I am struck again by the power of visualizing a specific future for creating that future. This is not a new idea, even in EMDR. Since the mid-1990s, Sandra Foster and Jennifer Lendl applied the sports psychology protocol for envisioning an optimal sports performance to the EMDR world. In sports psychology, the athlete imagines how they want their athletic performance to go, optimally. In EMDR, we apply this method to not only any other kind of performance such as public speaking, test taking, singing, acting, etc, but to any behavior or outcome wished for the future.
Several years ago I presented with Sandra and Jennifer at an EMDRIA conference in Canada regarding the use of the protocol for strategic visioning for executives, in which specific project milestones to project completion are imagined with increasing vividness. Resources needed, problems to solve, and so far are also vividly imagined and solved for or desensitized.
But one of my favorite applications for this method is for life planning purposes. It involves imagining living to a ripe old age, and paging through the scrapbook of one's life, assuming one stays on the course one is on now. Vividly imaging what will be in the book and what will feel disappointing, it clarifies ones values and alerts one to whether one is on course or off course. For example, if people realize that the scrapbook will emphasize career to the exclusion of family and creativity, that's an important clarification. One notes all the domains in the scrapbook -- does it include spirituality? community service? health? travel? or what? Categories that appear in the scrapbook in the imagined end of life, but are not being addressed currently, indicate that the person is out of alignment with their values and corrections are needed.
Then one asks -- Okay, if I want to include all those things by the end of my life (if I live to a ripe old age) then where do I need to be by age 70, 60, 50, etc. Where do I need to be in 5 years, 3 years, 1 year, six months, 2 months, 2 weeks. What do I need to do today to be where I want to be at the end of my life? And to check the work, ask -- If I had six months to live, what would I be sure to do in that time. If the answer isn't already accommodated on the life goals list, another key value has been uncovered.
This exercise can be varied to imagine this or that career choice, or other life choice, taken to its ultimate conclusion. The feeling tone and implications of each choice can be explored, and that information becomes part of the persons process in decision making.
Another important outcome of this process is that it tends to uncover unconscious impediments to personal fulfillment, such as: fear of failure, fear of disapproval, feeling one should be punished for something, feeling one is unimportant and should be sacrificed, and other beliefs that might interfere. As may be evident from the tone of those beliefs, these are often established early in life, as tiny executives make life decisions with insufficient wherewithall. Those decisions can stay in place for decades. I always imagine a toddler, tearfully trying to navigate confusion and hurt feelings about a problematic graham cracker incident in front of the refrigerator, resolving, "I'll never ask for anything again."
Finally, I use the imaginal future as a way to check completion of a particular EMDR session ("future template" was added to EMDR as a standard part of the procedure in the last decade, to insure completion. More broadly, whenever therapy is progressing, symptoms dropping away, and neither therapist nor client are quite clear on where the work is now, future template can resolve the question. Imagining the future across various life domains associated with the initial symptoms the client brought into therapy can reveal the progress made and the obstacles or questions remaining. This clarification really refocuses the work on remaining priorities.
Finally, I'll say this on a personal note. I am one of several people I know who completely transformed their own life based on these simple strategies. I chose my career this way when I had dropped out of college. I envisioned a life in a log house in the woods that was spiritually and intuitively developed, with tremendous results, beyond my wildest dreams. I asked for a life partner that would be a cowboy who could accommodate my intuition and spirituality -- and the universe in her wisdom gifted me a Native American. I have retooled and shaped my professional practice repeatedly in this way, in what seems almost effortless. Once the future has been vividly imagined, the path to it lies immediately at one's feet.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
"The Field:" On Intersubjectivity, Mentalization, Ventral Vagal Activaton
This is a continuation of a Facebook discussion I’ve been having with Mark Dworkin, senior EMDR person with an abiding and passionate interest in the relationship field and intersubjectivity. Mark, our language IS different so we might misalign our meanings, but let’s try. This is fun. I see this as the legendary elephant that the blind men grab portions of. I'm only part way through palpating the elephant. Here are the appendages I've found so far, and there are five.
1) INTUITION AND ENERGY RELEASE
I grabbed the first appendage of this elephant I’ll call The Field in the early 90s when I felt waves of energy releasing from clients when EMDR tapped into and cleared dissociative pockets of disturbance. It was truly waveform. I’d also get pictures, ages of ego states, other intuitive information. This has continued both inside and outside of EMDR. I don’t do it out in public, just in my office, because I’ve not been invited to attune quite so thoroughly out in the world. It is an extraordinarily intimate way of knowing someone – from inside their own body and head. When I tell people what I'm getting (outside of EMDR) they KNOW they are not alone. We are attuned. Also through this early intuitive learning, I became aware of the capacity for introjects of perpetrators to cause havoc in EMDR and therapy in general.
2) THE RELATIONSHIP OR DISSOCIATIVE FIELD IN THE ROOM
The second appendage of this elephant came when I learned about the dissociative field as articulated by psychodynamic people like Loewenstein and Kluft, and it came with terms of art like projection, projective identification, transference and countertransference, which are useful terms as far as they go, but they don’t explain the first piece of info completely. They did bring the therapist experience into the discussion and normalize, welcome and incorporate the therapist's experience as part of the therapy.
3) THERAPIST RESONANCE TO INCREASE CLIENT PROCESSING CAPACITY
The third appendage came when I collaborated with John G Watkins and he talked about therapist resonance being additive energetically (his word, not a new age word) to the client’s resources, which mathematically increases the capacity of their processor. Now he was using brute force abreaction, not EMDR, more rowboat than our motorboat. His understanding was if we didn't resonate with them they may not have the strength to go through it alone. So in abreacting, say, a WWII soldier's combat trauma, Jack might say, "Let's get the bastard!" so radical was his attunement, during the abreaction, noticing the clenched fist of the patient.
