Trauma Therapy
What is traumatic to you, is traumatic.
No one can define your trauma for you. If something was (or is) traumatic for you, it is trauma. Trauma comes in many forms and includes easily identifiable incidents like accidents, losses, medical traumas, witnessing violence, interpersonal violations, or being raised in a cult or cult-like environment. Trauma also comes in less visible forms like attachment traumas which include things like complex traumas, “walking on eggshells” with family members, betrayal, “gaslighting”, and abandonment traumas.
Even at an subconscious level, people still react to significant emotional events of their individual personal history; events which continue to be triggered today. This echo can happen in the form of persistent anxiety, panic attacks, depression, or negative (“not good enough”) beliefs about themselves which were “learned” through these experiences. Each of my trauma therapy approaches allows for inner healing by revisiting and reprocessing past events in a safe environment, while diffusing and releasing repressed negative emotional energy which keeps our vibration low.
Choosing to face and address traumatic or distressing material is a very personal and individual decision and will only be done with your consent. Please feel free to call me for a free consult to ask any questions you may have about these therapies.
Eye Movement Integration
Eye Movement Integration™ is considered a Neurotherapy and utilizes the connection between Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) eye movements (see below) and their connection to the recall or creation of information in the brain to rapidly resolve traumas. Have you ever noticed that when you focus on a problem, experience, or person, your eyes sort of “lock” into a certain point in your visual field? This is your brain “pointing” to the location where the information regarding the subject of your focus is stored in your brain; sort of a “file”, if you will. A good demonstration of this can be seen in the following YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2Vn_mJcTU&t=1s
Essentially, every point in your visual field connects to a “brain file” containing resources that your brain can utilize to solve your problem. Eye Movement Integration™ uses guided eye movements to assist you in accessing information files in all their multisensory, cognitive and emotional forms by “moving” the problematic item throughout the visual field to integrate and resolve distressing experiences and their problematic symptoms. Unlike EMDR, which only uses linear side-to-side eye movement, EMI™ utilizes upwards of 22 eye movements, allowing the brain to access many more resources to resolve the traumatic experience. Additionally, EMI™ is very effective in decision making, or getting you “unstuck” from a problem.
Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR)
TIR is a fast (compared to traditional therapy) method of effectively reducing traumatic stress from emotionally and/or physically painful events. It involves re-experiencing past traumas or unpleasant experiences in a completely safe environment, free of distractions, judgments, or interpretations.
When something happens that is physically or emotionally painful, one has the option of either confronting it fully and feeling the pain, or trying in some way to block one’s awareness of it. When an incident is repressed it continues to exist as ongoing unfinished business. Such traumatic incidents may continue to exert negative effects such as anxiety, panic attacks, depression, low self-esteem, and unhealthy relationship patterns. Traumatic Incident Reduction provides a safe space and the means to fully examine that which had been blocked. In this process, we significantly shift in the way we view the incident and (as a result) how we feel about it. When the event is fully processed it no longer is “stuck” and is rarely ever triggered in the same way again.
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) in Hypnosis
Neuro (as in neurological) refers to what happens in your brain/mind. Linguistic refers to language; verbal and non-verbal (body language). Programming refers to behaviors we learn and become conditioned to repeat. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) falls under the umbrella of hypnotherapy because you enter a trance (meditative) state during which you are fully aware and in control. To put it simply, you “are in your head”.
There are two main types of hypnosis. The authoritarian direct approach and the permissive indirect approach used in NLP in hypnosis. In the authoritarian direct approach, the hypnotist ‘directs’ the client into the trance often using a scripted set of words (e.g. “you will”). Importantly, NLP in hypnosis uses permissive language that leaves the client in charge of her/his state of trance (e.g. “you might” or “perhaps”). A popular myth surrounding trance work is that the client is under the control of the hypnotherapist. At no point during your session will you lose control of your mind. If you hear a suggestion that you don't agree with, or don't understand, your subconscious mind will automatically reject it. This is why some people “can’t be hypnotized”. Only YOU can hypnotize you!
The relaxed trance state used in NLP allows the client to do inner child rescue and reparenting and other NLP techniques.