Six Ways Developmental Trauma Shapes Adult Identity

Developmental trauma is more common than many of us realize. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 78 percent of children reported more than one traumatic experience before the age of 5. Twenty percent of children up to the age of 6 were receiving treatment for traumatic experiences, including sexual abuse, neglect, exposure to domestic violence, and traumatic loss or bereavement. 

Adults who suffer from developmental trauma may go on to develop Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or "cPTSD," which is characterized by difficulties in emotional regulation, consciousness and memory, self-perception, distorted perceptions of perpetrators of abuse, difficulties in relationships with other people, and negative effects on the meaningfulness of life.

Understanding these basic themes, which are often a result of dissociative effects on the traumatized personality, can help people recognize areas of difficulty so they can begin doing the work of recovery, repair, and personal growth.

1. Loss of childhood: "I never really had a childhood" or "I can't remember much from growing up."

2. Missing parts of oneself: "I've always felt like something was missing, but I don't know what it is."

3. Attraction to destructive relationships: "I'm the kind of person that always dates people who are bad for me." 

4. Avoidance of relationships: "I'm someone who is better off alone."

 5. ​Avoidance of oneself: "I don't like to think about myself; it only makes me feel bad."

6. Difficulty integrating emotions into one's identity: "I'm not the kind of person who has strong feelings about things."

Moving Forward

While it can be disheartening to read about the effects of developmental trauma in adulthood, and daunting to contemplate doing the work of recovery and identity formation beyond that of the traumatized self, therapeutic efforts are effective.

Recovery, grieving, and growth often take place over a longer time period than one would want, and re-connecting with oneself has many layers. Developing a sense that long-term goals are attainable and worth working toward is important, even if it doesn't feel possible or true. Working toward getting basic self-care in place is a vital first step, as is working toward feeling comfortable seeking help when trust in caregivers has been broken. Developing compassion for and patience with oneself can be difficult, but useful.

More info:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/experimentations/201707/six-ways-developmental-trauma-shapes-adult-identity

You May Be Able To Train Your Brain To Be Fearless - Neurofeedback Malaysia

A developing treatment called neurofeedback may help people suffering from anxiety and PTSD.

All your fears, stresses and anxieties have one thing in common. They are sensed by a pair of pea-sized patches of neurons, called the amygdala, sitting deep inside your brain. So what if you could control your amygdala? What if you could change your brain and become calmer and braver?

That idea has a particular appeal for people suffering from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. But it’s easier said than done. The amygdala is an old part of the brain that does its job automatically, without much care for commands from more conscious parts of the mind. You can’t just tell an oversensitive amygdala to quiet down.

But a brain training technique known as neurofeedback might help people find a way to change such involuntary and automatic brain processes. In recent years, the technique is being developed and refined to address mental health issues. The treatment involves monitoring a person’s brain activity in real time using electroencephalography (EEG) or functional MRI brain scans, and showing those patterns of activity to the person so they can try to boost or reduce them ― basically, changing how their brain functions.

In a new study published last month in Biological Psychiatry, researchers set up a series of experiments to use neurofeedback to teach several dozen people how to regulate their amygdala activity.

“People were able to use this new EEG model to learn how to control their brain activity in a deeply located brain area, the amygdala,” said Dr. Talma Hendler, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at the Tel Aviv Center for Brain Functions in Israel. 

Reading brain signals from deep parts of the brain is difficult, especially with a cheap and accessible method. Functional MRI, or fMRI, can access these areas, but the device is a complex, gigantic magnet that you can’t just set up at home, even if you could afford it.

EEG, on the other hand, is cheaper and simpler. It mainly involves a few electrodes placed on the scalp. The downside of EEG is that it can’t accurately zoom in on structures deep in the brain.

So, the researchers combined the two methods. They used the detail provided by fMRI to tease out the amygdala’s signal from the electrical activity picked up by the EEG.