4) SOMATIC EMPATHY, MIRROR NEURONS, INTERSUBJECTIVITY
The fourth appendage of this elephant came when I studied somatic work, and learned about radical somatic empathy, and mirror neurons. In that approach, as articulated by Sharon Stanley who studied and taught with Peter Levine for many years (but she took the empathy piece far further, than he did) one uses radical somatic empathy to assist client in the very tracking that will metabolize their trauma, along with an observing stance, and other devices. And in that study of somatic methods and the neuroscience behind it came the notion of intersubjectivity being a neurobiologically-based developmental milestone that fails to develop successfully in traumatogenic families.
5) PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND TERTIARY BRAIN PROCESSING LEVELS
My most recently acquired appendage of the elephant I'm calling The Field, came during dialogue with neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp, in which he matter of factly said several things: that the basic emotions (RAGE, SAD, FEAR, PANIC (that’s infant distress panic), LUST, SEEK, PLAY, CARE are subcortical or primary brain process events, ---but shame is not a basic circuit, he says, but a social one, and therefore on the secondary process level, along with object relations, and intersubjectivity (!). What a coincidence that EMDRs loop on the stuck perspective of the identification with the aggressor, rather than the child’s perspective. That's why introject work is so very key in dissociation. The child had to jettison him/herself in what they call Self Murder (somewhere in the Handbook of Emotions, I don’t have it with me) called shame, to identify with the caretaker aggressor. I haven’t had a chance to ask him if mentalization would be tertiary brain process, higher cortical function, but I’m pretty sure he’d say it is. So secondary and tertiary brain processes (object relations and blocking beliefs) can cause EMDR evacuation of clogged primary circuits to get stuck. This finally explains the introject problem, the shame problem, the inability to feel compassion for self, in neurobiological terms, and the remedy, namely, providing that self-other capacity in the work somehow, also as a neurobiologically founded phenomenon.
6) INDIGENOUS HEALING METHODS IN A SHARED VENTRAL VAGAL FIELD
There is one more appendage to this elephant of The Field that is very important and that is revealed to us by the study of indigenous healing methods. There are traditional methods of healing and releasing trauma that happen in community, tribally. In the Native American (Plains) tradition for example, it is right now Sun Dance, the most sacred healing ceremony of the year. My sweetheart Tim, a long time Sun Dancer, is off preparing for the dance with his Tiospia – “family” but we’d say community in dominant culture. The choice of the word "family" tells us how primordial the support system is. The circle of the Hochika, the tree that is transformed from the enemy to the very face of God, four days of dancing,pierced, without food or water, and with community supporting dancing and with prayers, all transforms and heals the People, whether they are present or not. The drum is the heartbeat of the people. The dance, the rhythm, all establish a shared community, a resonance field, a neurobiological field? You betcha. Coherency in a shared relationship field? None other. And traumatic experience is released and processed to an adaptive resolution in that shared ventral vagal state. Top of the line. I’d be there but can’t this year. Inipi sweat lodge too, can be analyzed this way. Incidentally, I know that Porges' ventral vagal activation (which Panksepp says is a hypothesis, may be true but is not yet proven experimentally) is defined as being social engagement or connection, but I believe it is any kind of connection. With self (between ego states in compassion with each other), with therapist or other, with what is in the energy field in the room (may not be only the two people therapist and client), and with the divine. So sacred healing ceremonies are of a very high order of ventral vagal activation by that definition.
IN SUMMARY
So we have all these means including radical somatic empathy, or intuitive resonance of what is in the field, or teaching and demonstrating mentalization in therapy, or my personal favorite, the use of ego and object cathexis to variously have the felt sense versus the observing other’s sense of the subject being processed (as in ego state therapy and as in resetting the affective circuits at arms length as in the early trauma protocol (O’Shea, 2009, O’Shea & Paulsen, 2007). These are all ways to remediate, I believe, the self/other intersubjectivity injury, the narcissistic injury. I don’t think it can ever be done alone, so the twosome is important. It happens in the neurobiology of the twosome. And that two-some organism seeks to establish coherency in its vibrational field. When we bring ventral vagal activation to that field it is helpful. Watkins used to talk about radical empathy where we feel what the client feels but never lose our own grounding and power, so we are ventral vagally activated even while we perceive – and perhaps thereby transform in the field, their sympathetic arousal or dorsal vagal shutdown.
A WORLD WITH NO PEOPLE
Let me close this length treatise with a few words from Richard Kluft, whom I had occasion to consult with on a gnarly case a month ago. He said that alters are the distractions from the truth that the client was alone in a world with no people. When they resist our ministrations, it is because they have to destroy the evidence, that they were alone in a world with no people. These words move to the heart of our most injured clients, even while we are radically empathically attuned to their sorrow and their need to destroy the evidence of their sorrow. When we "keep the score" of what is in The Field, with our authentic humanity as observing witness, we bring our very self to the work in a sacred trust. That's my experience of this pachyderm.
So Mark, where do your notions fit or not fit with all this? Let’s see if we can at least align our wheels if not attune fully our language and understandings. With appreciation for the opportunity to articulate these thoughts, warmly, --Sandra
© 2009 Sandra Paulsen Ph.D.
1) INTUITION AND ENERGY RELEASE
I grabbed the first appendage of this elephant I’ll call The Field in the early 90s when I felt waves of energy releasing from clients when EMDR tapped into and cleared dissociative pockets of disturbance. It was truly waveform. I’d also get pictures, ages of ego states, other intuitive information. This has continued both inside and outside of EMDR. I don’t do it out in public, just in my office, because I’ve not been invited to attune quite so thoroughly out in the world. It is an extraordinarily intimate way of knowing someone – from inside their own body and head. When I tell people what I'm getting (outside of EMDR) they KNOW they are not alone. We are attuned. Also through this early intuitive learning, I became aware of the capacity for introjects of perpetrators to cause havoc in EMDR and therapy in general.
