| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| All1Spirit |
Posted - 03/09/2013 : 09:56:33
One thing I have not seen discussed here is the difference between repression and suppression of emotions. One separates us from our true selves and the other says I know about the pain but I refuse to live in that negative energy storm.
Repression. It is similar to suppression in that a thought or feeling or emotion is not expressed -- but in repression, we deny that the element even exists. The repressed element might come into our conscious awareness and then be denied, or it might be prohibited from our awareness at all. it is blocked because it has been judged it to be potentially disruptive to our psychological stability or our self-image.
Repression can be a useful defense mechanism. Although repression is generally viewed as a destructive act, it is rightly called a "defense mechanism" because it defends us against psychological material which might indeed be dangerous if we don't have the ego strength or psychological skills to manage certain challenges to the ego.
We repress by intellectually denying the reality of the emotion, and by desensitizing ourselves to our awareness of the movement and pressure of the emotional energy within us. The extent to which we repress one emotion or sensation is the extent to which we repress all emotions or sensations; for example, when we refuse to feel fear and anger, we also lose our capacity to feel happiness and pleasure.
Moving out of repression does not require going back into the painful memories and reexperiencing each one. Simply knowing that they exist and then being "Emotionally Current" is a process of using present day emotions to learn about ourselves and see where they might be created by old traumas.
I feel the major work of moving out of repression is not denying our current emotions as they are the doorway to both our past and present. It is being present "right now" with all our emotions and listening to their message.
Suppression. It is a conscious choice not to indulge a particular thought, feeling, or action. "Not to indulge" means that we are aware of a thought or feeling, but we decide not to dwell on it (internally, by continuing to think about it) -- nor to express it (externally, by acting it out).
Suppression is a pathway to mental health. We know that painful things happened to us in the past and acknowledge that there are no positive benefits to revisiting them after we have acknowledged their presence...especially not repeatedly returning to them.
Neuroscience has proven that reexperiencing a painful emotion or experience only creates more hyperactive pathways in the nervous system for pain and suffering. This is the way post traumatic disorders, phobias, anxiety and depression are created.
The amygdala is the reactive fear and trauma protective part of the brain. It stores every event in your life that could be a potential threat and it has genetic programming for threats that have been laid down over thousands of years of human evolution.
It does not differentiate between reality and thought. It learns by experiencing or by our thoughts. Whatever you think is the absolute truth to the amygdala and it stores it as reality.
So if your mother was mean to you it stored that memory as a warning....be careful of mother. If you go back and rethink this occurrence the amygdala puts the fear of mother on a higher, and higher response alert with each repetition.
If you think back to painful experiences many times this little organ can consider there is real danger and switch on the nervous system for constant vigilance...with the flood of destructive stress hormones. This is where neuronal sensitization starts and the HPA axis starts to create TMS and other mind/body symptoms.
Our thoughts, beliefs and behaviors have told the amygdala too many times there is an enemy at the gates!!!
A belief is a proposition we hold to be true. If we have a belief our childhood was mostly traumatic and painful the nervous system will honor that belief and assume life is "Crap" and it needs to be on guard. If we search out the good parts and suppress (chose not to focus on ) the bad the nervous system will relax having concluded that good things might happen today.
Obsessively (or in the name of therapy) entertaining experiences in the mind that are sad, traumatic, frightening, frustrating, unfair or negative alerts the amygdala that the world you live in is dangerous....so out comes the cannons - armies and the full defense. This defense is a storm of scalding hot chemicals that rip through every cell in the body, overdrive many into apoptosis and can accelerate the organism into breakdown.
Once an alerting memory is stored in the limbic system it cannot be erased. HOWEVER...it can be over written. When you remember mommy was mean to me on this occasion we can chose to also chose to remember another time when she was nice.......third grade was hell - the bully never left you alone...focus on this and the nervous system goes on alert.
Remember that your third grade teacher was so kind, you liked the cafeteria food and the school bus driver was really funny. You just sent a critical message to the brain alert center that life was good and it will reduce the protective vigilance a notch.
