How to Help Clients Tolerate Dysregulation and Come Back From Hypoarousal
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with Stephen Porges, PhD;
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with Stephen Porges, PhD; Bessel van der Kolk, MD; Pat Ogden, PhD; Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD; and Ruth Buczynski, PhD
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Hi. Im Fiona. In Yorkshire UK.
UKCP accredited psychotherapist. Lifelong career in social justice and peace education .Worked in US as a youth violence prevention coordinator. Now retired and running a Toy Bank for disadvantaged/ vulnerable/ kids in mega toy poverty . Want to offer awareness raising about trauma and voluntary basic training to local schools and parent volunteers about trauma empathic support.
Also a techno challenged dinosaur! I’d like access to all your online wisdom please. How can I access, what will it cost me and how can I pay in £ sterling please. Thanks Everso x
Thank you so so much for making this free and for welcoming non-professionals to watch. I have CPTSD and stumbled upon this through an Instagram ad. I can barely begin to tell you how much this one video has impacted me and both helped explain and piece together so much for me as well as give me hope and encouragement along my journey to healing and wholeness. Again, thank you!
Thank you for this series. Wonderful information and excellent teaching. I am both a professional and someone who is trying to recover from PTSD. Everything in this session had meaning and resonated with my personal experience of trauma and my journey of recovery.
Thank you so much for the wonderful content. I have been glued to all the presenters’ information and insights. I appreciate the way you have put the information together as it is easy to follow. Looking forward to using what I have learned with my clients and I am seeing my client’s issues in a whole new way!
Much gratitude to all of the Gold Members and Ruth who continues to send me these wonderful emails so that I may learn new ways to heal my PTSD. I recently started Somatic therapy with one of your own, K.Tyrrell. Whoo hoo, I feel very supported… in great hands.
I already have a Gold Subscription. Now I’m learning how much good it can do for others, and I’m very moved by that.
I’m a psychotherapist, and over the years have come to specialize in somatic therapies. Most of these are my own inventions,
grounded in evidence-based science and observation that has made sense to me.
I suffer with severe PTSD, grounded in early childhood. No surprise there.
I’m so grateful for the science-based learning offered by NICABM, because this knowledge base educates me to what I
long to know, and generally suspect. It also, however, gives me wind beneath my wings in terms of the therapeutic work
I do that my clients say they find so helpful.
Where I live and practice is very isolated regarding colleagues that are in sync with NICABM, or even know it exists. There
is one excellent mindfulness source…that’s it!
SO, I’m greatly engaged in and appreciative of this and your other presentations, and the brilliant, profoundly humane,
pioneer colleagues and presenters. AND….I’d so much like to play & work in this sandbox; share my initiatives; and get to
know like-minded people in this country and around the world for collaboration and feedback. Please suggest how that
might be a possibility? That would be superb!
Thank you so very much for what you are doing!
With Great Appreciation,
Terri
tsblair@comcast.net
I am not a practitioner but suffer from severe complex PTSD anxiety which I have diligently worked on for 20 years. Thank you for making this conference free and public. I have learned SOOO much! I am a veterinarian. I had a major break-through today. I have read The Body Keeps the Score and was fascinated to learn more from this author…I forget his name. Sorry. Peter Levine’s information was incredibly enlightening. I call myself 10 second Tom because I have to write everything down. I know my anxiety interferes with my memory but it was fascinating to learn more about how and why. Also, I forget who suggested it but a woman recommended listing thoughts and their functions. I did it today and saw that I have learned to do biofeedback over the years and it was fascinating to watch…racing heart, pretty flower, racing heart, look at the bird, heart still racing, take a deep breath… in all, the experience ended up in a break through when I went back through the list to evaluate the function of each thought. The understanding of the pre-verbal right brain emotional attachment patterns and the procedural memories inhibiting reality and current learning have also been profound. I can’t wait to hear more tomorrow. Again, thank you! Oh, and although, he’s not in this conference, I do want to say that Pete Walker’s book Complex PTSD has also been a game changer for me. Seriously, though, thank you!!!!
Thank you for this free version. Many insights are imparted that I hope to use in my own trauma healing. It’s good to hear you talk about some effective things I do regularly. In particular, I’ve practiced qigong for a while. It’s almost predictable how it resolves anxiety, and and that release lasts usually 24 hours or more after 20 minutes of qigong practice. I’m instructing it now for other trauma survivors.
Exceptional – helps to conceptualize and understand the roots of trauma and how to heal it. Huge Thanks,
Vivian
Thank you. I really enjoyed this session. I am an emerging MSW, RSW and this is helping to round out my understanding of trauma response and working with clients. Specifically, I found value with techniques, questions, and what to think about as the clinician, as well as the psycho-education of trauma and what is happening for the client. Psycho-education is something that I want to become much more comfortable with and this workshop helped.