2) THE RELATIONSHIP OR DISSOCIATIVE FIELD IN THE ROOM
The second appendage of this elephant came when I learned about the dissociative field as articulated by psychodynamic people like Loewenstein and Kluft, and it came with terms of art like projection, projective identification, transference and countertransference, which are useful terms as far as they go, but they don’t explain the first piece of info completely. They did bring the therapist experience into the discussion and normalize, welcome and incorporate the therapist's experience as part of the therapy.
3) THERAPIST RESONANCE TO INCREASE CLIENT PROCESSING CAPACITY
The third appendage came when I collaborated with John G Watkins and he talked about therapist resonance being additive energetically (his word, not a new age word) to the client’s resources, which mathematically increases the capacity of their processor. Now he was using brute force abreaction, not EMDR, more rowboat than our motorboat. His understanding was if we didn't resonate with them they may not have the strength to go through it alone. So in abreacting, say, a WWII soldier's combat trauma, Jack might say, "Let's get the bastard!" so radical was his attunement, during the abreaction, noticing the clenched fist of the patient.
4) SOMATIC EMPATHY, MIRROR NEURONS, INTERSUBJECTIVITY
The fourth appendage of this elephant came when I studied somatic work, and learned about radical somatic empathy, and mirror neurons. In that approach, as articulated by Sharon Stanley who studied and taught with Peter Levine for many years (but she took the empathy piece far further, than he did) one uses radical somatic empathy to assist client in the very tracking that will metabolize their trauma, along with an observing stance, and other devices. And in that study of somatic methods and the neuroscience behind it came the notion of intersubjectivity being a neurobiologically-based developmental milestone that fails to develop successfully in traumatogenic families.
5) PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND TERTIARY BRAIN PROCESSING LEVELS
My most recently acquired appendage of the elephant I'm calling The Field, came during dialogue with neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp, in which he matter of factly said several things: that the basic emotions (RAGE, SAD, FEAR, PANIC (that’s infant distress panic), LUST, SEEK, PLAY, CARE are subcortical or primary brain process events, ---but shame is not a basic circuit, he says, but a social one, and therefore on the secondary process level, along with object relations, and intersubjectivity (!). What a coincidence that EMDRs loop on the stuck perspective of the identification with the aggressor, rather than the child’s perspective. That's why introject work is so very key in dissociation. The child had to jettison him/herself in what they call Self Murder (somewhere in the Handbook of Emotions, I don’t have it with me) called shame, to identify with the caretaker aggressor. I haven’t had a chance to ask him if mentalization would be tertiary brain process, higher cortical function, but I’m pretty sure he’d say it is. So secondary and tertiary brain processes (object relations and blocking beliefs) can cause EMDR evacuation of clogged primary circuits to get stuck. This finally explains the introject problem, the shame problem, the inability to feel compassion for self, in neurobiological terms, and the remedy, namely, providing that self-other capacity in the work somehow, also as a neurobiologically founded phenomenon.
6) INDIGENOUS HEALING METHODS IN A SHARED VENTRAL VAGAL FIELD
There is one more appendage to this elephant of The Field that is very important and that is revealed to us by the study of indigenous healing methods. There are traditional methods of healing and releasing trauma that happen in community, tribally. In the Native American (Plains) tradition for example, it is right now Sun Dance, the most sacred healing ceremony of the year. My sweetheart Tim, a long time Sun Dancer, is off preparing for the dance with his Tiospia – “family” but we’d say community in dominant culture. The choice of the word "family" tells us how primordial the support system is. The circle of the Hochika, the tree that is transformed from the enemy to the very face of God, four days of dancing,pierced, without food or water, and with community supporting dancing and with prayers, all transforms and heals the People, whether they are present or not. The drum is the heartbeat of the people. The dance, the rhythm, all establish a shared community, a resonance field, a neurobiological field? You betcha. Coherency in a shared relationship field? None other. And traumatic experience is released and processed to an adaptive resolution in that shared ventral vagal state. Top of the line. I’d be there but can’t this year. Inipi sweat lodge too, can be analyzed this way. Incidentally, I know that Porges' ventral vagal activation (which Panksepp says is a hypothesis, may be true but is not yet proven experimentally) is defined as being social engagement or connection, but I believe it is any kind of connection. With self (between ego states in compassion with each other), with therapist or other, with what is in the energy field in the room (may not be only the two people therapist and client), and with the divine. So sacred healing ceremonies are of a very high order of ventral vagal activation by that definition.
IN SUMMARY
So we have all these means including radical somatic empathy, or intuitive resonance of what is in the field, or teaching and demonstrating mentalization in therapy, or my personal favorite, the use of ego and object cathexis to variously have the felt sense versus the observing other’s sense of the subject being processed (as in ego state therapy and as in resetting the affective circuits at arms length as in the early trauma protocol (O’Shea, 2009, O’Shea & Paulsen, 2007). These are all ways to remediate, I believe, the self/other intersubjectivity injury, the narcissistic injury. I don’t think it can ever be done alone, so the twosome is important. It happens in the neurobiology of the twosome. And that two-some organism seeks to establish coherency in its vibrational field. When we bring ventral vagal activation to that field it is helpful. Watkins used to talk about radical empathy where we feel what the client feels but never lose our own grounding and power, so we are ventral vagally activated even while we perceive – and perhaps thereby transform in the field, their sympathetic arousal or dorsal vagal shutdown.