I am learning that the take away here is that we have the power to reprogram our nervous system by which view point we chose...and I do mean chose. Most wounded people have a negative bias as a protective mechanism and this is the part that is constantly talking to the amygdala with perceptions that cause it to be on Hot-Button alert.
This selective negative bias is what I have come to believe is the real causation of stress disorders. I am certainly challenged in making this switch as I am sure many others are....but as Byron Katie says: "This is the Work"
"Around and Around the Circle We Go....
The Answer Sits In The Middle and Knows..." |
| 20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| chickenbone |
Posted - 03/13/2013 : 08:05:27
Thank-you, Dr. Alexander for all your terrific information and resources. Thanks to you and others on this forum, I have a lot more hope now. I will read more about Coherence Therapy and EMDR. I am also thinking about possibly traveling for some therapy.
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| Dr James Alexander |
Posted - 03/13/2013 : 03:33:21
Alix- yes, as i have stated on several occasions, Coherence Therapy is indeed totally compatible with TMS. In his books Depth Oriented Brief Therapy, and Unlocking the Emotional Brain, Ecker does in fact mention chronic pain as one of the conditions successfully treated with this approach. I have recently joined a Coherence Therapy email forum (run by Robin Ticic, one of his co-authors) and am asking questions about people's experience in using it with chronic pain. I have introduced Robin and the group to TMS via my recent interview on Shrink Rap Radio. I will also be doing some training with her in April and will ensure that she becomes familiar with the TMS approach- it would be mutually beneficial as we are all on about the same thing. I think Coherence Therapy is relatively new and on the rise- there may not be all that many practitioners around? They dont yet have their practitioner contact list up on their website yet, but once they have, i will let this forum know of it as i am certain that sufferers of TMS would benefit from this approach.
James |
| alix |
Posted - 03/13/2013 : 00:10:30
Dr.Alexander, I listened to the Bruce Ecker's podcasts and read the case studies on his website.
His work is truly TMS compatible at every level, and yet based on everything I read or heard, there is not a word on chronic pain. He seems like a very down to earth and approachable person. I am wondering if you have contacted or plan to contact him. It would be wonderful to direct his attention to the area of TMS and hopefully get his thoughts on the subject. |
| Dr James Alexander |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 14:54:49
Chickenbone- your description of the depth of these feelings, and the role of the limbic system etc, is excellent. And your experience of having to contain that remaining 10% pretty well says it all. Yes, counteractive approaches do help to a certain extent- but the problems remain issues which people have to continually be working against. And you are absolutely right that the limbic system etc sees it all as a matter of survival- thats why it doesnt let go of the remaining 10% as a result of conscious effort and thought. It has learnt the survival lessons very well (an emotional learning) and it will stick with it for a whole life time if need be, even if this learning causes ongoing emotional pain- unless a reconsolidation experience occurs to teach it something new and different.
There are a range of transformative approaches which can assist with this, including EMDR, Coherence Therapy, Hakomi, Gestalt, NLP and others. And it is also possible for this transformative reconsolidation to occur spontaneously via certain expereinces in life (I have had one or 2 of these experiences, whereby the problem just fell away in a moment to such an extent that i didnt need to battle it anymore, eg. depression- but it required a certain experience, which i can now see triggered reconsolidation). And TT also states that he is able to undertake this kind of procedure himself with his own version of 'inner child work'.
So, EDMR is the transformative approach that i am most familiar with, and it appears to create the reconsolidation experiences as a matter of course (and naturally, there are differences in quality between practitioners- i advocated a friend get it in a different part of Oz to where i live, and he got a dud!). The other thing to be aware of though is that syndromes which we carry are rarely resulting from one experience- its usually the result of a range of distressing events (often following a common theme)- this means that one session may resolve an element of the overall syndrome, but you will need more than one session to get the overall resolution that you are seeking. Good luck with it.