Thank you so much foral this information!!!!!
Thank you so much. The examples are very helpful to see how to integrate the theories. Thank you so much.
Excellent information and easy to understand and use.
Thank you so much, from a UK clinical psychologist working with children and young people.
Many thanks for all your efforts to support us in the field and tend to so many details, including our own wellbeing.
I believe there needs to be much greater emphasis durimg training on bodily approaches to therapy in my profession. Thank you
I appreciate very much, that you offered these informative sessions for free, as any financial extras are not available at the moment. This helps me so much to makes sense of my journey. I struggled for years with dysfunctional familial system, that I didn’t know was dysfunctional, covert I will call it. Spent many years with a therapist trying to sort out. My resource was yoga, now I am studying Kristine Kaoverii Weber’s Subtle Yoga ( which parallels so much of the theories here, especially Dan Siegal’s Window of Tolerance), I have grown leaps and bounds with a growing sense of SELF, this yoga is specifically for calming the nervous system, it doesn’t happen overnight but over time, slowly. One of the best things was the breath work (pranayama), I think I was a breath holder, now I am in love with my breathing. Bessel Van der Kolk mentioned how one can not begin to reconnect if they are not in touch with their breath. I plan to teach others this specific yoga and share the valuable resource. Thank you again.
Brilliant, and so well-structured. It feels so good to meet and learn again from each of the professionals. As a teacher by profession, there is a lot in this session that addresses classroom situations in terms of window of tolerance. So, now I have more theory behind why what is happening might be happening in the students and why what helps does help. I had a clear preference for bottom-up techniques, and this webinar describes exactly why. The differentiation of symptoms for hyper and hypoarousal also gave me some new angle of observation: a relationship between the type of educational institution and a certain prevalence/ “preference” of either hyperarousal or hypoarousal? The clarity of the concepts and practices encourages me to remain and be even more persistent with using the practices in study settings as well as creating more structures to pass them on to parents and caregivers in the future. And again, side-notes where I realize the connections to IFS. Also, a beautiful reminder how students stay with us long after they have gone, I clearly recognized one student who had had a bipolar diagnosis in the symptoms you described. Very helpful distinction. Thank you so much!
Wow great content ! How to expand their window of tollerance & help the client getting selfregulated. Noticing the hyper and hypo arousal. Distinguish bi-polar disorder from trauma disregulation. The dorsal-vagal system explained in cases of dissociation and how to get/ keep my clients (re)connected into the higher brain parts. See the importance of working with both body & mind , bottemUp & topdown .. .Thank you so much!
Hi, I had a great opportunity to understand this subject and the research possibility. I am interested in research….. is there any possibility collaborate on any research activity?
That was so helpful! I have been studying trauma therapy for about 3 and a half years, since my partner had a severe vagus nerve attack and resumed his journey to release himself from the trauma he has experienced. He is currently working with an integrative body psychotherapist, having worked with a counsellor for over three years, had cranial sacral therapy, experienced a second bout of shingles mostly on the inside of his body, treated homepathically. He has complex PTSD, childhood rape by a priest, an abusive alcoholic father, diagnosed with various mental illness in his thirties, 13 times of being institutionalized, told by the “experts” that he would never live independently. He is an extraordinary man, the most compassionate, loving person I have met. He has worked as an outreach worker for the Canadian Mental Health Association on the streets of Nanaimo and he has helped the plight of those who were living on the streets. Thank you so much for the work you are doing. This is saving my sweetheart’s life and giving me a life of wholeness, helping me understand my own struggles and reinforcing all the ways I have been healing myself – years of Iyengar yoga and learning about trauma informed yoga (I teach). Now learning Vanda Scaravelli inspired yoga online. Pranayama classes and starting a practice. Walking in nature and working in the garden. Valuing the relationships with my family and friends more than anything besides my wellness. Learning to be present by the ongoing practice of paying attention to the breath along with learning yoga philosophy and applying it to my daily life. Meditation with the Buddhist Centre in Victoria.
This was a very helpful session. The pandemic has very much affected my work with a client with whom I talk on the phone and can’t see. His talking has always flooded me but it is worse on the phone. Today I realised that he must be ‘showing’ me some aspect of the very persistent sexual harassment he experienced by enacting it. I have become the immobilised victim. It will take a lot to change this interaction but I am determined to interrupt it in some way. I might start by asking him to evaluate how our sessions have been going for him during the pandemic and if he feels a difference. That in itself will be quite an interruption of our usual interaction. One of my goals would be to get him to feel his body more and to see the value of doing that. He is always trying to be in his thinking brain and he does not make a lot of sense to most people
I am really liking this series, and the many examples, that makes it much easier to understand, and hopefully to apply . There is, however, one aspect that I did not fully grasped – the role of empathy. If possible, I would like to hear more how can it be used well.