A WORLD WITH NO PEOPLE
Let me close this length treatise with a few words from Richard Kluft, whom I had occasion to consult with on a gnarly case a month ago. He said that alters are the distractions from the truth that the client was alone in a world with no people. When they resist our ministrations, it is because they have to destroy the evidence, that they were alone in a world with no people. These words move to the heart of our most injured clients, even while we are radically empathically attuned to their sorrow and their need to destroy the evidence of their sorrow. When we "keep the score" of what is in The Field, with our authentic humanity as observing witness, we bring our very self to the work in a sacred trust. That's my experience of this pachyderm.
So Mark, where do your notions fit or not fit with all this? Let’s see if we can at least align our wheels if not attune fully our language and understandings. With appreciation for the opportunity to articulate these thoughts, warmly, --Sandra
© 2009 Sandra Paulsen Ph.D.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Bainbridge Book Signing
There are photos from the book signing with my EMDR colleagues, including: Robin Shapiro, Katie O'Shea, Ulrich Lanius, Elizabeth Turner, and others. Also attending were Tim Iistowanohpataakiiwa, also of the Bainbridge Institute, drumming in the Plains tradition. And Jaak Panksepp and his wife Anesa Miller. In this photo, they are holding the R.A.T.S. Award that I presented to Jaak. I announced that the Rough-And-Tumble-Science Award is presented only to those neuroscientists with the courage and tenacity to persist in researching emotions, when others thought they were mere epiphenomena or simply "ideas."
To see more photos, click on the heading for this post, or go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougplummer/sets/72157620272886491/
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Periaqueductal Gray
One of the things I'm still cogitating about since speaking with Jaak Panksepp, is the interesting phenomenon of the Periaquaductal Gray structure in the midbrain. It surrounds the aquaduct, but it also is a central integrating pathway for adjacent circuits, including emotional circuits. It is a basis of coherence in the brain. When it is ablated in animals, there is no one home. It may be the seat of consciousness.
For EMDR practitioners, it is very interesting to note that very near to the PAG are the optical pathways, then the auditory, and then the tactile. Is it possible that these sensory inputs and emotional inputs all integrate here in EMDR? A curious question.
For EMDR practitioners, it is very interesting to note that very near to the PAG are the optical pathways, then the auditory, and then the tactile. Is it possible that these sensory inputs and emotional inputs all integrate here in EMDR? A curious question.
Friday, June 19, 2009
More from Panksepp - the Periaquaductal Gray PAG and more
Over the weeks I've had the opportunity to talk at length with Dr Panksepp, several key insights have emerged, the things HE thinks are very important.
One is that the PAG (periaquaductal gray) area in the midbrain is key for the locus of consciousness and emotion. In the rat, if this area is ablated, there is nobody home in the rat. This area is a final integrating pathway and critical for the establishing of coherence. As such, he finds it more important than the amygdala in emotional processing. He finds that some of the emphasis on the amygdala in recent years has been overstating the findings, and that the importance of the PAG has been understated.
Smooth state switching is an important aspect of emotional well-being. Dissociative disorders represent an extreme example of state switching disrupted from trauma. Dr Panksepp says that state switching would be located in many parts of the brain, not just subcortically between emotional states. It occurs to me that the category of "states" represents emotional states per se, object relations states, and state-dependent learning, and so would be represented across all three levels of brain functioning. Indeed we see that clinically. State switching between emotional states, object-identified states, and state dependent learning are all relevant in the processing of trauma. In EMDR, looped processing occurs when states don't smoothly switch or are in conflict. It may be that cognitive interweaves are helpful for tertiary-processing state-switching challenges, ego state interweaves for secondary-processing state-switching, and somatic interweaves for primary process. That's my musing for the day.
One is that the PAG (periaquaductal gray) area in the midbrain is key for the locus of consciousness and emotion. In the rat, if this area is ablated, there is nobody home in the rat. This area is a final integrating pathway and critical for the establishing of coherence. As such, he finds it more important than the amygdala in emotional processing. He finds that some of the emphasis on the amygdala in recent years has been overstating the findings, and that the importance of the PAG has been understated.
Smooth state switching is an important aspect of emotional well-being. Dissociative disorders represent an extreme example of state switching disrupted from trauma. Dr Panksepp says that state switching would be located in many parts of the brain, not just subcortically between emotional states. It occurs to me that the category of "states" represents emotional states per se, object relations states, and state-dependent learning, and so would be represented across all three levels of brain functioning. Indeed we see that clinically. State switching between emotional states, object-identified states, and state dependent learning are all relevant in the processing of trauma. In EMDR, looped processing occurs when states don't smoothly switch or are in conflict. It may be that cognitive interweaves are helpful for tertiary-processing state-switching challenges, ego state interweaves for secondary-processing state-switching, and somatic interweaves for primary process. That's my musing for the day.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Bainbridge Booksigning Party
On Sunday, June 14, there was a wonderful book signing party at my log house on Bainbridge Island. Robin Shapiro, Ed of EMDR Solutions II, and I both had our books there. Various of her chapter authors read from their chapters, including Katie O'Shea, Ulrich Lanius, Robin herself, and me. I also read from my book, Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma: An illustrated Guide for EMDR therapists and clients.
Jaak Panksepp was there, and we had the unmitigated luxury of picking his brain about all matters related to emotional circuits, EMDR and possible mechanisms of action, and other giddy making subjects. He closed by reading a lovely poem his wife Anesa Miller had written to memorialize his daughter. Anesa was in attendance.
