Archive for April, 2010

“In this world of change, nothing which comes stays, and nothing which goes is lost.”

Anne Sophie Swetchine

Today I lost something I really, really wanted and I found something else that I never, ever did.  I lost a piece of a dream that I had and really thought I had a firm grasp on.  And in the process was reminded that nothing is certain and we must always be prepared to weather change and disappointment.

What I found  was a dog.  Another one.  Well, to be more exact my husband found the dog wandering around near his work with perfectly manicured nails and hair and no collar or master to be found.  In all likelihood he was abandoned by some semi-well-intentioned owner hoping he would land somewhere good.

I felt a bit of kindred sensation–both me and this Rhodesian Ridgeback mix were dropped off in the middle of nowhere, completely under-prepared and disoriented, and with no idea of what the future would bring.  But both our fates led us to the essentials of life–we will both have food to eat and a roof to stay under while we figure out what life might hand us next–and he is going to get his mug shot plastered across town just in case there is someone looking for him (although in all likelihood he was abandoned).

I am constantly reminded of this simple fact in life, succinctly described by Operation Ivy in their song titled “Knowledge”:

“All I know is that I don’t know.  All I know is that I don’t know nothing.”

Whenever we think we know something, have some certainty, have something or some path figured out we get a sharp turn into the unknown and blinding humility.  I always find myself rooting back to the addiction mantra that I have mentioned before, “Let go and let God.”  Whether you believe in God, or the universe, or a force greater than the self and also part of the self, I feel that sometimes in life, as hard as it may be (and maybe especially when it is that hard) we have to just LET GO.  LET GO.  LET GO.  I am working to remind myself that now and trying to just let go and see where life goes.  Cause in truth, all I know is that I don’t know nothing.

Thank you Operation Ivy and punk rock for taking Socrates and making it palatable for all.  Socrates said, “I know that I know nothing,” and if he can admit that then none of us are ever too big or too small to be able to step back from our life and understand that truth for ourselves–what we know in any given moment is a pin-drop in the pool of infinity and it is good, if painful, at times to find a wincing reminder of that.  What I thought I knew yesterday was all wrong for the truth of today and the same might be said about what I will learn is true tomorrow.

Me and Gizmo (as Chris, my husband, has already named this dog we are definitely, certainly, not going to keep) came into today with truths that have expired as of today.  He is TEMPORARILY part of a new 3 dog household and I am part of something very new and unexpected myself.  Do you remember being certain of something that turned out to be all wrong?  And then were you able to breathe, reboot, and just let go of yesterday’s assumptions to deal with today’s circumstances?  I’m working on it as we speak–life the journey…always the journey.

Now, how to introduce three other dogs to the newbie–I am leaving that up to my husband, self-proclaimed Dog Whisperer Deux Joir.  We’ll see about that!

“It is impossible to be in a state of panic and to breath deeply, slowly, quietly and regularly.  It cannot coexist.

The subjective experience of anxiety is often of being out of control.  If you deal with this by giving a patient a drug you are reinforcing the notion that the locus of control is outside.  If patients can discover that they have within them access to controls over emotional states it is a revelation.  And when you try to deal with this with an outside suppressive measure the effectiveness of the measure decreases with frequency of use. Whereas when you rely on an innate measure like this the power of technique increases with repetition.  This is the single most effective anti-anxiety measure I have come across (breathing exercise).

When I tell colleagues about it it is TOO simple.  How did we get to this state where we think the only effective medical treatment is drugs? ”

BY DR. ANDREW WEIL,  BREATHWORK Workshop, INTEGRATIVE MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE 2010.

BREATHWORK:

I am a huge proponent of breath as a potent healing activity and so I was excited when I got my 2 disc CD recording of the first ever INTEGRATIVE MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE in the mail and found an entire workshop with Dr. Andrew Weil on a biological, neurological, scientific and psychological affirmation of the power of breath for healing!  His quote above only touches on the mastery of the workshop, the hopefulness of breathwork integration in the field of psychotherapy, and plenty of rich data from the anthropological to the biological as to why breath can alleviate many of the ills we, as a society, might presently over-medicate before looking for alternate solutions.  He perfectly synthesizes above the crux of the reason why internal resources can be more potent and long lasting than chemical and external solutions for issues of anxiety.

