The Quest for Knowledge - Neuroscience & healing

Happy father's day to all the dad's, step-dad's and carers today! With many nursing homes in lockdown, the visits today may look a bit different in this new world order. None-the-less the connections run deep and the love and care remains. Another thing that remains is knowledge. The search for wisdom and knowledge has proven insatiable over the centuries. Evidenced by the growing body of research on neuroscience and healing from trauma.

Talking about knowledge...the foundation of therapy according to Dr Bessel van der Kolk is gaining a sense of time, then the pre-frontal cortex comes back online. We can then engage the reasoning part of our brain so we don't follow our reptilian brain impulses (Van der Kolk). This month I've been enjoying Dr Van der Kolk's trauma conference and am looking forward to soon practicing EMDR. That's the theory about eye movement desensitisation (Shapiro) proven to have an 80% success rate healing adult survivors of trauma (Van der Kolk). What an amazingly high success rate for people to learn self-regulation after experiencing a trauma trigger! It's also a good alignment with my core values and business goals to help and heal people...so I'm excited!

The thing about traumatic memories is that they leave a sensory imprint on the body and the feelings can return. Reason and understanding only gets the survivor so far. According to Van der Kolk it's only when the bodily sensations get integrated that the traumatic feelings go away. Hard to do when on high doses of medication (Van der Kolk), which brings a whole other debate regarding the medical model. Necessary at times no doubt. The brain has an amazing ability to heal itself, that's the incredible thing about the growing body of work on neuroscience. 

All this learning makes the body weary! At the end of the day it's helpful to remember that therapeutic change takes place in a safe therapeutic relationship. A relationship characterised by warmth, trust and deep connection. It reminds me of one of my colleagues who works with people living with disabilities and often those who have been released from prison. Lucy Johnston is an NDIS support coordinator who has a passion to support those who have experienced the profound trauma of loss of liberty and lowered functioning. So if you are a person recovering from trauma remember it is helpful to surround yourself with a professional team to support you.

Meantime, let's continue the quest for knowledge. Our reptilian brain or survival brain doesn't have to run the show! I'm going to make a plan to do some self care this month with a massage, deep breathing and increase my walks now that this beautiful spring weather has arrived. Meantime, I'll continue my EMDR learning and integrate it as a mind-body approach in my counselling practice. Let me know what you've got on this month and any therapeutic tips that have worked for you in the mind-body healing approach. I love hearing from you!

Tania Gorry is a counsellor in private practice on the Central Coast of NSW. Tania founded Whole Warrior Solutions where she is also active in community development work for people living with disabilities and their providers. The NDIS Network is a rapidly growing community of NDIS providers with over 900 followers on social media!

Lucy 'Luz' Johnston is an NDIS Support Coordinator who founded a boutique agency called Lucy Support Coordination,  based in Western Sydney. Lucy has a passion for supporting people with disabilities involved in the Justice system and can be contacted at  www.lucysupportcoordination.com.au