Mind Body PracticesSupporting Healing from Trauma

Linda Scherer, LICSWNew Day Counseling, PLLC (320)309-5381 newdaycouns@gmail.com

Crow River Family Services (320)774-3355 lindas@crowriverfamilyservices.com

Soft belly breathing: Growing neural

connections for relaxation

Feet on the floor to ground and connect to the earth (prevent dizziness)

Permission to open eyes and look at neutral and boring focal point if feeling

unsettled or images come up

Notice how this feels and practice helping the body relax (it may not feel

better at first) Hand on belly or focus on breathing into the belly and

relaxing belly muscles (vagus nerve that goes from the brain to the

stomach and triggers the relaxation response when the belly is soft)

Breath in through the nose to prevent too much oxygen intake and

hyperventilating,

Long inhale will increase energy

Long exhale to relax and reduce energy

What brings me to Mind Body Medicine

Self as expert-seek out experts in field but trust own gut as ultimate knower

of what to accept or reject

Health as Core-Inner Healer-Universal Intelligence-Spiritual Source-Higher

power

Prevention of illness

Care for the whole person in treatment-aimed at whole person growth not

just symptom relief

Aimed at living in alignment or in the flow of life energy

Incidence of trauma in childrenDavid Hong PsyD LP, Basic TF-CBT

40% of American children will have at least one

potentially traumatizing experience by age 18

1 in 8 children under age 17 reported serious

maltreatment by adults within the past year

Not all have PTSD but at any given time more than 8

million American Children suffer from diagnosable

trauma-related psychiatric problems

Types of Trauma

• Child Abuse (sexual, physical, emotional)

• Victim/witness of Violence

• Accidents

• Disasters

• War/Terrorism, Immigration/Refugee

• Medical Traumatic

• Grief

• Human Trafficking

• Historical/Generational Trauma

Stress and Relaxation Response

Sympathetic: Gas on a Car Parasympathetic: the breaks

Signals our body to get ready

Energy for fighting or running from

danger, often there isn’t really

danger, we just think there is

Heart beats faster,

Stomach might hurt

Muscles tense

Cold hands

Racing thoughts

Helps us feel quiet and peaceful

Feel good

Feel relaxed and safe

Heart rate, blood pressure, breathing

slow down,

Digestion works as it should

Muscles relax

Hands and extremities warm

Better at solving problems prefrontal

cortex has blood flow

The body’s response to anxious

thought

Although the body is very intelligent, it cannot tell the difference between

an actual situation and a thought. It reacts to every thought as if it were a

reality. It doesn’t know it is just a thought. To the body, a worrisome, fearful

thought means “I am in danger,” and it responds accordingly, even though

you may be lying in a warm and comfortable bed at night. The heart

beats faster, muscles contract, breathing becomes rapid. There is a buildup

of energy, but since the danger is only a mental fiction, the energy has no

outlet. Part of it is fed back to the mind and generates even more anxious

thought. The rest of the energy turns toxic and interferes with the

harmonious functioning of the body.

Tolle, E. (2005). A New Earth. U.S.A: Plume.

Neurons that fire together, wire

together. Donald Hebb,1949

Hand model of synapse

Fist is nerve ending where neurotransmitters are released

Fingers of left hand are dendrites: the more dendrites the more

neurotransmitters are picked up and the more rapidly the synapse fires

Arms are axon

Dendrites that are not used are pruned. Synaptic connection is less likely to

fire.

Stephen Porges Polyvagal theory

Person explosed to repeat trauma

↓

Changes in neurology cause frequent

physical stress response

↓

Results in frequent anxious thought.

Person exposed to repeat trauma

↓

Narrative of self in world filled with

anxious thought

↓

Causes physical stress response and

wires neurology

Meditation

Harvard study (2011)https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-

weeks-to-a-better-brain/

Increase in gray matter in hypocampus and decreased gray matter in

amygdala after 8 weeks of meditating at least 30 minutes (non-

consecutive) a day

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Combination of Guided imagery, diaphramactic breathing, focussed

mindfulness, concentrative mediation with mantra

San Francisco schools with major reduction in discipline and improved test

scores from Transcendental Meditation in schools(2014)

Dean Ornish epigenetics research

12 week group resulted in longer telemeres (part of gene connected to

preventing or turning off of disease)thus reduced risk of prostate cancer,

alcoholism

Meditation

Sharing stressors with one another

Exercise

Mindful eating and healthy diet

Information about the stress response

Quiet time at south

5 minutes twice a day

Once over intercom

Once by teacher in classroom after lunch

Got teachers to volunteer for intercom

Variety of styles of relaxation and mindfulness

Teachers using it to put children to sleep at night

Student with school phobia in the office every day able to go to class

Movement to release cortisol

10:50 Watch video: Shaking trauma bear

https://youtu.be/eT4060GeodI?t=64

Shaking and Dancing

Imagery is deliberate and directed daydreaming.

Imagery works because it is connected to so many

centers in the brain:

the emotional centers,

the centers for thoughts and association, and perception

and the hypothalamus, which is the central switching

station for the autonomic nervous system, the endocrine

and the immune centers. The hypothalamus is the part of

the brain that triggers your stress or relaxation response.

Guided Imagery

Imagery

Active Imagery: Using words to guide you through an imagery experience

Visualization is one form of this

Words that invite sensory experience make imagery real, (color, smells, sounds,

feelings, touch)

Passive receptive imagery: This imagery leaves open ended possibilities for

our mind to offer an image to come to us spontaneously in the moment.

Invites intuition and inner healer to offer content that our logical mind would not

come up with

Fresh information for the moment that we are in

Imagery is constant because we are

meaning making machines

the images of imagined future or replayed past are

played almost constantly

Who we see in front of us when we interact with

someone is part sensory input and part imagery (image

conjured from our mental story of them)

We are firing synapsis and wiring pathways together at

all times, these images affect our physiological response

and thus our health

Healing with imagery

Joe Dispenza’s book: Tells the story of self healing through imagery

after a bicycle accident left him paralyzed

You are the Placebo

Norman Doidge’s Books: Neuroplasticity and healing

The Brain that Changes Itself

The Brain’s Way of Healing

Practice Safe Place Imagery (11:05)

What imagery is practiced when:

A child with frequent suspensions thinks of school

We imagine our next conversation with our partner

Our first thought about our work day when we wake in the

morning

Our self reference (body image)

We think about food

What we anticipate when diagnosed with an illness

Literature review on guided imagery(available upon request)

Use of imagery and relaxation to prevent development

of PTSD for those exposed to war bombing

Guided imagery and knowledge of healthy lung

function images to treat Upper respiratory illness and

asthma

Guided imagery to treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Use of imagery to change mental story around trauma

triggers

Autogenics with biofeedback device

So effective that you should consult with doctor about medication doses if

practicing regularly

Use thermisters

Use biodots

Use pulse before and after (story about pulse rate of Wako surviver as proof

that boy needed intervention from The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog)

11:15 Autogenics researched in 1920’s

by Johannes Schultz

My arms are heavy and warm (pause) I am at peace (pause)

My legs are heavy and warm (pause) I am at peace (pause)

My heartbeat is calm and strong (pause) I am at peace (pause)

My abdomen radiates warmth (pause) I am at peace (pause)

My forehead is pleasantly cool (pause) I am at peace ( pause)

My breath is calm and relaxed (pause) I am at peace (pause)

8 week Mind Body Skills Group starts September 25

Meditation

Guided Imagery

Autogenic training (self

hypnosis)

Breath Work

Movement

Journal Writing

Drawing

Mindful Eating