Category: Embodied Dialogue Series

Dr. Arielle Schwartz, author of seven books on trauma recovery including Applied Polyvagal Theory in Yoga and Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma, will discuss the science behind vagus nerve stimulation and guide you through gentle practices support your wellbeing.

You will learn how to naturally stimulate the vagus nerve in areas of the body where the vagus nerve travels close to the surface of your skin such as on the sides or back of the neck and on areas surrounding the ear. She will share with you the foundations of her yoga teachings integrating Science, Soma, and Soul as a foundation for a deep, meaningful connection to your Self and why having safe community spaces is essential to the healing journey.

Research in cognitive and affective neuroscience in the past twenty five years has clearly established the importance of embodying emotions for improving outcomes and treatment times in all therapeutic approaches. In the short presentation, Dr. Selvam will discuss how therapists can go about improving their practice in all therapy modalities through the practice of embodying emotions, with clinical examples.

Clients with addictive process issues too often feel cast adrift from general therapy. Yet sending off clients to ‘get treatment’ in order to be ‘ready’ for help is distressing and stigmatizing for hurting clients, and often leaves them with nowhere to turn. What can psychotherapists do to better support such individuals?

The Internal Family Systems (IFS) model offers a paradigm shift. Rather than viewing addiction as a unique and self-destructive pathology, we see addictive behaviors as desperately trying to help. United in their drive to do ‘whatever it takes’ to protect the system, the parts engaged in soothing, escapist activities are committed to addressing underlying pain. Starting with acceptance and a non-judgmental context, we help clients to explore the inner intentions and reasoning behind high-risk parts. We build relationships, gain their trust, and ultimately help connect to the underlying trauma and attachment wounds they protect, that fuel the process.

“The compulsion to repeat the past through traumatic re-enactments or engaging in reckless behaviours is frequently one of the few ways that allows traumatized individuals to ‘feel alive’. It is well known that individuals with PTSD – particularly when associated with developmental trauma – often report a sense of self that does not exist entirely, illustrated eloquently through statements, such as, “I do not know who I am,” or, “I feel like I have stopped existing.”

Research suggests that these experiences may relate, in part, to the reduced functional connectivity of the default mode network, a brain network critical to the experience of a sense of self, observed during rest among individuals with PTSD. Critically, however, enhanced default mode network connectivity has recently been observed when individuals with PTSD are triggered by reminders of their trauma, suggesting that the sense of self may ‘come alive’ under conditions of threat and terror. It is therefore possible that some individuals with PTSD may seek situations involving threat or terror in order to experience of a semblance of a sense of self and a related sense of agency, which may be lacking in the absence of extreme hyperarousal states. Ruth will focus on how we can work clinically to help traumatized individuals ‘feel alive’ and safe without engaging in traumatic re-enactments and/or reckless behaviour.”

“I began working as a counselor in the addiction treatment field when the disease concept abstinence-only model was the only acceptable approach; anything else was considered blasphemy. Over those early years in my career, I realized that this approach was not only not helping the overwhelming majority of people struggling with addiction, but was traumatizing many of them. I was forced by this recognition to challenge this model’s basic assumptions and break its rules in my clinical practice and I discovered a powerful and effective alternative that I have come to call Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP). Many years into the evolution of IHRP I became aware, in my own personal therapy, that an addiction treatment trauma that I experienced when I was 15 years old, unconsciously brought me into the addictions field, sensitized me to what was wrong with it and inspired my passion to create an effective alternative based on empathy, respect, collaboration and empowerment.”

Sensory Processing Disorder and Sensory Processing differences are a significant risk factor for addiction. Studies show that children with sensory challenges can struggle with social anxiety and social engagement. These feelings of being different, being too much, being too sensitive, of not belonging, and stimulus-seeking behaviors then become predictive factors for victimization as well as for early onset of substance use in the teen years. Early onset substance use is a significant risk factor for adult addiction.

Linda will draw upon a decade of experience teaching mindfulness meditation and yoga in diverse community-based and mental health settings, and emphasizes the importance of meeting individuals where they are on their mindfulness journey. Rather than imposing a rigid practice of silent seated meditation, a scaffolded and titrated approach is suggested, recognizing that mindfulness without self-regulation skills can be unintentional torture.

This is where cultivating an innerstanding the eight sensory systems can offer key insights for enhanced self-regulation in early recovery, which can then open doorways for co-regulation.