In Dr. Weil’s workshop “Breathwork for Optimum Health” he discusses breath as the “Master Key” and I could not think of a more apt description of this tool that I have imparted to every client I see–and so, apparently, does Dr. Weil.  I feel in good company.  He stated that his simple breath exercise, similar in structure to my own, is the one thing he teaches everyone he sees.  I take clients through a breathing exercise and ask them how they feel, when they say how relaxed they feel I remind them that THEY not I got themselves to that state of relaxation.  I may have said the words but the only thing that got their body and mind relaxed was their own body and mind.  Another thing I was excited to hear resonate with Dr. Weil’s description above of the internal resources versus the external crutches that over-medicating can produce.  We have such powers for change inside ourselves which I explored in the NEUROBIOLOGY & NEUROPLASTICITY post a short while ago–we just don’t tap into that power for change for the positive nearly enough.

If I can teach one client breath and they can sleep better, calm down faster, diminish their anger in one situation they would not have had the internal resources to deal with prior then, to me, it is a valuable tool.  When I hear a COMBAT MARINE VETERAN tell me he is practicing alternate nostril breathing at home for anger and sleep or another telling me that he presses his palms together at his chest and practices nostril breathing for anxiety, both with amazing anecdotal results, then I can say that if it works for them it could work for any of us–given the chance!

If you have not tried a basic breathing practice then maybe just try listening to a quick soundbite, mp3, cd of a simple breathing technique or maybe I can outline a simple one on the site if there is interest.

INTEGRATIVE MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE:

Am I a nerd because I checked my mail anxiously every day awaiting it’s arrival?  Answer is: yes!  But I was waiting all last week to receive the INTEGRATIVE MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE recordings as I could not make it to the conference but I wanted to imbibe every moment of the rich material with speakers like Jon Kabat–Zinn, Dr. Weil, Amy Weintraub and many other academics, researchers, and practitioners in the field of integrative practices for mental health and wellness.  The CDs, which contain 40 hours of material, are a rich and hopeful array of work in this field and an inspiration of what is possible within the field.

The conference was made up of social workers, nurses, doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists and was sold out weeks before the event.  If this doesn’t show the hunger in the health and mental health field for treatments outside of the scope of what western medicine is capable of then I don’t know what is.  It shows that this field is burgeoning and that more professionals than ever before are integrating holistic approaches into the course of traditional treatments they already provide.  The point of INTEGRATIVE is not to get rid of anything just to find the perfect complement of what is being done and what else can be added to the equation for more effective results for a whole person: mind, body, and spirit.

The recordings are phenomenal and I recommend them to any professional in the healthcare field or any person interested in a variety of treatment approaches for their own health–body and mind.  The conference sessions can be purchased as a complete set or a-la-carte per workshop for $15.00 per session.  Each one has a dense collection of material and each presentation gives a variety of resources where you can learn more about the practices discussed in the lecture–a lovely bonus.

A few of the amazing lectures included:

• The Psychoneuroimmunology of Resilience, Optimism, and Hope
• Mind-Body Medicine: Clinical Hypnosis for Medical and Mental Health Conditions
• Transforming Your Mind: Meditation and Neuroplasticity
• Spirituality and Mental Health: Paradigms and Evidence
• Deficiencies in Omega 3-EFAs & Substance Abuse Mechanisms
• Creating the Chemistry of Joy
• A Vision of the Future of Integrative Mental Health
• Lifeforce Yoga: Empower Your CLients to Manage Their Moods

Can you see why I was in love with these CDS?

For more information on the Conference & The hosting facility ARIZONA CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE: http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/integrative_mental_health_conference.html

For more information on the recordings go to: http://www.conferencerecording.com/aaaListTapes.asp?CID=IMH10

I met Emily via email a couple of months ago when she sent me a kind email related to a comment I had made on Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s blog for CNN in which he reported that there was no healing from traumatic experience.  I disagreed and so did Emily.  She thanked me for my comment on the blog post and so a lovely email communication began.  Emily’s work began in the bodywork realm and through the access to the body in her treatment approaches she began helping her clients express and deal with traumatic material from a bodywork perspective.  I, coming from the opposite origin (learning psychotherapy and the mind realm first) but coming to the same endpoint (learning how much emotional pain is stored in and can be released from the body) am always interested in bodyworkers who have always worked in and explored the rich realm of body-oriented healing.  Emily’s work and her story is lovely to read and I hope you all enjoy learning about her practice as much as I have!