Thanks for this really rich and well organised event series.
I wonder about the combination of Bipolar disorder and PTSD as I know someone who suffers from both.
No therapist had been able to integrate the two conditions for helpful treatment.Any idea would be most welcome.
I am just helping as a friend.
I valued being reconnected with the importance of the availability of the client and the therapist.
The information on sleep as an indicator was important.
This webinar was so enlightening and brought me such hope for healing! I am a trauma survivor working with a therapist who does these exact things with me, bringing me a little bit outside the window of tolerance has me describe what I see, hear, feel. When I begin to dissociate, he gently keeps me “awake” He also couples this technique with EMDR. It is Changing.My.Life. And also, the lives of my traumatized children. Please keep spreading the word. These practical regulation skill building techniques WORK!
I’m surprised that along with the martial arts and playing music, that dance wasn’t cited here as a method to practice staying in presence. For me the practices I learned with dance and movement therapy were vital for me to learn how to remain in my body. I know it’s a discipline in the States that has been much more widespread in the mainstream than in the UK.
I know there are many new physical trauma therapies since trauma has become widely discussed but I can’t express enough how accessable this therapy is. I was able to go to a dance floor somewhere in the city and observe my physical and emotional responses, and challenge my range of movement without anyone ever noticing.
Once again Thank you seems so little but thank you so much none the less I very much appreciated the difference between re-living and processing the event . Thank you
I’m realising that I work in this way with trauma. So thank you for confirming that what I’m doing is correct.
In most of the teachings on trauma I’ve taken part of the trauma is talked about as something occurring in the past, and the focus is on distinguishing past and present, returning to an, assumed, safe here and now. How do we process trauma in a present that isn’t safe, where trauma is constantly reoccurring? I’m thinking of everyday sexist, racist, ableist, trans- and homophobic, class related and otherwise oppressive structures that both trigger and reinforces past trauma, as well as harmful (non trauma informed) ideas and practices, and outright abuse within the medical and mental health systems (where most people who can’t afford a private therapist or medical doctor end up in search of support and healing), substance abuse programs, shelter system and prison complex. The privilege of access to competent, well informed therapeutic interventions is one that is rarely available to those most in need of it (and most vulnerable to harm from mistreatment and further abuse).
After having spent decades reaching out for help to governmentally funded general and mental health institutions, as well as private practitioners (way out of my budget) only to end up disappointed and constantly re-traumatized, I had no other choice than to do as much studying as I could on my own (oftentimes ending up triggered, overwhelmed and unable to process or integrate much of the information, due to the dysregulated and dissociated states I was already in and worked towards balancing) and, to my best ability, become my own therapist. This has left me in a situation where I have acquired loads of wisdom, skills and self knowledge, but where I’m struggling to provide for my practical basic needs and connecting with resources that could potentially offer support.
What I’d wish to see is, and plan to work on, if/when I can get myself out of my own personal mess of a situation, is trauma care that extends outside of the confines of the client-therapist relationship. Trauma happens in close relationships as well as on a structural level. If true, broad and sustained healing is to happen we need to focus on creating safe communities, big and small, where re-connection and support is made accessible on a daily basis. I see a great gap between what’s going on at the academic and scientific level of trauma research and the experience of the huge number of individuals most affected by developmental trauma and attachment issues, as well as structural trauma (inherited and daily lived), but I believe it can be bridged. It will take some work, accountability and sharing of resources on the part of the more privileged spectrum of things though.
Thank you for this very important comment Woen!
You sound like a formidable person with such strength and inner resources. You raise such important points that should be considered; I do hope the organisers can respond to you. I live in a country with so few mental health resources and so many daily developmental and structural traumas so I think your idea of creating more safe communities is a great one.
Wishing you well!
Woen, I hear you loud and clear. A bit about my story: I am an artist/designer by profession, and wound up in a 3.5 year long relationship with what I believe was a covert, histrionic narcissist. In my experience and in the experience of countless survivors I know, most couples’ counselors and therapists (even psychologists) have little understanding about narcissistic interpersonal abuse (especially covert) and its long term effects on the brains of survivors. As a result, my trauma bond with the abuser was compounded by counselors and actually included them, as they inadvertently gaslighted me, dismissing my concerns as they were unaware of signs of covert narcissistic abuse. Several I worked with had never even heard of a trauma bond, including some who worked at a women’s shelter. That blew me away, as domestic violence, especially psychological/emotional, is an epidemic that COVID has exacerbated. Many victims have little resource and recourse due to financial abuse by their abuser, and so cannot afford therapy (which as I have already noted, can actually be more harmful than helpful).
