The Issues Are In The Tissues
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
My right elbow has been hurting me the last few weeks. I’ve had thoughts about what could be wrong with my arm like, tennis elbow, arthritis, etc. Today I went to have some body work, specifically cranial sacral therapy. As I was lying on the table and my therapist was working on my neck, I noticed that my right shoulder was moving up toward my ear. I said to my therapist that it felt like my shoulder was trying to protect me. She also felt the same thing. I immediately got an image of my mother slapping me in the face as a small child. I remembered that she had slapped my in the face several times as a child, and my right shoulder would raise up to protect me from the blow. In fact, I have a picture of myself at around age five where you can see my right shoulder hiked up in a protective posture.
My therapist helped me process that memory and suggested that I grab my mother’s hand and stop her from hitting me. I grabbed her hand in imagery and told her emphatically, no…you don’t get to hit me! I also noticed some anger building in my jaws. Then my therapist had me physically grab my mother’s hand and stop her.
Later in the day I noticed that my right elbow was almost pain free. This is just one example of the many times I’ve experienced physical pain and symptoms disappear after working through the emotional material that seems to be located in the physical tissues. It is always amazing to me!
This is the reason why I incorporate the body in my counseling practice. Before I was a counselor, I practiced a form of body work called Postural Integration which is similar to Rolfing. I learned how the emotions were always associated with a physical location in the body. Now in my counseling practice even though I don’t physically touch the body, I gently guide my clients into their body sensations and feelings where the emotional materials are stored. We can then access the source of the emotional wound or trauma. This is much different then talking about it. We are actually able to resolve and clear the issue, just like with my elbow.
EMDR Therapy In My Practice
February 14th, 2013
EMDR works on several levels at once: visual memories and pictures, emotional material, body sensations and pain, and irrational beliefs. As children, we do not have the ability to think maturely about disturbing situations, so we make up fallacious stories and beliefs about ourselves and the world. The problem is that these stories and beliefs stay with us into adulthood and create our realities. We often don’t even know they are there, as they are in the subconscious part of our minds.
EMDR helps the brain process, digest and assimilate all this subconscious material so that the disturbance is neutralized and has lost the emotional charge it once had.
Contact me, Lynne Arial today: (512) 831-4856