“[This method] enables home-based imaging that [targets] brain regions relevant for our mental health,” Hendler said. “It opens a wide horizon of treatment possibilities for the mentally ill, but also for everyone on a daily basis as an empowering tool for mental activity and well being.”

For the experiments, Hendler and her colleagues asked the volunteers to listen to a sound. They were then instructed to lower the volume of the sound by “exercising mental strategies.”

It sounds like a vague instruction. What are the mental strategies that can, seemingly telepathically, control the volume of a sound? No one really knows, and that’s sort of the point. People have to try many different ways of thinking ― thereby changing their brain activity ― until they stumble upon a desired activity pattern.

What the participants didn’t know was that the volume of the sound was programmed to change based on the electrical activity of their own amygdala, and it would lower if the participants managed to dial down that activity. In other words, they were listening to their own amygdala’s firing, disguised in a sound.

A series of tests afterward showed that this game seemed to help participants become more capable of regulating the activity of their amygdala. In response to viewing a series of images, for example, the participants’ amygdalas seemed less sensitive compared to those of people in another group given a fake neurofeedback treatment.

The participants in this study were healthy. But Hendler believes that people with mental health problems, too, would respond to training with neurofeedback.

“We already have indication for this (unpublished yet) that people suffering from depression, chronic pain and post traumatic disorders are able to learn and greatly benefit from such training,” Hendler said.

If the method proves useful in treating mental health conditions in the future, this low-cost, personalized treatment could be used at home to complement and sometimes substitute medications, Hendler said. 

Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neurofeedback-mental-health_us_57fbee6fe4b0b6a43034b431

Neuro-hypnotherapy or EEG biofeedback for depression

The mind-body connection is prevalent in many diseases. 

What Research Says?

Cognitive hypnotherapy for major depressive disorder.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22655331



Suggestion in the treatment of depression.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23488249/




The power of belief and expectancy in understanding and management of depression.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23488252/



Out-of-illness experience: hypnotically induced dissociation as a therapeutic 
resource in treating people with obstinate mental disorders.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19711767



Feasibility of clinical hypnosis for the treatment of Parkinson's disease: a case study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23427841



Efficacy of hypnosis-based treatment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a pilot study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23162510/



Antidepressants in the treatment of depression: the clinician and the controversy.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23488250



Treating depression with antidepressants: 
drug-placebo efficacy debates limit broader considerations.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23488253



Game-based biofeedback for paediatric anxiety and depression.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2294290




Is alpha wave neurofeedback effective with randomized 
clinical trials in depression? A pilot study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21063132



A new neurofeedback protocol for depression.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21568194



Audio-biofeedback training for posture and balance in 
patients with Parkinson's disease.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21693054/?



Biofeedback therapy for symptoms of bowel dysfunction 
following surgery for colorectal cancer.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21755415/


Bowel biofeedback treatment in patients with 
multiple sclerosis and bowel symptoms.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21825891/



Biofeedback in the treatment of heart disease.
'' Preliminary data suggest that use of BFSM (biofeedback-assisted stress 
management) by heart failure patients may actually cause cellular and
molecular remodeling of the failing heart in the direction of normal. ''
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21972325

Letting Go Of Emotional Pain With Self-Hypnosis

“Letting go is the willingness to change your beliefs in order to bring more peace and joy into your life instead of holding onto beliefs that bring pain and suffering…”
― Hal Tipper

That's right!

Everything that has a beginning, has an ending. 

However, are you aware that every ending is a new beginning?

No matter how good or bad it may have been in the past.

It's time to bury those negative thoughts.

And let's not forget to plant a positive seed of thought in your mind and nurture it carefully.

As a clinical hypnotherapist, I will guide you to plant the positive seed in your mind and your processed thoughts will turn to fertilizer.

We all scream for ice cream in hot day. Quite simply, because it makes us feel good. 

As if you can't let go, you may not be aware but it's for a reason.