Having said that, I have chosen to become certified as a narcissistic abuse recovery coach as the need I see in the global community is so great. It is a way that I can share my hard earned knowledge and wisdom and experience with other survivors, including those who cannot pay for support. Also, I have had some contact along the way with influencers and have helped them to understand some of what I have learned, to give their community better support. I believe we can help foster a paradigm shift by spreading the word through social media, sharing knowledge with influencers, and becoming certified in areas of our expertise and donating of our time and knowledge. It was never on my bucket list to become a survivor of narcissistic abuse, and to struggle with chronic trauma related CPTSD. But here I am, and so I am now dedicated to help shine a light on the subject and promote healing and social awareness of this specific type of abuse.
Such important issues raised here!
I am not a professional. In the recent past I had been assisted by a professional over a three year period to understand, come to terms with and respond in healthier ways to an early childhood maternal abandonment experience that was indirectly connected and subsequent to inappropriate behavior personally experienced with a different adult relative outside nuclear the family. When entering counselling, I originally came with questions of why I tended to respond in certain ways to situations. The discussions over time helped to recognise patterns rooted in that experience and to recognise and change responses in current experience. It is interesting to recognise and learn here about processes that were utilized within that counselling process.
Currently, I am concerned about my adult child who is displaying thought and behaviour patterns that are concerning because they are disruptive to health, social and work life. I am wondering if they are related to a personal pre-verbal childhood experience regarding the death of his oldest sibling. He seemed fine until the recent past when a very close family friend was charged (and later convicted) in regard to their behavior involving two of his siblings and another person. This event affected our family on many levels as they were part of our faith community, adopted grandparents (socially, not literally), and a frequent part of daily life. This created a heightened response regarding measures for security of person and home, and later distrust and suspicion of people, thoughts/patterns that often repeat and are often not truthfully or logically based.
I want to encourage him to get professional help so he can ultimately enjoy life in healthier ways. In the meantime, until he makes that decision for himself, I would like to learn how to be supportive of him in ways that do not add to triggered responses. I fully recognize that I am not trained or skilled to diagnose or effectively help him. I am mindful to manage my own responses when interacting with him and the information learned here may be helpful to find ways to support him in an appropriate manner.
A parallel that is personally interesting regarding today’s content is the awareness factor; noticing the body language and behavior as a patient enters the room etc., and how this is a foundational piece to the work. From lifetime involvement with horses, this is a recognizable skill in horsemanship.
I have been exploring the possibility of starting a business that enables people to interact with horses. There are a wide variety of formats in which this can operate and certifications available. Frankly, I feel more skilled with horses than people but the information in this series is informing different insights into the human condition. One lifetime seems too short to explore the field of social work or therapy to develop proficiency for professional practice as I am approaching retirement. The content of this series is a stepping stone in the learning curve. 🙂
Thank you for your efforts in putting this content together.
Another great series – I’ve largely outgrown my PTSD (has taken 30+ years – from assaults as a child and adult, plus poor – avoidant? – attachment) and these insights explain so much – window of tolerance, top vs. down approach, procedural memory, etc. I think NICABM has had a lot to do with my healing. Some patients like me find explanations of how the brain works very very helpful.
I think for years I wanted various therapists to deal with my actual dis-regulated state, but I felt I had to be on good behavior. I would say I was tense and nervous all the time, and one therapists said I didn’t appear nervous, as a way to help me see – cognitively I guess – that it wasn’t as bad as I thought. That was more interesting than helpful however as it did not decrease my nervousness. I have also had panic attacks in PTSD group relaxations exercises – felt like my will was being overpowered which was triggering.
I think if as Ogden and others were describing, therapists had addressed my bodily sensations as they were happening, reminded me they were ‘flight-y’ survivor resources, and had combined top-down ways to address it, I would have healed much more quickly. I wish someone had said “let’s talk about your nervousness” for ex.
I have also felt one therapist was very uncomfortable herself, and it would have been good to talk about that. The idea of ignoring overall bodily feelings is what I’m talking about.
Yesterday I had an epiphany re procedural memory, that all the times I had in some way sabotaged a romantic situation was not because I was shamefully self-sabotaging or felt undeserving (as in Dr. Phil’s notion that ‘you get what you think you deserve’), etc. (tho those were not entirely irrelevant), but that first and foremost I was out of my window of tolerance and was simply trying to feel safe, bc I felt extremely nervous (scared) and was worried that would show and I would seem like a nut.
I hope that’s interesting for therapists to read.
Again, thank you!
Thank you… so valuable to me as a foster carer. When Bessel was talking about Neuro feedback he said there were only three things that work…boxing, playing in a band and… what was the third, please? Was he referring to these exclusively do you think or were they examples of activities that involve rhythm and interaction? Was wondering if there was anything specifically about the three that make them more effective.
