few of the attributes that help clients recover faster and deeper, when fully involved and invested in their recovery. It's the antithesis of some of our experiences in the beleaguered medical world, where we might feel unheard or unheeded and therefore cut off from our powerful recuperative capacity.
Take heart in knowing that whatever your experience has been up to now, we all have the potential to be an ideal client or patient, with benefits far exceeding the efforts.
Oh, For a Good Night's Sleep!
Three of the most common health complaints I hear are sleep apnea, teeth grinding or bruxism and tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. Often the same person has all three and is suffering more than they realize.
Sleep disorders are linked to low levels of seratonin, triptophan and melatonin. Now, other factors are becoming known to dental MD's and dentists. Chances are, someone suffering from sleep apnea also has bruxism, tinnitus and snoring. A tell-tale sign: 70-80% of sleep apnea sufferers have a scalloped tongue.
According to Joe Schames, DMD and director of the White Memorial Medical Center's CranioFacial/TMJ Pain Clinic, "patients with bruxism should have a sleep apnea or CPAP exam." Ask your doctor or dentist to order the test. Once you know sleep apnea is present, an appliance or bite splint is often prescribed. If tinnitus is part of the package, the ringing in the ears often quiets as bruxism and apnea are addressed. However, underlying emotional factors may go untreated.
What causes this chain of events? For those with a high, narrow roof of the mouth, high body mass, an overbite, large neck, history of orthodontia, forward head posture, use of certain drugs or just plain old tension and stress, the airway behind the nose and soft palate narrows during sleep, causing a lack of oxygen. As the body gets less oxygen, muscles in the jaw constrict in a micro-arousal signaling danger. Teeth clench, moving the base of the tongue into the already narrow airway until insufficient oxygen wakes us up with a gasp for air. This process repeats dozens of times during the night, causing us to get up in the morning with a sore jaw, stiff neck and shoulders, headache, ringing in the ears and exhaustion.
If left untreated, adhesions and inflammation will appear in the mouth and jaw, weaken neck vertebrae and wear down the teeth and mandible. Problems with memory, concentration and relationships may also arise.
What Can I Do? A great way to alleviate the apnea-bruxism-tinnitus trio is to retrain the jaw to drop down and forward, taking pressure off the TMJ--temporomandibular joint. The TMJ is laced with mechanoreceptors which alert and encourage us to breathe fully.
I use CranioSacral Therapy, Somatic Experiencing® and other gentle modalities to re-educate the bodymind to find more life enhancing ways to achieve rich, deep sleep, while dissipating the impact of stress and trauma on the whole person. Often when the underlying stress or trauma is treated along with its trio of symptoms, the need for an appliance or medications diminishes. Then we can return to getting a good night's sleep, awakening pain free and equipped to greet the day.
Welcome! We Grow and Learn Together
Dear Lighten Up Bloggers,
Welcome to my first blog issue. I'm very excited and a bit intimidated by this massive new way to connect with people. As a therapist specializing in trauma, I must admit this new venture into technology and cyberspace is quite traumatizing! I'll do my best to learn as I go.
The Purpose of Lighten Up is:
• to broaden my outreach,
• to share what my clients and mentors are teaching me,
• to hear what concerns you,
• to share some laughs,
• to create connections among readers,
• to inspire and support each other
• to grow in body, mind, soul and spirit,
I often tell my clients, "You are the greatest expert on how your mind and body work." Therefore, I have a lot of respect for your perception of what's going with you and around you. As this Lighten Up blog evolves, I envision an informal gathering of like-minded people sharing, supporting and healing in the presense of one another.
So to kick things off, I'd like to share a famous quote from the philosopher, botanist, author, Johan Goethe, that applies to all worthwhile undertakings.
COMMITMENT
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creativity.
There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it Now."
How Trauma Therapy Works
In past few years, an innovative approach to healing trauma, called Somatic Experiencing ®, or SE, has been highly praised
and promoted by medical and mental health professionals. It was developed by Dr. Peter Levine, who holds a doctorate in medical and biological physics and another Ph.D. in psychology.