Before and after the reading, my sweetheart Tim Iistowanohpataakiiwa, who is a Native American traditionalist in the Plains (Siksika or Blackfoot) tradition, sang healing songs. For some, we all drummed along with him. Finally, as the evening dwindled, the remaining core group sat around the campfire and smoked the canupa or peace pipe (legal contents of course!) for the healing of the people.
It was an extraordinary and memorable experience. I'll be posting some key thoughts and insights from these weeks of frequent meetings with Dr Panksepp, as they shake loose.
Jaak Panksepp was there, and we had the unmitigated luxury of picking his brain about all matters related to emotional circuits, EMDR and possible mechanisms of action, and other giddy making subjects. He closed by reading a lovely poem his wife Anesa Miller had written to memorialize his daughter. Anesa was in attendance.
Before and after the reading, my sweetheart Tim Iistowanohpataakiiwa, who is a Native American traditionalist in the Plains (Siksika or Blackfoot) tradition, sang healing songs. For some, we all drummed along with him. Finally, as the evening dwindled, the remaining core group sat around the campfire and smoked the canupa or peace pipe (legal contents of course!) for the healing of the people.
It was an extraordinary and memorable experience. I'll be posting some key thoughts and insights from these weeks of frequent meetings with Dr Panksepp, as they shake loose.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Book Celebration
Mental health professionals are invited to a book signing celebration on Bainbridge Island. http://www.bainbridgepsychology.com/Remote-Office-Location.html
Robin Shapiro, editor of EMDR Solutions II and myself, author of Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma and Dissociation: An Illustrated Guide for EMDR Therapists and Clients, will be available to sell and sign books. No purchases are required to attend, however!
If health permits, a special guest will be Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D. renowned affective neuroscientist who discovered the scientific basis for the emotional circuits in the brain.
Also in attendance will be Katie O'Shea, from Spokane, developer of the Early Trauma protocol of EMDR and author of two chapters in Robin Shapiro's book. Ulrich Lanius is expected to come from Vancouver BC. He and I coauthored a chapter in Robin's book about the integration of EMDR, Ego State Therapy and Somatic Therapy.
Each will read snippets from their publications. Carrots will be provided for those who wish a bit of equine assisted relaxation. The horses will be demonstrating various of the subcortical affective circuits described by Dr Panksepp in his seminal volume, especially, the SEEK circuit, the PLAY circuit, and maybe the FEAR circuit, since they are a tad hinky by nature, the prey animals. The gelding will not be demonstrating the LUST circuit, but I can't be sure about the mare.
I'm hoping to get Jaak Panksepp to say something about the neurobiology of shame, and will keep you posted. What could be more interesting?
Robin Shapiro, editor of EMDR Solutions II and myself, author of Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma and Dissociation: An Illustrated Guide for EMDR Therapists and Clients, will be available to sell and sign books. No purchases are required to attend, however!
If health permits, a special guest will be Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D. renowned affective neuroscientist who discovered the scientific basis for the emotional circuits in the brain.
Also in attendance will be Katie O'Shea, from Spokane, developer of the Early Trauma protocol of EMDR and author of two chapters in Robin Shapiro's book. Ulrich Lanius is expected to come from Vancouver BC. He and I coauthored a chapter in Robin's book about the integration of EMDR, Ego State Therapy and Somatic Therapy.
Each will read snippets from their publications. Carrots will be provided for those who wish a bit of equine assisted relaxation. The horses will be demonstrating various of the subcortical affective circuits described by Dr Panksepp in his seminal volume, especially, the SEEK circuit, the PLAY circuit, and maybe the FEAR circuit, since they are a tad hinky by nature, the prey animals. The gelding will not be demonstrating the LUST circuit, but I can't be sure about the mare.
I'm hoping to get Jaak Panksepp to say something about the neurobiology of shame, and will keep you posted. What could be more interesting?
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Play Circuit
I'm tremendously excited about the possibilities of evoking the PLAY circuit of the brain (Panksepp, 2004) to evoke novel associations, enhance social relationships, and thereby shift people out of wagon rutted roads of habit. Tickling, joking, playing, rough and tumble repartee, is the very stuff of connectedness and ideas.
On my website www.bainbridgepsychology.com, there is a link to my YouTube channel. Click on playlists and Neuroscience, and I'm collecting videos about play in various species, including our own. Check out the brave puppy and the slow loris. But start with the Rat Tickler and the Polar Bear and Husky. Not to be missed!
And then go play with someone you love!
PS. I've also started a collection of videos of songs that capture adult attachment styles and what they evoke in relationship. Have some fun by seeing reading the introductory paragraph for the playlist about some of the attachment styles, and then see what style YOU think each song represents. Let me know if you have ideas of other songs to add to the collections!
On my website www.bainbridgepsychology.com, there is a link to my YouTube channel. Click on playlists and Neuroscience, and I'm collecting videos about play in various species, including our own. Check out the brave puppy and the slow loris. But start with the Rat Tickler and the Polar Bear and Husky. Not to be missed!
And then go play with someone you love!
PS. I've also started a collection of videos of songs that capture adult attachment styles and what they evoke in relationship. Have some fun by seeing reading the introductory paragraph for the playlist about some of the attachment styles, and then see what style YOU think each song represents. Let me know if you have ideas of other songs to add to the collections!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Japan Conference Cancelled - Swine Flu
I just learned yesterday from the Japan EMDR (JEMDRA) Conference sponsors that the trip planning for next week has been cancelled due to the spread of swine flu. Apparently several major scientific/medical conferences all cancelled. The recent holiday with much traveling and cross exposure, the national reliance on mass transit as a fertile ground for spreading the illness and voila! Cancelled. So the 3 days of workshop that Dr Lanius and I were going to give won't be happening, now anyway.
This means I'll be scheduling clients for next week then after all, and may well have time to fit in one or more "intensive" treatments using the early trauma protocol.