I believe the third might be martial arts and various ancient practices such as qigong and zen meditation practices. These require one to be focused in the present so that one is in sync with the other, for example in band practice. or, letting the practice of meditation continue despite thoughts intruding. These practices also strengthen one’s capacity to focus.
Two reflections:
First off, looking at how we learn to self regulate growing up, under ideal circumstances can help inform us on how to assist a client learning those skills as an adult. In a healthy, functional relationship the caregiver/s regulate the child’s system by being present with and holding space for their dysregulation without losing their own stability, and thus bring them back to balance. The child learns that dysregulation is temporary and not life threatening. I would argue, that in therapy the therapist ability to be present with, and tolerate, the clients dysregulation is the number one factor determining if self regulation is to be able to happen in the client. Self regulation starts with co-regulation. Many people suffering from early interpersonal trauma are very good at picking up, and adapting to, subtle signals from other people, whether consciously or unconsciously. If the therapist has difficulties tolerating the clients dysregulation, they might, rightly so, not be deemed safe from the clients perspective, it might even trigger past traumatic memories of their dysregulation negatively affecting a caretaker. Unless the client has previous trauma awareness this is likely to play out on a subconscious level. This is why the therapist’s work with themself, along with awareness of which types of clients they are capable of working with, is crucial for the outcome of their work with clients, and making sure well intentioned interventions doesn’t do more harm than good.
Second, doesn’t bipolar disorder have a close connection with early trauma and attachment issues? People in a manic state might not have sleeping issues in the way described here, but, to me, the mania clearly serves as a defense against unwanted states of vulnerability, weakness (sleeping and relaxation being two of those) and, in my opinion, traumatic feelings, sensations and memories (hence the grandiosity, perceived feeling of control and indestructibility).
An effective alternative to “meditation” could be simple breathing techniques that you can establish by teaching and practicing with clients in session. A quite place or a specific meditation style is not required. And, we always have our breath available. You help them with establishing the consciousness availability to remember to do it also with reinforcing (post-session suggestion) that they can do this!
Alternate nostril breathing, breathing in on a count of 4 and out on the count of 6 or any version of keeping the exhalation longer than the inhalation is calming, or “square breathing” are a couple of the breathing techniques that can help shift one out of hyperarousal into presence awareness. Just starting with slowing and observing the movement of breath and how it moves the body is calming. I frequently utilize this in my multi-modality Holistic Therapy practice.
Thanks, Ruth, for making me feel welcome: I’m one of those few “lay persons” who’s interested in the subject of trauma and, in more general terms, the themes of problems and solutions, and suffering. I’m, among other things, a writer of quotations. Here are a few that may be relevant: “Sapped of strength, I discover a self that doesn’t rely on strength.” “Suffering toughens the spirit and tenderizes the soul.” “The vessel out of troubled waters sometimes appears as a problem.” “You are the navigational system out of your own conundrum.” “Any movement toward solution gathers energy; any movement away from solution depletes energy. Act accordingly.” “AMnesty: Making peace with who I am.” (from my book, OUT OF MY MIND: QUOTATIONS THAT DELIGHT, DAZZLE, AND CONFOUND)
I sometimes use the acronym S.T.O.P to help clients learn to self-regulate or manage anger. But in today’s session, the same acronymn became so very relevant for me as a counsellor. S for Stop; O (Observe) carefully; T (Throw away your theoretical knowledge at least temporarily) and P(pay attention to your client, establish that meaningful contact). I think one of the facilitators, whose special area was in family therapy and IFS, explained the importance of throwing away your theories and observing the client, that the information was right in front of you. As a young counsellor, this is extremely useful and a practice I will carry with me though out my work as a counsellor. To be honest, this was a basis for any intervention or plan when I started even first year in nursing, OBSERVATION! Starting from the moment I come into contact with the client. Thank you for emphasizing this basic tenant in client care.
Addition: You can’t nurture presence in another without first being present yourself. If your head is occupied with theory while seeing a client you’re not really there with them. Which, if disconnect and lack of attachment is a primary trauma, will likely reactivate and reinforce that experience in the client.
Interesting: there is so much in both of these comments that parallel effective horsemanship that puts the horse first.
Love this analogy to horsemanship. Thank you.
I agree about the horse connection. I had mindfulness “lessons” with my own horse (ok, if you want to see attachment issues, see a woman and her horse…it all comes out). I had no awareness of myself on my horse from the waist down for the longest time. Feel the feet? Ha. Well, I can say I was blessed by my horse who brought me forward before he had to pass on. They are truly wonders.
I so appreciate that you offer these for free for a time. Really enjoy so much. And I feel fortunate I can take advantage of watching them because I am not working right now.
In order to reach others that are working full time or are parenting at these times, maybe consider offering one more LATE showing – after kids go to bed for example.