James |
| chickenbone |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 11:05:14
Ace, yes you might be right and I am still working with the Keys. I guess I am just so tired of working on this for so long. I am tired out from lack of sleep. Maybe I just need to rest awhile, slow down, get my sleep back (although it is better than it was), and then resume working on my recovery. I am not going to make any hasty decisions. Maybe I have made my recovery a mental strain and am lacking patience with myself. This concept has been suggested before. |
| Ace1 |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 10:34:16
Dear Chickenbone,
Do you know that Balto has always maintained that the last 10% in recovery is related to conditioned situations? I dont know how severe your symptoms were when you first began treating yourself, but mine were to the point of almost disability. I know that I would have never gotten better than 90% with the amount of time youve been working on it. Can you believe that I still continue to reach a better state? Is like trying to reach infinity (perfection), you cant really get there, but you can always get closer. The conditioned reactions are so automatic and they feel like they are coming from some hidden place. As you stick with it you start to see and understand more and more. I am still learning. I wish you the best in whatever method you choose to use. |
| chickenbone |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 10:15:58
Pspa123, Yes you are reading this correctly. I think the advances in neuroscience has clearly shown that emotions do not need to be preceded by thoughts. The idea that thoughts must precede emotions has been a mainstay of the CBT approach, but I think it is quite clear that this is not always the case. This is where CBT approaches fail to get at the root of the problem. As Dr. Alexander says, Using a CBT approach, which may be all that a lot of people need, still leaves some people with distressing psychological material that will always be there and elicit unpleasant emotions, because the material is coming from the limbic system and is simply not available to the conscious mind. The conscious mind has no way to deal with this because it does not know what is really going on. One of the ways I have tried to deal with it is the "nonresistance, nonjudgmental, non-attachment approach, whereby you just let it be, don't act upon it, don't judge it, accept that it is there, etc. But this is really just another containment approach. So the best one can hope for is to development "containment" strategy in an attempt to have it do as little damage as possible. To my way of thinking, this is a bleak state of affairs for someone like me and if I had to live with this, I think I would just prefer to take meds to contain it. I really like the idea that there is a way to quickly take out the emotional sting and possibly re-consolidate material in the limbic system that has been improperly or incompletely processed (as in early childhood trauma or in PTSD). I find this theory, if it really works and from what I am reading, it does, very appealing.
This should also answer Ace's comments. Ace's Keys are a variation of the CBT approach. We learn to be the observer of our thoughts and reactions and to train our brains to keep our central nervous system calm. This has solved about 90% of my issues, but I ham having a really terrible time with the remaining 10%, just as Ace predicted. For this remaining 10%, am I going have to settle for containment because I have very little memory or thoughts of what went on during my very early childhood? Knowing that the limbic system, during times when it perceives danger (and it has no ability to determine the timing or quality) is much more powerful than the frontal cortex, do I have to live with the fear that someday, in spite of my excellent mindfullness and conscious control, I am going to be overwhelmed by some perceived trigger.
It is a lot like pealing back an onion. You work from the simplest and easiest issues to deal with using mindfulness techniques. This gets rid of a lot of surface unpleasantness. However, you get closer and closer to the crux of the problem and discover that it is much more resistant. It is very strong because it is highly concerned with survival issues. The limbic system, when it thinks it is protecting you form some extreme danger, does not realize that the danger perceived (perhaps in response to some trigger completely unknown to the conscious mind), is not happening NOW, but happened in the murky past. It doesn't know and it doesn't care, it is not that highly developed. The survival connection is what makes it so much stronger than the conscious mind. It is like trying to reason with something that cannot be reasoned with; or like letting something live with you that causes you unnecessary pain that you don't want there. And even thought you may learn to contain it, this takes a lot of energy better used for other things. I am tired of trying to deal with this stuff, I am worn out from it and if I can eradicate it or re-consolidate it, or whatever, I am going to go for it. I have seen how EFT can work, but it is just too lightweight. I am hopeful that EMDR can work better. |
| Ace1 |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 18:15:59
Dear chicken bone, my interpretation of these situations where you get in that "hyped up" mode without preceeding thought in my opinion are just conditioned reactions. You have behaved or thought about that situation in your past with intensity or fear that it now happens automatically without you even thinking first. In my experience you just decondition yourself to these situations by acting the opposite (listed in my keys) and with time this conditioned reaction changes. This is not to discount any other interpretations. This is my thought on things and just another interpretation. This is how I handled it and it worked for me and others I have helped. |
| pspa123 |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 18:07:04
The other day I elicited bewildered replies by suggesting that all emotions were not necessarily preceded by thoughts and this seems to suggest that indeed they may not be if i am understanding it correctly. Perhaps Faulkner understood this in his otherwordly brilliant line in Light in August "memory believes before knowing remembers." |
| Dr James Alexander |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 17:46:45
yes chickenbone- i think you have got it right (at least according to my view of things!). I am reading a neuroscience book by Panksep at the moment (Archeology of the Mind), and he presents plenty of evidence which demonstrates that emotions come directly from brain structures much deeper than the neocortex, e.g the limbic system and also a structure in the brainstem called the PAG (he also has a very interesting recent interview on Shrink Rap Radio- worth a listen). EMDR is certainly an approach which gets to these deeper brain structures, and when it works (which i think is most of the time, but may depend on the practitioner- like most things) it then flows on to changes in cognitions (and deeper schemas) and associated physiological states and behaviours.