Q:  What is your professional background?  What interested you in holistic therapies and treatment approaches?

A.  I’ve been a practitioner of the healing arts for almost 20 years.  I’ve always been interested in natural healing, preferring plant based medicines to chemicals made in a laboratory.  In 1991, I read Louise Hay’s “You can heal your life”.   That was my first introduction to how our thoughts affect our health.  It made sense.  I became fascinated in working with healing modalities which encompass aspects of body mind and spirit, and which are based on the premise that all of life is energy and that we have everything we need to self heal.

Q:  Can you explain your practice as an Energetic Bodyworker, Somatic Trauma Resolution practitioner, and your use of Polarity therapy and Craniosacral therapy?  Please explain these different treatment approaches for people.

A. My main focus is helping people resolve all types of trauma both shock and  developmental traumas.  To start with I help them find what their resources are.  Whether it’s cooking for friends, walking in nature, or organizing the office Christmas party or riding their bike I help them discover what is working in their life.  We call that resourcing, which is the first step in re regulating the nervous system.   I ask them to become mildly curious about the physical sensations happening while thinking about something that makes one feel joyful or successful or good in the body.  This sensation awareness combined with imagining something you like or used to like doing, becomes a supportive tool when unraveling an experience that has been overwhelming for someone.   I see profound results when we focus first on healing the nervous system first.  When the client is able to track or follow their sensations when thinking of a resource as well as when addressing something traumatic and be able to go back and forth between the two sides, we are on the way. The next step which I consider foundational to the process is to do some simple boundary exercises.  The whole thing is a sort of complex and delicate process which is difficult to explain or imagine being effective, but it works really well.

Polarity Therapy is a whole healing system which involves bodywork, exercises, counseling, and nutritional guidance as away to relate to life force energy.  I help the clients energy field to open up and clear blockages and get things flowing again.  With CranioSacral I’m accessing the tides of the cerebral spinal fluid through subtle hands on palpation which encourages the body into self healing mode.  I use both these methods as compliments to the STR work.

Q:  How are these approaches effective for trauma and issues of mental health? Where did you study and train in these different approaches?

A. In my experience many  mental health issues stem from unresolved trauma.  It is key to help a person out of fight/flight/freeze, and assist them to feel safe in the body before delving into specific issues.  When the client has been able to discharge the shock from the nervous system, it’s much easier for them to talk about difficult experiences.

Most of my training has been through Polarity Healing arts here in the LA area, although I’m constantly updating and learning new skills new modalities to help people heal. 

Q:  Where did your passion for working with survivors of trauma come from? What other ailments and issues do you work on with your clients?

A.  I guess because there is so much of it around!  Every time I read a story or hear about someone who has experienced trauma I  feel compelled to help.  I feel uncomfortable seeing someone suffer needlessly, especially when I know I have skills that could be potentially life changing.

As a foundational part of the trauma work, I work  with boundaries and resourcing.  Until people feel safe in the body and the body knows it’s ok to defend itself,  it’s hard to heal.  There are specific exercises I do with clients to help them reestablish boundary muscles and complete truncated fight flight or frozen defensive responses.

Q:  What have been the effects and results you have seen with clients seeking your help with mental and emotional distress?  What are so examples of how these treatments have impacted client’s lives in positive ways?

A.  My clients have experienced relief from issues that have been troubling them, from acute to chronic both emotional and physical.  After just one session, one of my clients was able to resolve  3 phobias; not being able to sleep with the light off, fear of public restrooms and fear of heights.  Another felt her chronic neck pain dissolve after renegotiating a childhood trauma.   Things like being able to sleep without medication, feeling safe in situations that had previously been anxiety provoking, or even something like a woman who resolved her “frozen shoulder” issue that had it’s roots in a brutal attack more than 20 years ago.  After just one session one of my clients stopped having flashbacks of a car accident that was plaguing her for 30 years.   It usually takes more than one session, but is meant to be a short term approach with long term effects. In general people end up being more resourced and functioning better in all aspects of life.

Q:  Do you ever work in coordination with or receive referrals from other holistic practitioners, bodyworkers, yoga teachers, or mental health professionals?  Would you work in collaboration with other practitioners, mental health or otherwise, to bring healing and wellness to others?