And as always – sorry I repeat myself, I wish you would work directly with top parenting experts to translate these latest theories and interventions into useful and practical resource programs or guides for parents in the trenches with suffering/distressed children. Considering along the way how to help parents build capacity (pausing, presence, & mindfulness) in the moment when they are dealing with children continuously out of the WOT due to early trauma.
Last thought: Parents frequently have to be Mental Health/Trauma Educators to teachers, therapists, family, friends. Is there any way to give them more credentials, certification or such that would be validating for them in these situations? No time to do a degree although I’ve been learning non-stop for 7 years.
Thanks again.
Lisa, I replied to one of your earlier comments regarding the resources for parents. As I said there, I’m working on getting myself out of a rough trauma induced situation, but creating comprehensive and accessible (C-)PTSD and crisis resources for non professionals is on the top of my list as soon as I have some firm ground under my feet. Feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk more about it: woenmeree@gmail.com
Lisa, can’t think of a more child and parent expert than Dan Siegel. He often participates in these NICAMB webinars, and in one of the early ones this week. Check out his website, and utube, as he has many powerful parenting and child strategies, psycho education, explaining neurobiology, and most important, like Bessel Vandekolk, a great reservoir of empathy and love. He has excellent books on parenting, as does Gabor Mate and his book Hold on to Your Kids.
Just a suggestion, but the best way to be a “mental health/trauma educator” aside from getting the education and hours of work being supervised as you get clinical experience, is to model empathy, maintain healthy boundaries and provide resources if someone asks, or it’s appropriate situation to do so.
Recommend highly Niki Gratrix free weekly Healing Circle online for traumatised children and their parents. You can register for the Healing Circle and even if you are not in a time zone that is suitable to go on live accessing the archives sound therapy is VERY powerful. Niki has been through early childhood trauma, as have I. Despite attempting to meditate for decades I couldn’t because the majority of extreme early childhood trauma survivors are rarely able to meditate in the traditional sense…..doing so activated my body into an involuntary abreaction (abuse reaction) where the body instantaneously goes into extreme physical response that cannot be predicted or controlled (like a grand mal epileptic fit in my case). The sound therapy was a more gentle way to directly impact my subconscious and change it without the trauma reactivation induced by traditional meditation. The sound therapy activates the Vagus Nerve which is crucial for getting the front brain online to self regulate and learn how to get/stay in the window of tolerance. More than 10,000 people are registered for the weekly Healing Circle and more than 700+ people go on the call live so the collective power of uniting to heal is profound (Lynne McTaggert in her book “The Power of Eight” scientifically explains this). Niki also has pictures of nature on screen for people who cannot close their eyes (due to the trauma response and not feeling safe like me) or physically go into nature and these pictures also activate the Vagus Nerve. Niki also talks quietly during the sound therapy to subliminally help reprogram the patterns keeping us stuck in the early childhood trauma. Listening to the recordings is equally as powerful as going live. Recommend registering and accessing the Archives and starting at Week 1 because Niki also provides education prior to and after the 40 minutes sound therapy and answers questions about activating the Vagus Nerve. On Niki’s recommendation I have purchased a Modius Sleep headset to activate my Vagus Nerve and a Sonic Slider tuning fork to do likewise. Both are also assisting me to enhance the sound therapy and therefore activating my Vagus Nerve. Niki discusses things many lay people would not be aware to enhance recovery from early childhood trauma such as regulating blood sugar, circadian rhythms to learn how to organise improved sleep routines, use of self help techniques like EFT Tapping to enhance Vagal Nerve tone. 90 minutes a week of free education and sound therapy is priceless. You can listen while doing the housework, if you are time poor and a busy parent or working person, and whilst the sound therapy will not have such a deeply profound impact (as if you are sitting in an armchair or lying on a bed) it will still help activate the Vagus Nerve.
Niki’s sound therapy is loved by children because it calms them, particularly children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, intellectual disabilities and those currently going through family violence.It is the walk in nature substitute you can do even if you are living in a high rise CBD apartment and in lockdown by looking at the nature onscreen. Every nature picture is specifically selected by Niki to activate the Vagus Nerve and children are soothed and willing to sit and watch, even those with ADHD. Countless parents have commented how the sound therapy has calmed even the most hyper aroused children. I have played the sound therapy with children I have been doing craft with who have been both autistic and have ADHD (with parent permission) and have witnessed them visibly relax and concentrate by activating the Vagus Nerve.