James |
| chickenbone |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 17:19:41
Hi Dr. Alexander,
I really see now what you mean by the difference between what a psychological therapy like CBT can do and what a deep psychology approach like EMDR can do. I also understand this from your book. I have used CBT and it's variations to rid myself of negative thinking that leads to negative emotion. I think this is pretty straightforward. In this approach, we assume that a bad thought leads to a bad emotion, so to not feel bad, we don't entertain overly negative thoughts. I think some CBT practitioners even think that a bad emotion must be preceded by a bad thought, but I don't agree. Of course, the older CBT practitioners, like Beck and Burns, taught us to argue with those negative thoughts. I think we now know that arguing with any thought is not a good idea and often just makes us feel worse, we should just notice them and let them float by. And this approach works well with me a lot of the time. But I have many times where this approach, or affirmations, self-talk, etc does not work at all. These times are characterized by, when I start in relative psychological equilibrium, at some point, I notice that I don't feel right. It is almost like something has happened to me similar to a physical injury, but this is a psychological wound. I also feel the full brunt in my body, fast heart rate, fast and shallow breathing, full feeling in chest, etc. I believe the emotion comes with no conscious thought preceding it. In other words, the emotion comes from a deep part of my brain, probably the limbic system, with no conscious access to it. This can be triggered at any time, more in certain situations than others. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I feel like my psychology has changed overnight, especially if I didn't sleep well or had nightmares. Sometimes I feel like I have become a slightly different person. The thing is, and I know this from journaling, these episodes are not preceded by thoughts. Something is being triggered, I guess within my limbic system that puts me into fight (anger) or flight (fear) mode. I have no conscious access to what memory or whatever has caused this. In these situations, if I am lucky to catch them early, I can avoid becoming identified with them and gradually get over it. However, I often don't catch myself and end up acting them out until I can get a hold of myself. Acting them out usually means becoming extremely angry or frightened over something or someone quite trivial. This is where I think EMDR could possibly help me. I realize that these episodes are caused generally by my childhood events, but I am not able to pinpoint exactly what is doing this. To some extent, EFT on myself has helped. However, doing this stuff on yourself during emotionally charged episodes is really hard because of the difficulty of trying to play the dual role of patient and therapist.
I wrote this basically to illustrate what you said about how CBT and similar approached that deal with those thoughts and emotions to which we have conscious access cannot really help with psychological material to which we do not have conscious access. This needs a depth psychology approach. I am thinking seriously about trying to get some EMDR therapy. Do I understand this correctly? |
| Dr James Alexander |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 16:16:25
Andy- glad to hear you returned to wind surfing. I managed to return to Australian Rules Football (which, BTW, is not a form of rugby- it is a completely different and independent game, now over 150 years old- and no, there are no helmets or padding- google it and see what happens) and surfing. Its such a blessing when you can get back to old activities.
James |
| alix |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 13:15:06
I had great success recalling old noxious memories then accepting them.
