Energy Therapy and EMDR are non-traditional ways to eliminate trauma and stress, negative beliefs, and self-defeating behavior patterns. Within minutes, these techniques can clear the pathways to almost anything that stands in the way of a  sense of peace  and wellbeing.   All the issues that any therapy addresses and more can be addressed in this way.

 

 

Here are two possible lenses with which to understand this work:

 

 

Scientific research on the brain has now yielded a significant body of information on the workings of the human brain. The enormous amount of data that this research has generated has clarified the fact that different centers in the brain function separately one from the other. The prefrontal cortex which is the area in our brain that governs our ability to reason and make rational decisions is separate from the limbic areas in our brain that are the source of our innate responses and of our emotions. Our sense of mental and physical well-being is to a large extent a factor of the way the limbic system communicates with the rest of the body including the neo frontal cortex, our thinking brain. How our limbic and cortical brain regulate our emotions will to a great extent determine whether we go about our lives with a sense of well being or whether we experience life as a constant struggle.

 

When a trauma or stressful event occurs in any aspect of our lives, our limbic system cannot take in information in the regular way. In these situations other parts of our brain that are regulated by the limbic system go on high alert. A structure inside of the brain called the amygdala sets off an alarm signal which readies the body for an emergency innate response, fight flight or freeze. Adrenaline or cortisol is released into the system and the cortical logical brain goes off line. The intensity of the moment overrides the structures of the cortical brain. These limbic responses are instinctual survival response skills innate to all animals and reptiles. However this is where human beings can run into trouble if for any number of reasons their body/minds are not completely able to return to homeostasis.

 

We humans unlike animals live in a complex environment, Different situations demand very different responses from us . In order to get along in the world of human beings and in modern life we need to be able to display a significant degree of flexibility in the ways that we experience and respond to our own emotions, to the emotions of others and to any number of complex situations and stresses that can confront us on a daily basis. Our capacity to fulfill this requirement only develops very slowly in human beings over and extended period of time and only in the context of a loving environment that can help shape and modulate  our innate responses  to fear, anger shame and distress.. Parents are literally responsible for shaping the hard wiring of their children’s brains. However parents cannot be responsible for every experience that their children will be exposed to over the course of a lifetime and so what science has taught us is that this capacity to stay regulated and in control of ones emotions, is very easily disrupted especially in stressful situations that are for whatever reason especially taxing to the individual concerned. In these instances the neo cortex and therefore the ability of even an adult to respond rationally can be easily overwhelmed. This is especially true for those adults and certainly young children who for whatever reason have been exposed to situations in which they felt alone threatened or overwhelmed for prolonged or frequent periods of time.

 

When a traumatic or stressful event occurs in any aspect of our lives, our brain ceases to function in the regular way. In these situations the cortical systems which normally regulates our responses go off line A structure inside of the brain called the amygdala, sets off the alarm signal which readies the body for emergency action. The intensity of the moment overrides the structures of the cortical brain. These limbic responses are instinctual survival response skills innate to all animals mammals and reptiles.

 

In the normal course of events once the immediacy of the traumatic event or crisis is resolved the body is able to return to its normal sense of balance and homeostasis. However in trauma or during periods of prolonged distress either mental or physical these instinctual responses to fear and stress may not get turned off but can remain locked in the body/mind out of awareness long after the moment of distress is over. They can get frozen in time like a locked pause button. This in turn can interfere with the perceptual, affective, autonomic somatic and cognitive functioning of the body/mind. People are then not just psychologically but biologically forced by their body/minds to live and relive the lingering traces of the original event in thoughts, beliefs, sounds  smells and feelings and responses. They continue to appraise the universe in which they are living from this somatic vantage point  It is frequently the consequence of this series of events that can make life hell and sends people to therapists and doctor's offices.

 

 

 

Energy  psychology  while new to our western minds  in fact comes from very ancient  times and was very familiar to the natives of Asia, India Africa  and China. Energy  work understands  maladies  in the body/mind to be the result of the blocked energy  pathways, known as meridians that  run throughout  our bodies. These pathways carry  our chi/prana /energy through our body and it is quality of this energy that gets communicated to our nervous system and our vital organs. As

in the neurological model outlined above, the key to a healthy body/mind is homeostasis. I.e. an even flow of balanced energy. Any disruptions in the system will lead instead of balance and harmony to stagnation and adversely affects us mentally and physically.   The image of a flowing river stopped in its tracks by refuse that has flown into it, illustrates what happens when chi /energy is stuck in

our system. Like the natural bent of water to flow freely once the dam is unblocked , so too chi can flow freely  through our body/mind as soon as it is unblocked.

 

Copyright © 2008 Aviva Bock, CCMHC, LMHC, Psychotherapist

Newton Center, Massachusetts 02459 U.S.A.

(617) 965-3426