Niki’s sound therapy is also a fantastic resource for traumatised pets, large and small, who gravitate from wherever they are to get close to the sound therapy because pets are equally impacted by being in a violent household. I am homeless as a fallout from the family violence and housesit (so I am not sleeping in my car) as the pandemic has decreased the affordable housing options so thousands do not have secure accomodation. Even the most anxious pets with severe separation anxiety that pace and pant relax and curl up and go to sleep when I play the sound therapy, without exception. It is especially great for terrorised dogs during thunderstorms. I have used the sound therapy with more than 30 different animals from birds to horses in the past few months and every one has visibly relaxed.
As trained life coaches, we see our client’s trauma show up in may ways. This trauma training, rooted in current neuroscience, is very helpful in understanding what may be going on with our clients. Although we are not trained in therapy, our methods resemble a lot of the work therapists do with clients. Body movement (we call it geography) and mindfulness are examples. If you don’t target life coaches for your training programs (I notice your drop down profession field does not a life coach option), I suggest you may find a willing and hungry audience for your training materials. Thank you!
I use my L.I.F.E. System Biofeedback that identifies what is currently happening in the body. When an area like the back comes up, I can use the technique to explore with them the area of tension, etc., and observe their affect. Of course, I already do that as a Brain Health coach and retired mental health counselor, but will take a little more time with their experience. I really appreciate the explained difference between Trauma and Bipolar reactivity
I’m looking for ideas for working with clients for whom experiencing the body is a trigger for dissociation. I have several clients who experienced ongoing sexual abuse by a parental figure as children. For one client in particular, regular mindfulness practices (feel you feet on the floor, touching her hand etc) trigger dissociative stuff. Her father who said he loved her best used to force her to sit on his knee while he was aroused. He would breathe heavily and not let her escape. Apparently this was also her fault. So regular mindfulness approaches are triggers. She experiences ongoing shame and has great difficulty talking about her body or anything associated with sexuality. Additionally she has mobility issues which require her to use a wheelchair much of the time, so she cannot get out without a big effort. She is very intelligent and spends a lot of time in her head, avoiding her sinful body. Any ideas for working with this?
Hi Lynn,
Please see my reply to LisaB above re FREE weekly Niki Gratrix Healing Circle and education suitable for lay people and professionals alike.
Until meeting my amazing trauma informed EMDR Therapist in 2018 I spent more than 5 decades of my life disassociated because ALL the many previous many therapists I had consulted failed to recognise it adding to my trauma. I have miraculously survived early childhood abuse in all facets akin to those babies/children currently in war zones experiencing the same (including unimaginable sexual trauma).
Regular mindfulness and meditation activated a full body trauma response for me (abreactions). They are generally not suitable, or safe, for people who have experienced early sexual abuse ongoing from a parent (my mother and her father).
EFT Tapping see mindheartconnect/tapping resources for simple graphs that show how PTSD can be reduced with this self help technique. EFT Tapping cannot shift early childhood abuse alone but used in conjunction with other things can calm the amygdala so clients can receive the information and therapy you provide or they study for free online.
Sonic Slider tuning fork calms the brain and body. Niki recommends 20 minutes a day while using the sound therapy. It will take about 12-18 months of daily consistent (self help at home) 20 minutes sound therapy and sonic slider tuning fork activation to change the automatic subconscious brain/body response. I only received my sonic slider a week ago and in combination with the sound therapy it is already making a difference to my brain and body.
Pooky Knightsmith has short you tube videos that are phenomenal self help tools to getting back in the body from disassociation
Dr Eva Detko have a 101 guide to activating the Vagus Nerve and whilst not all will be suitable for early childhood trauma clients the psychoeducation and easy to understand pictures will help the clients to learn self regulation. This will enable them to reduce the shame by empowering them to get into trouble shooting front brain and out of the primitive rear brain where the shame is embedded, in my experience.
Thank you!
Once again, this is an affirmation of the work that I have set out to do in providing a Community Healing Immersion Center. I believe there are so many aspects to healing & this session truly deepened my understanding of the ebb & flow of working with traumatized individuals.
I just “saw” in my minds eye a “day in the life” of the Center It affirms the importance of each person in a group to have access to a tool that allows them to be present as they are processing their trauma. As a BodyWorker, the grounding of another human with hands on touch is one way, but as a Coach the use of art or integration or movement within the therapy is another way to have a tangible engagement while processing.
Thank you for compiling all these experts in one training & I am grateful to have the access I do. I look forward to becoming a Gold Subscriber in order to have these trainings at my fingertips as needed in my work.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to watch this session. Since at this moment my financial recourses are empty. I will some how pay your gift forward to someone (plural) else!
Difference between BD and trauma is sleep. Very interesting point to differentiate this from this.
Observing every aspect of clients holds important materials to start therapy by being aware of them and reflect back when necessary to clients.
The window of tolerance was interesting and brought awareness to me on how I can best serve my clients. Thank you for such a valuable workshop.