This means I'll be scheduling clients for next week then after all, and may well have time to fit in one or more "intensive" treatments using the early trauma protocol.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Couples and Neuroscience
I attended a wonderful workshop yesterday at Swedish Hospital in Seattle, really the best one day learning fest I've had in years. Stan Tatkin described his amazing interventions using understandings from neuroscience in couples with disturbed relationships reenacting their own disturbed attachment histories.
If you want more information, go to www.ahealthymind.org. Though the Schore study group requires a password, you can click on Stan Tatkins and view his material.
The primary idea is that each person in a committed relationship has a primary and essential duty to help the other regulate themselves. That people can intervene in each other's emotional dysregulation by helping them calm, down-regulate, soothe. That it's mutual, and its biological. That the two are a team in the mutual down-regulation function of the relationship. Quite lovely really. Much much more in his material and trainings. He has a study group in Seattle for mental health professionals.
Also apparently the Alan Schore neuroscience study group also has openings for mental health professionals.
If you want more information, go to www.ahealthymind.org. Though the Schore study group requires a password, you can click on Stan Tatkins and view his material.
The primary idea is that each person in a committed relationship has a primary and essential duty to help the other regulate themselves. That people can intervene in each other's emotional dysregulation by helping them calm, down-regulate, soothe. That it's mutual, and its biological. That the two are a team in the mutual down-regulation function of the relationship. Quite lovely really. Much much more in his material and trainings. He has a study group in Seattle for mental health professionals.
Also apparently the Alan Schore neuroscience study group also has openings for mental health professionals.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
JAPAN WORKSHOPS
In a week I'll be traveling to Japan to give two workshops at the Japan EMDR Association annual conference. My introductory workshop will be about basics of assessment for dissociative disorders. My advanced workshop will be about the use of ego state therapy in conjunction with EMDR. My colleague, Dr Ulrich Lanius of Vancouver, British Columbia, will presenting a beginning workshop on the neuroscience of dissociation. His advanced workshop will be on the integration of somatic therapy with EMDR.
I'll be using cartoons to communicate with this Japanese-speaking audience, in addition to an interpreter. I am hopeful that the cartoons will facilitate understanding across the language barrier. In fact, they often transcend language, by their very nature. They speak to the right hemisphere of the brain.
The greatest compliment I ever got was after giving my basic Looking Through the Eyes Workshop using cartoons. A workshop attendee came up to me the next morning at breakfast in the hotel cafe. He said, "Dr Paulsen, thank you for your workshop. I didn't learn a thing!" I no doubt looked puzzled and perhaps a bit startled. He explained, "I attended this workshop 5 years ago. It changed the way I practice completely. I attended again yesterday to see if I had missed anything. I didn't. All of your cartoons stuck firmly in my mind, and I got it all the first time." The explanation delighted me, still makes me giddy, and reminds me why I include the cartoons in the first place.
Those cartoons are contained in my book, "Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma and Dissociation: An Illustrated Guide for EMDR Therapists and Client."
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Polar Bear and Dog in Rough and Tumble Play
www.nifplay.org/polar-husky.html
Here's an extraordinary series of photos from the National Institute for Play illustrating Panksepp's finding that there is a hardwired PLAY circuit in the brain. It's found to activate more of the brain than any of the other circuits such as ANGER, SAD, FEAR, PANIC, etc. Panksepp reports that approximately 50% of ADHD in the United States may be related to insufficient "rough-and-tumble" play. The President of the National Institute for Play said that a study of serial killers found they had one thing in common --- a strict father than forbade play. Message: play heals? Laughter is the best medicine? I know tossing around ideas, scientific findings and metaphors with Panksepp yesterday felt like rough and tumble thought, and it was highly medicinal!!
Here's an extraordinary series of photos from the National Institute for Play illustrating Panksepp's finding that there is a hardwired PLAY circuit in the brain. It's found to activate more of the brain than any of the other circuits such as ANGER, SAD, FEAR, PANIC, etc. Panksepp reports that approximately 50% of ADHD in the United States may be related to insufficient "rough-and-tumble" play. The President of the National Institute for Play said that a study of serial killers found they had one thing in common --- a strict father than forbade play. Message: play heals? Laughter is the best medicine? I know tossing around ideas, scientific findings and metaphors with Panksepp yesterday felt like rough and tumble thought, and it was highly medicinal!!
The PLAY circuit of the brain
Here's a link to a YouTube video of Jaak Panksepp demonstrating how he discovered that rats feel JOY, suggesting that JOY is a hard-wired brain circuit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuceywaOUs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuceywaOUs
Tickling Rats
I had a great day in Seattle yesterday meeting with Jaak Panksepp and his gifted wife Anesa. I had the chance to hear a great deal about the leading edge of neuroscience as it relates to the leading edge of clinical practice. I got to tell Dr Panksepp about the hypothesized mechanisms of action for EMDR (actually bilateral stimulation, not all of Adaptive Information Processing theory) including: dual attention awareness, left/right brain rhythmic activation and rebalancing, whatever mechanism is involved in REM sleep, maybe pruning unuseful synaptic branches, and more. He was open, interested, and made useful comments.
His enormous contribution has been to experimentally identify brain circuits for emotions, and moreover to do so within a rigorous scientific methodology. Neuroscience is so in vogue that its tempting for scientists to put out a favorite hypothesis, and the professional communities run with it as if it were scientifically proven. Most leading-edge theories have the status of --- metaphor, he says, and the proponents cannot point to proof of the theories. That was sobering. At the same time it amused me, as a cartooning psychologist, because my psychological cartoons are metaphors, and purport to be nothing else. So I guess that puts metaphoric cartoons on a footing with neuroscience theories, if there is no proof to back them up! Most amusing thought.