At first I had the help of a NET (Neuro Emotional Technique) practitioner then I was on my own. |
| andy64tms |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 12:41:22
Hi,Dr. Alexander,
thank you for your reply. From what I have read many therapies offer the concept of reframing past negative memories, actually embracing them with acceptance. If these memories were stored for fright and flight reasons, (bad memories being prominent to protect me), then editing them in a positive manner and sending them back with an attached memo would remove their sting. When the negative thought returns the negative memory has been devalued and desensitized.
My bad memories visit me at the most inopportune moments though rarely but with quite a punch, usually when I am enjoying myself. They can be prompted by a scene on a TV program, a mere word from my wife, or at the end of a string of musing. My stomach usually flutters and I have an emotional flush, so I am going to prepare some memos and affirmations in advance. Whether or not this is consolidation or reconsolidation or a mixture of both I’m going to try it. Three years is Ok I’m retired.
I have listened to your story from your website and had a similar recovery from sciatica in 2000 that allowed me to go windsurfing for the last 12 years. Was that Australian rules rugby without the padding and helmets? - A Freudian slip, sorry USA.
Thank you for your link to your website, I will try the “Shrink Radio” interview.
Andy
Past TMS Experience in 2000, with success.
Stopped Wiki Edu Program in lieu of own journalling
Charlie Horse on neck for 20 years, is almost gone.
Books:
Healing Back Pain
Unlearn your Pain
The Great Pain Deception |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 10:10:48
Thank you Dr. James for clarifying that. It seems akin to the great philosophical argument of which came first the chicken or the egg? In my view it doesn't much matter as long as the omelet tastes good. Candace Pert, who's mentioned by Dr. Sarno, helped find the bio-electro-chemical links between the brain and the body, polyneuropeptides, that send the messages back and forth so we have some concrete science of a mechanism for TMS to hang its hat on for the unsure-of-themselves.
Your example of de-fragging our computer hard drives, to make them organize and transmit info better, is a good one and comparable to our brains needing the same on occasion. Maybe this can be humanly accomplished via a nap, vacation headstands or some psychotherapy-- although that's usually only performed on an emergency, as needed basis, or by those who can afford it for their neurosis due to being able to afford it. The rest of us get it through DIY approaches and message boards. The best time to get "shrunk" is probably when we are feeling "well" and don't "need" it--but who sees a shrink then?--no offense intended. (I'm now beginning to see the difficulty inserting paragraphs in TMS threads, so I'll insert a random one here).
I think what all this this neuroplasticity (sp?) business we're hearing so much about recently, and now even seeing commercials for on TV, along with dog-food and Depends, is about "neutralizing" the scary-bad, but evolutionarily, potentially life saving stored fight/flight memories. In the modern gated community world we need a different set of survival skills then primitive homo sapien-sapien did or those living in urban jungles walking home after bar closing. Given knowledge of the tools and having the time for TMS'ing, we can think "in the now", refrag our thoughts when the TMS pain signal rings our Pavlov pain bell.
Sorry for this ramble, but this IS the internet, and the after effects of the twisties, driving down the Big Sur Hiway.
Cheers,
tt/lsmft
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| Dr James Alexander |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 04:56:31
Andy- i think perhaps what you are describing is the consolidation process which can take a long time to occur- it is the process by which experiences are finally transformed into long term memories, and takes place primarily in the context of dreams (believe it or not). This explains the gradual process of a memory coming in and out of our awareness, and over time losing some of its emotional charge. This consolidation process over time involves our mind/brain sifting through experiences in order to work out what to do with the more short term memory- do the contents need to be tossed out as rubbish, unimportant, toxic, etc? Or stored away as important information- something liek the 'defragging' process of computers. As an example, i recently had a falling out with a friend. In the first couple of days, i was feeling perturbed by it- now, i have a different perspective and am not that bothered by it- more philosophical rather than emotional. This results from the consolidation process. I have read neuroscience research stating that this process can take up to 3 years!