I have a cleint that I call a scared kitten. When it tried mindfullness she was not able to engage. This session taught me to break it down into just breathing or focus on what she is seeing vs having the whole process. I had worked outside her window of tolerance.
As a former client of an SE practitioner, I want to thank you for all you do to relieve the world’s hurt and confusion. It’s so difficult to be human some times, but with the right support, we all can reclaim our joy.
Excellent session.
Thank you!
This structure,content and tone have hit the sweet spot for the layman too…thanks..N-j0y..nAz
I am learning so much from these sessions. Thank you!
In the wrap up, Joan speaks about her client resourcing by going to her woodlands and moving- is this something achieved in session through mindfulness or does the client actually need to go to her woods?
Learning a lot from these sessions, the way you all explain is very easy to understand..
Iam thankful for all ur precious time.
Hi I think that there is a tremendous healing power in immersing oneself in nature, so yes, the client probably needs to go to her woods to get the full impact of being in nature. For sure, when you can’t do this, bringing it to mind, reciting a loved poem about the natural world, or looking at a favourite painting, film, or photo of the natural world helps. But actually being out there in it, directly involves all the senses.
For others, it is mountain climbing, hill walking, even swimming in rivers and lochs; the natural world again.
Although meditation is a wonderful resource, often trauma survivors cannot meditate. Are there ‘meditation- like’ activities that might be substituted?
bird-watching
meditative music or guided meditation can be helpful to offer something to focus on
Yes you are right.
I suggest activities that allow to get into a flow state, like musique (listening, singing, playing, dancing…), tai chi, drawing, painting…
Growing things, seeds, seedlings, getting your hands into the soil, making a little piece of garden
Niki Gratrix free weekly Healing Circle online. You can register for the Healing Circle and even if you are not in a time zone that is suitable to go on live accessing the archives sound therapy is VERY powerful. Niki has been through early childhood trauma, as have I. Despite attempting to meditate for decades I couldn’t because the majority of extreme early childhood trauma survivors are rarely able to meditate in the traditional sense. The sound therapy activates the Vagus Nerve which is crucial for getting the front brain online to self regulate and learn how to get/stay in the window of tolerance. More than 10,000 people are registered for the weekly Healing Circle and more than 700+ people go on the call live so the collective power of uniting to heal is profound (Lynne McTaggert in her book “The Power of Eight” scientifically explains this). Niki also has pictures of nature on screen for people who cannot close their eyes or physically go into nature and these pictures also activate the Vagus Nerve. Niki also talks quietly during the sound therapy to subliminally help reprogram the patterns keeping us stuck in the early childhood trauma. Listening to the recordings is equally as powerful as going live. Recommend registering and accessing the Archives and starting at Week 1 because Niki also provides education prior to and after the 40 minutes sound therapy and answers questions about activating the Vagus Nerve. On Niki’s recommendation I have purchased a Modius Sleep headset to activate my Vagus Nerve and a Sonic Slider tuning fork to do likewise. Both are also assisting me to enhance the sound therapy and therefore activating my Vagus Nerve. Niki discusses things many lay people would not be aware to enhance recovery from early childhood trauma such as regulating blood sugar, circadian rhythms to learn how to organise improved sleep routines, use of self help techniques like EFT Tapping to enhance Vagal Nerve tone. 90 minutes a week of free education and sound therapy is priceless. You can listen while doing the housework, if you are time poor and a busy parent or working person, and whilst the sound therapy will not have such a deeply profound impact (as if you are sitting in an armchair or lying on a bed) it will still help activate the Vagus Nerve.
Niki’s sound therapy is loved by children because it calms them, particularly children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, intellectual disabilities and those currently going through family violence.It is the walk in nature substitute you can do even if you are living in a high rise CBD apartment and in lockdown by looking at the nature onscreen. Every nature picture is specifically selected by Niki to activate the Vagus Nerve and children are soothed and willing to sit and watch, even those with ADHD. Countless parents have commented how the sound therapy has calmed even the most hyper aroused children. I have played the sound therapy with children I have been doing craft with who have been both autistic and have ADHD (with parent permission) and have witnessed them visibly relax and concentrate by activating the Vagus Nerve.
Niki’s sound therapy is also a fantastic resource for traumatised pets, large and small, who gravitate from wherever they are to get close to the sound therapy because pets are equally impacted by being in a violent household. I am homeless as a fallout from the family violence and housesit so I am not sleeping in my car as the pandemic has decreased the affordable housing options so thousands do not have secure accomodation. Even the most anxious pets with severe separation anxiety that pace and pant relax and curl up and go to sleep when I play the sound therapy, without exception. I have used the sound therapy with more than 30 different animals from birds to horses in the past few months and every one has visibly relaxed.
Thank you for this. It’s so helpful to hear from another survivor. Relaxation and sleep are so hard for me and yet I’m exhausted and need rest.