I was especially concerned to get his thinking about whether step 3 of the Early Trauma Protocol developed by O'Shea could actually be what she and I have been hypothesizing -- that we were actually resetting or clearing the affective circuits, acting directly on the circuit itself, by utilizing the capacity of higher cortical processes. He said both that it sounded as if we were acting on the circuit itself, what he called "primary process," and said that of course we were doing so with the assistance of higher cortical processes by using the "arms length" imaging strategy (object cathexis). That it could hardly be anything else. Godel's Incompleteness Theorum strikes again.
There's so much more, not the least of which is the PLAY circuit (he uses all caps to make clear it is a hard-wired brain circuits, not just the vernacular "play." But I'm cogitating on all this. More on another day.
I'll be thinking about the circuits for some time and the further implications for clinical work.
His enormous contribution has been to experimentally identify brain circuits for emotions, and moreover to do so within a rigorous scientific methodology. Neuroscience is so in vogue that its tempting for scientists to put out a favorite hypothesis, and the professional communities run with it as if it were scientifically proven. Most leading-edge theories have the status of --- metaphor, he says, and the proponents cannot point to proof of the theories. That was sobering. At the same time it amused me, as a cartooning psychologist, because my psychological cartoons are metaphors, and purport to be nothing else. So I guess that puts metaphoric cartoons on a footing with neuroscience theories, if there is no proof to back them up! Most amusing thought.
I was especially concerned to get his thinking about whether step 3 of the Early Trauma Protocol developed by O'Shea could actually be what she and I have been hypothesizing -- that we were actually resetting or clearing the affective circuits, acting directly on the circuit itself, by utilizing the capacity of higher cortical processes. He said both that it sounded as if we were acting on the circuit itself, what he called "primary process," and said that of course we were doing so with the assistance of higher cortical processes by using the "arms length" imaging strategy (object cathexis). That it could hardly be anything else. Godel's Incompleteness Theorum strikes again.
There's so much more, not the least of which is the PLAY circuit (he uses all caps to make clear it is a hard-wired brain circuits, not just the vernacular "play." But I'm cogitating on all this. More on another day.
I'll be thinking about the circuits for some time and the further implications for clinical work.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Jaak Panksepp and Affective Circuits
I'm o
n my way into Seattle today to meet with the brilliant neuroscientist, Jaak Panksepp. Author of Affective Neuroscience (2004, 1998) and countless articles and other publications, he has done more than any other scientist to identify and articulate the fact that we humans (and animals) have basic circuits in our brains, hardwired, for various emotions. We come to this world with the systems in place to experience anger, fear, sadness, panic (infant separation panic), play, seeking (like curiosity), lust, and shame (more complicated, more social, more cortical, but still....). Then we add a complex learning history on top of that and voila! Either adaptive, resourced high functioning, or incapacity, emotional pain, mental illness, to oversimply an extremely complex matter.
We're going to talk about a novel finding in leading edge EMDR practice, the Early Trauma Protocol developed by Katie O'Shea (see O'Shea & Paulsen, 2007 EMDRIA conference tape, or O'Shea's two chapters in Robin Shapiro's EMDR Solutions II book (2009). In step 3 of that important protocol, it appears that we actually are able to reset, or reboot, or clear the affective circuits. Then, subsequent trauma processing goes easier, because the client is not riding the emergency brake. That is (I think, we'll see what Dr. Panksepp thinks) the subcortical affective circuits are freer to conduct data to and through cortical processes without the inhibitory effect of maladaptive cortical learning exerting downward pressure on that data conduction.
Now, after I meet him, maybe I'll have to take that all back. We'll see. More later!
n my way into Seattle today to meet with the brilliant neuroscientist, Jaak Panksepp. Author of Affective Neuroscience (2004, 1998) and countless articles and other publications, he has done more than any other scientist to identify and articulate the fact that we humans (and animals) have basic circuits in our brains, hardwired, for various emotions. We come to this world with the systems in place to experience anger, fear, sadness, panic (infant separation panic), play, seeking (like curiosity), lust, and shame (more complicated, more social, more cortical, but still....). Then we add a complex learning history on top of that and voila! Either adaptive, resourced high functioning, or incapacity, emotional pain, mental illness, to oversimply an extremely complex matter.We're going to talk about a novel finding in leading edge EMDR practice, the Early Trauma Protocol developed by Katie O'Shea (see O'Shea & Paulsen, 2007 EMDRIA conference tape, or O'Shea's two chapters in Robin Shapiro's EMDR Solutions II book (2009). In step 3 of that important protocol, it appears that we actually are able to reset, or reboot, or clear the affective circuits. Then, subsequent trauma processing goes easier, because the client is not riding the emergency brake. That is (I think, we'll see what Dr. Panksepp thinks) the subcortical affective circuits are freer to conduct data to and through cortical processes without the inhibitory effect of maladaptive cortical learning exerting downward pressure on that data conduction.
Now, after I meet him, maybe I'll have to take that all back. We'll see. More later!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Clients Reporting Book Helpful!
When I wrote "Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma and Dissociation: An Illustrated Guide for EMDR Therapists and Clients," I intended it to both instruct therapists the way that my workshops have for nearly two decades, but also to be a source for clients. Over the years, in my practice, I have used these and other cartoons to help clients quickly grasp key concepts that may not be otherwise obvious to them.
Since my book came out a couple of months ago, it has been selling at a good clip. However, I haven't been able to tell whether clients or therapists were buying it, or both. I get emails from time to time from colleagues, so I know that they are buying it....but how about the clients?
Well, I've had some recent feedback that really delights me. From my clients and from people I have never met, I've heard comments like these...