A.  Yes, dentists, therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists and physical therapists have refereed me.  Other types of  treatments work much more quickly and effectively once shock has been discharged out of the body.

Q:  Do you find that there is a community of like-minded professionals you can collaborate with on ideas and work together with on projects?

A. Sometimes but not as much as I would like.  In LA there are so many alternative modalities available that it’s sometimes hard to interest people in yet another healing approach that isn’t well known in the mainstreem.  I think if therapists and health practitioners had more exposure to this method they would be more eager to try it themselves and to refer their patients.

Q:  Do you find that people seeking treatment has diminished with the recession?  Or do you see people coming more readily to treatment due to increased stressors?

A.  I’ve found both.  One thing I’ve noticed is sort of a wave of people who have known they’ve had “issues” for years and suddenly they feel compelled to make changes and begin to heal.  The old ways of managing are no longer acceptable.

Q:  What approaches do you use for your own self care? Yoga, acupuncture, meditation, or other activities or practices for enjoyment or to relieve stress?  DO you feel it is essential to take care of oneself when working in this field?

A.  Hiking and yoga are both great outlets.  Also, I’m a painter so I think I work things out through the paint.  I’m also constantly learning new modalities which keeps me on my toes and keeps me doing my own work.  I never have the attitude that I’m done.  I’m always pushing myself to do my own inner work, resolve old patterns and keep my energy field clean.

Q:  Who and what have been your greatest inspiration(s) in this work?  What book do you feel is essential?  What lecturer would you recommend anyone with an interest in these practices go see?  What training was essential?

A.  Years ago, I had the pleasure of watching Dr. Peter Levine doing some live SE demonstrations.  I was so moved, I knew I had to study the work myself.  I  have had many mentors along the way. The first was Gary Strauss who taught me to palpate an energy field which was an amazing discovery.  I would recommend  Anna and John Chitty in Boulder Co. for the study of BioDynamic CranioSacral.  I learned STR with Sharon Porter who came from a Polarity/Cranial background like myself.  I’m grateful to have the energetic component of her teachings, which makes the work multidimensional.  Having had the opportunity to teacher assist with her has  deepened my understanding of the trauma work.   Joel Hipps facilitated my clairvoyant training which has been invaluable for keeping me grounded an increasing my perceptive abilities.  I’m very kinesthetic so I had to learn to see energy instead of feel everything.  Lastly for anyone who really wants to “think outside the box” I would highly recommend taking a weekend “Matrix energetics” workshop.   Your life will never be the same!

Q:  What are your hopes for the future of complementary medicine and alternative treatments for mental health and wellness?  What are your hopes for the future of your work over the next 1 year, 2 years, 5 years?

A. I hope that I will see the day when we stop labeling trauma as a disorder of the mind and begin to see it as a dis regulation of an overwhelmed nervous system;  a result of our natural healing mechanism being interrupted.

I would hope that every mental health professional, every paramedic, policeman, fireman, physical therapist, and Doctor could be more educated about how the autonomic nervous system works in relationship to trauma.  Minimum that they could all at least read “Waking the Tiger”  and “Crash Course”, and  that we would stop medicating people with developmental trauma, and learn some basic first aid tools that would help shock trauma from setting in in the first place.  I know that sound like a lot,  but some of the principles are so basic. The less traumatized people there are, the less patterns of abuse and violence will continue to repeat.

Q:  What would like people to know about the work you do?  Any words of wisdom, inspiration, or advice to others interested in this field of study or practice?

A. Sometimes people comment when they find out I don’t usually start out working on the table, they might say, “so what,  it’s just talking?”  NO, this work is very different from traditional talk therapy.  It’s a body centered approach and even though I’m not usually touching you, you will feel things physically.  That’s why you have to have an experience to “get” it, because it’s not like anything else that we do.   That it’s a relatively short term approach and that you will learn self healing skills that you can use throughout life.

Q:  Any advice to persons seeking a variety of paths to healing from trauma, ptsd, and emotional issues?

A. Keep trying things until you find what works for you.  Not the same thing works for everyone.  There are some great modalities like EMDR, EFT, and even dietary changes. Myself for example, I experienced huge benefits for depression using NAET.  The important thing is to make your healing a priority and don’t give up until you find what works for you.

EMILY VAN HORN PRACTICES OUT OF SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA.  TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HER WORK PLEASE VISIT HER WEBSITE AT: http://www.emilyvanhorn.com