As an SE Practitioner, I see trauma as an altered state of consciousness, or survival mode, a by-product of an overwhelming threat. Growing up in a dysfunctional family can be as traumatizing as war or a car accident. Children may be traumatized by seemingly innocuous events that go unnoticed, but nevertheless effect learning or behavior in some way.
Dr. Levine explains, "SE helps people access their own, instinctive ability to rebound from overwhelming experiences." SE is a simple, yet profound way to access the traumatized areas of the brain which are difficult to reach through traditional talk therapies.
Here's where the body joins the mind to form a powerful healing team. By tracking body sensations, imagery, simple gestures, movements and sensory feedback, the patient re-connects areas of the brain with their innate capacity to complete the normal response to threat and shed the effects of the trauma. Thankfully, much of this is accomplished without having to relive painful memories.
People experience trauma differently but Dr. Levine explains, "... it is a loss of connection - to ourselves, our families and the world around us. This loss is often hard to recognize, because it happens slowly, over time.... Yet not only is trauma curable, the healing process can be a catalyst for profound awakening. Trauma does not have to be a life sentence."
Some common symptoms of trauma are hyperarousal, constriction, dissociation, denial, feeling helpless, immobile or frozen, hypervigilant, flashbacks, extreme sensitivity to light or sounds, restlessness, startle reactions, lower tolerance to stress, sleep problems, mood swings, panic attacks, phobias, brain fog and the inability to bond with or nurture others.
The good news is that SE reverses trauma's effects by allowing the steady discharge of excess fight-flight-freeze energy. This gentle process, invites the nervous system to regulate itself more efficiently. The result is greater resiliency and a larger capacity to enjoy living in the present and tolerating life's normal stressors.
To Learn more, read: Waking the Tiger, Peter Levine, Ph.D. North Atlantic Books, 1997
Dare to Want What You Want
Whether you're recovering from trauma or pain, or extending your reach into unknown territory, one of the biggest hinderances we often face is that little, nagging, inner critic which mocks our dream and tells us that we don't deserve what we seek.
There are several messages in this insidious voice which include:
• I'm just not good enough.
• Others are far more deserving.
• I've been beaten so much by life's blows that I'll never get what I want.
• I'm too old, it's too late.
• I'll be attacked if I go after my dream.
• If I were meant to have it, it would already be accomplished.
• I'm too busy, too distracted, too disorganized, too stupid.
• I'll make people jealous and lose my friends, loved ones.
• I'm just an ordinary person.
We've all experienced some of these hurtful thoughts and suffered for it. I've certainly had my share, so much so that I made an informal study of the subject. I noticed that those who achieve their dream don't fear or dwell on the voices listed above, at least not enough to stop them. They face the world with a certain joy of life, which supersedes their shortcomings.
Interestingly, many of these successful dreamers aren't any more gifted or intelligent than the average person. Some have minimal education and experience. But one thing they share is the mindset: To have something new and different, I'm willing to do something new and different.
Even more interesting, these qualities apply to both psychological healing and material success.
Some common traits among manifesting dreamers are:
• Willingness to fail, to learn and continue.
• Willingness to ask for help.
• A sustained focus on the dream.
• A view of the world as a friendly place.
• They assume people like them, not because they're perfect, but because they like themselves.
• A sense of humor about their flaws and mistakes.
• Willingness to extend themselves for the dream to manifest.
• Courage to be honest with trustworthy people.
• Trust their gut instinct and intuition.
• Sustain a vision of the dream, held in body and mind.
In my case, for some time I've been stymied by the unfulfilled desire to widen my circle. I've always been intimidated by technology while at the same time very aware of its potential. So I'm pushing past the list of downer qualities and focussing on the positives to move my dream into fruition. Now, by actually putting it out there, I'm joining forces with all of you fellow travelers, daring to want what I want and inviting you to do the same.
Monday, August 31, 2009
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