I believe that a good pair of shoes can serve you for many years and you can walk a thousand miles in a good mental health status.

Emotion, a key factor related to happiness.

With clinical hypnotherapy you can change your emotional state.

As I work on your emotional factors, your subconscious mind.

 

It's indeed exciting to get to know how the subconscious mind works, isn't it?

I am one of the few certified biofeedback specialists in Asia.

Biofeedback is a new method for individual behavior therapy and is scientifically proven.

Let your brain teach itself to work more efficiently through brain biofeedback.

I can assist you to see your brainwave during your clinical hypnotherapy session. 

The first of its kind in Malaysia!

Contact me now for more info about self-hypnosis.

Hypnosis and PTSD

Time doesn’t always heal all wounds.  Some events are simply too traumatic to recover from on one's own. The practice of using hypnosis to treat PTSD symptoms has the potential to greatly improve a person’s well being.  Hypnotherapy can give the subject more control over the symptoms and minimize recurring negative thoughts stemming from the traumatic event.  Hypnosis may not completely heal some subjects, but it can help many people cope with their traumatic past.
Hypnosis has been found to be highly beneficial in treating PTSD for two major reasons.  The first being that the symptoms of PTSD are similar to the phenomena experienced while under hypnosis.  Secondly, hypnosis has actually been shown to reduce the symptoms of PTSD.


Hypnosis and PTSD
In a 2005 study, the effects of hypnosis and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on participants with PTSD were tested.  In the study 67 people with PTSD were divided into 3 groups.  Each group of participants received 6 sessions, either with CBT and hypnosis, CBT only, or supportive counseling.

The study’s results revealed that the hypnosis plus CBT group and the CBT-only group exhibited fewer symptoms of PTSD immediately prior to the treatment and also again at the 6-month follow up.  In addition, the group that received hypnosis had fewer re-experiencing episodes than the CBT-only group.

Although many people regard hypnosis as a trance-like state, it is actually a normal and natural altered state of consciousness.  In fact, after experiencing hypnosis sessions, many people question whether they really have been hypnotized.  This is because, although people expect it to be quite strange, hypnosis is quite a normal state.

Hypnosis has long been used in the treatment of war related post-traumatic conditions.  In recent years it has also been used effectively to treat post-traumatic symptoms in cases of sexual assault, car accidents and other events.

The Effectiveness of Hypnotherapy
The main principle of hypnosis is to induce a deep state of relaxation in the subject.  This in itself is potentially effective against PTSD as it may lead to feelings of safety and less environmental anxiety, a decrease of intrusive thoughts and a re-involvement in daily activity.

Hypnosis is a method of communicating with our unconscious mind.  It is this direct communication with the unconscious that enables doctors to change even lifetime habits very quickly.  Hypnosis has long been used for smoking cessation, weight control, stress elimination, removing anxiety, curing phobias and improving confidence, among other things.  Hypnosis has even proven very effective in helping to treat chronic pain.

While hypnosis and PTSD may not be the solution for everyone, it has proven effective in people with an IQ of 70 or over.  This means it could potentially work for most people.

But not every PTSD patient is a good candidate for hypnosis or hypnotherapy.  Certain criteria need to be met.  For one, there should be a proper diagnosis of PTSD established.  Also the hypnotherapist needs to be aware whether he is dealing with a single, or multiple trauma incidents.  The subject should also understand the concept of PTSD and what the hypnotherapy goals are.  Lastly, treatment should be voluntary.  If the subject has any doubts in their mind regarding hypnosis and PTSD, they should be excluded from treatment.

Patients should also be aware that contrary to what you see in some movies, hypnosis is completely safe.  You cannot get stuck in hypnosis and hypnosis is not sleep, as many believe.  Most importantly, while in a state of hypnosis, you cannot be made to do anything against your will or against your own moral code.



All retrieved from http://sexually-transmitted-diseases-stds.trustreport.com/stds/is_hypnosis_effective_for_ptsd_175.html