"I'm finally getting it about how the ego states are in the body with me."
"So that criticism from Dad I hear is really from a part of me that is just like Dad!"
and
"the pictures are really helping (a part's name), and I'm telling her that it's over, it's not happening now, and he (the perpetrator) is dead."
In my own practice, I keep a copy near my chair so I can open up quickly to the pictures that illustrate really important points. I use pages 84 and 88, I think, nearly every day. And the perpetrator introject sequence. And the sequence about why we fractionate EMDR to avoid flooding.
So that's why I created the book, and that's how it is being used. I'm happy and grateful that this has come to pass. It was part of why I was put on the planet, I do believe.
Since my book came out a couple of months ago, it has been selling at a good clip. However, I haven't been able to tell whether clients or therapists were buying it, or both. I get emails from time to time from colleagues, so I know that they are buying it....but how about the clients?
Well, I've had some recent feedback that really delights me. From my clients and from people I have never met, I've heard comments like these...
"I'm finally getting it about how the ego states are in the body with me."
"So that criticism from Dad I hear is really from a part of me that is just like Dad!"
and
"the pictures are really helping (a part's name), and I'm telling her that it's over, it's not happening now, and he (the perpetrator) is dead."
In my own practice, I keep a copy near my chair so I can open up quickly to the pictures that illustrate really important points. I use pages 84 and 88, I think, nearly every day. And the perpetrator introject sequence. And the sequence about why we fractionate EMDR to avoid flooding.
So that's why I created the book, and that's how it is being used. I'm happy and grateful that this has come to pass. It was part of why I was put on the planet, I do believe.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Somatic Workshop Seattle
I gave a workshop in Seattle last Sunday to a group of accomplished EMDR clinicians to help them learn a few basic somatic interventions. Traditional somatic coursework takes about two years of quarterly long weekends. Clearly I did not attempt to duplicate all that material. However, since EMDR clinicians are already deeply steeped in an understanding of trauma theory and treatment, I knew from my experience that it does not take a full two years for most EMDR clinicians to acquire some basic somatic methods. I skipped all but the most cursor neurobiological theory and research, emphasizing Porges Polyvagal Theory. The rest of the time was spent on seven interventions reviewed in the chapter I wrote with Ulrich Lanius in the Robin Shapiro Solutions II book. And they practiced. It is also understood from an AIP perspective that EMDR is more efficient and cost effective that Somatic work is when compared side to side. EMDR moves faster. However, some clients are not ready for EMDR initially, and somatic therapy can help them increase soma and affect tolerance. Somatic therapy is then a preparation method for EMDR therapy. Somatic interweaves also have a place in EMDR work, especially micromovements to be used when EMDR is looping or to close down certain incomplete sessions. There is more to it, but participants were pleased with the workshop.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Basic Somatics for EMDR Practitioners
Tomorrow I'll be in Seattle teaching a group of accomplished EMDR practitioners about basic somatic techniques. This is equivalent to a Cliffs Notes version of the somatic trainings that usually take several years. Because EMDR practitioners are already deeply versed in a great deal of trauma theory and practice, living and breathing it every day, I think the two-three years isn't always necessary. This workshop provides a handy list of several of the methods most commonly used in somatic work and gives opportunity for practice. This material, including the neurobiological theory that the workshop doesn't have time to include, is also covered in greater depth in the chapter by Sandra Paulsen and Ulrich Lanius in Robin Shapiro's Solutions II book, noted elsewhere on this page.
In keeping with the emphasis on integrative psychology that the Bainbridge Institute for Integrative Psychology values, the workshop will include Native American songs, likely grounding and healing songs, as sung by my colleague at the Institute, Tim Iistowanohpataakiiwa at http://www.youtube.com/user/cedarfjord. This link shows Tim singing a grounding song. Why am I including Native music in this somatic workshop, you may well ask? Well, it is because somatic methods are very sympatico with Native healing methods. To sink into the felt sense of the body in the present moment is essential to Native healing, Native spirituality, and Native being. That's why. And Tim is so very gifted.
In keeping with the emphasis on integrative psychology that the Bainbridge Institute for Integrative Psychology values, the workshop will include Native American songs, likely grounding and healing songs, as sung by my colleague at the Institute, Tim Iistowanohpataakiiwa at http://www.youtube.com/user/cedarfjord. This link shows Tim singing a grounding song. Why am I including Native music in this somatic workshop, you may well ask? Well, it is because somatic methods are very sympatico with Native healing methods. To sink into the felt sense of the body in the present moment is essential to Native healing, Native spirituality, and Native being. That's why. And Tim is so very gifted.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Book Signing in Seattle
Well, it was enjoyable to spend Sunday in Seattle, first moseying around Ballard with my tiny poodle, and then attending the book signing at Robin Shapiro's house. Her book and mine are out at the same time, so we both signed and read books. There will be another book signing party in Bainbridge Island in June, for professional colleagues. Contact me for information at sandra@paulsenphd.com for details.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Conference in Japan
At the end of May, I'll be traveling to Kobe, Japan, to present with Dr. Ulrich Lanius, my colleague in Vancouver, B.C. He and I wrote a chapter that just came out last month in the book by Robin Shapiro, MSW, LCSW, called EMDR Solutions II: For Depression, Eating Disorders, Performance, and More.
First I'll present a half day during their regular conference on assessing for dissociation. He'll present on the neurobiology of dissociation, as it relates to the body. Then, at the post-conference advanced trainings, he'll present a day on somatic therapies that help to embody the self, and I'll present a day on a phased approach to treating dissociation using ego state therapy. It will culminate in how to modify the EMDR protocol to treat dissociation. We are honored to be able to present this information which will be helpful in the healing of many people in Japan.
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