WHAT ARE BRAIN-BODY BASED THERAPY MODALITIES?

Standard talk therapy can help you gain insights, explore and challenge current thought patterns, and provide validation to your experience by sharing your story with a trusted and safe person, the therapist. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can assist you in doing much of that, which can be very helpful by increasing your awareness of how your thoughts, emotions and behaviors all interact providing you the opportunity to change course if you want a different outcome.

Sometimes, though, we can know something logically and yet it can be very difficult to believe at the core, in our body. I call this moving a belief from the head to the heart. To make that belief truly part of our being, (held in our heart) we most often must move through and feel some (usually difficult) emotions. ***This is where brain-body based therapy modalities work their magic****

Utilizing a brain-body based modality taps into your emotions at the source of where they show up…in your physical body. By being present to the physical sensations of the current emotions with compassionate awareness, and in a safe therapeutic relationship, you will experience a new and different level of healing.

In our day-to-day life, we often do not create the time and space to move through our emotions in an embodied and effective manner. Sometimes this is due to lack of time and other times it's because we have not been shown/taught how to be with our emotions. Whatever the reason, therapy within the modalities of brainspotting and/or EMDR will provide you with information about your nervous system and how to process emotions.

You are always in the driver’s seat, and we only go where you are willing to go. If you have spent some time in therapy before and feel like you are circling the same topic/struggle repeatedly, it is likely that something emotional must be processed in order to see resolution and feel a change happen.

As humans, we have what is called an Autonomic Nervous System. It is a control

system that regulates bodily functions automatically without conscious effort. This system is

made up of two divisions, the Sympathetic Nervous System and Parasympathetic System.

The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is associated with the Fight/Flight/Freeze response (also known as reptilian brain) where it prepares the body for action to ultimately protect against whatever threat is being perceived. You can think of this as the “gas pedal” or the “ON” button that gets pressed when we need to respond to a threat. Our bodies are evolutionarily designed to remember negatives. Unlike animals, we have a neocortex that allows us to question what is causing us to perceive a threat. When we are experiencing some type of real or perceived threat, the SNS becomes activated, and when this activation occurs, it can have the following effects on our brain:

• The thinking part of our brain (neocortex) decreases in its ability to function fully which can

then lead to increase of impulsivity and irrational thinking.

• Executive functions (judgement, reasoning, discernment, fine motor control, identity,

ability for time management, ability for language and speech) decrease when in

sustained overactivation.

There are benefits to this system as well. It provides energy and strength, helps with focus, and

supplies excitement and joy!

The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) is associated with “Rest and Digest”. When this

system is activated, a person feels comfortable in their own skin and the body conserves energy

and restores itself. The heart rate will slow, and intestinal and glandular activity will increase. To

activate the PNS you must physically relax your body.

WHAT ARE BRAIN-BODY BASED THERAPY MODALITIES?

What is your nervous system?

So how does this relate to processing emotions in therapy wi

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