However, of interest to various other topics on this forum at the moment, when the memory is of a traumatic event (in which there is an immediate emotional charge- eg, fear), then there is also a very powerful storing of the memory in such a way that can make it look like rapid and thorough consolidation. Our brains are geared up to pay extreme attention to dangerous situations, and to remember the expereince and the learning that came from it- all for survival value. As such, traumatic memories can be stored in rich detail with the full emotional bang, e.g PTSD. The assumption (until around 2004) was that such memories are indelible- cant be erased. Research evidence now makes it clear that in both animals and humans, these powerfully learnt emotional responses can indeed be erased, via processes which are referred to as reconsolidation (discussed in other posts this week). The person retains their biographical memory ("I know this terrible thing happened"), but the memory can lose its ability to carry an emotional punch (cognitions, physiology and behaviour tend to also change as a result of the erasure of emotional impact from reconsolidation).
If you want to learn more, go to my website (www.drjamesalexander-psychologist.com), and click onto the Shrink Rap Radio link, and then search for the recent podcast interview by Bruce Ecker, about his book 'Unlocking the emotional brain'. This is more a book for psychotherapists etc, but his explanation of it is pretty accessible in the podcast. he also has 2 older podcast interviews on Wise Counsel (google it).
James |
| andy64tms |
Posted - 03/10/2013 : 16:29:47
Hi Dr. James,
In another thread I said this about my past negative memories:
I believe memories are in a continual recycle mode back and forth in and out of our awareness. As we try to decipher, understand and accept them, their meaning and effect will change and lessen in severity.
This is a layman’s description of what I believe. Is it the same as your description above to TT or am I missing something?
Andy
Past TMS Experience in 2000, with success.
Stopped Wiki Edu Program in lieu of own journalling
Charlie Horse on neck for 20 years, is almost gone.
Books:
Healing Back Pain
Unlearn your Pain
The Great Pain Deception |
| RageSootheRatio |
Posted - 03/10/2013 : 15:39:05
THANK YOU, Dr James, for that very helpful clarification. I love how you explained we can do the work via "top down" or "bottom up." Seems that by taking a "behavioral approach" ie just working on TMS "(re)conditioning" say, with affirmations, would be "top down" whereas getting what I would call a more "limbic fix" would be more a "bottom up" approach ... and seems that either way could work for an individual, depending on their individual needs. hmmmm. Thanks again. RSR |
| Dr James Alexander |
Posted - 03/10/2013 : 15:08:13
sorry tt. Reconsolidation is the term given in neuroscience to the discovery that disturbing memories could not be eliminated, but their emotional sting can be. The way in which our brain lays down a memory (so that it becomes long term) is referred to as a consolidation process. This involves a range of brain processes over a period of time (as long a 3 years apparently, and has to do with REM sleep). Neuroscientists have studied whether the emotional component of a memory can be altered once the consolidation has occurred. They have experimented with animals and humans, and in the early 2000's demonstrated that this can indeed be done- this is called re-consolidation. Memory is not a facsimile, but more like a re-recordable dvd which is re-done each time the memory is accessed. Neuroscientists have established what are the necessary conditions for reconsolidation to occur- this can and is often replicated in psychotherapy.
Psychotherapies can be roughly divided between those that are counteractive (ie. they attempt to control and counteract the symptoms with a range of strategies- often referred to as 'top down' as they are reliant upon the neocortex attempting to control the lower down emotional centres of the brain- the limbic system and midbrain. The classic example is CBT, but there are many others); and transformative psychotherapies- these are often referred to as 'bottom-up' as they work in reverse, ie. with the deeper more emotional centres of the brain, which then flow changes on to the higher thinking centres). Examples are EMDR, Coherence Therapy and others that i have mentioned elsewhere. Once these approaches have been effective, there is no need to counteract the distressing emotions or material-it has been transformed by a reconsolidation process so that there is simply no more distress there that needs to be controlled or managed or thought away or ignored- the distress simply ceases to exist. This sounds fantastic, but Ecker et al have detailed how transformative psychotherapies actually replicate the same conditions in the therapy which neuroscientists do in the laboratory- when this happens, reconsolidation occurs, and the seemingly intractable emotional distress from past experiences ceases to exist. People still have the episode in their biographical memory, but it no longer elicits distress. The change has occurred at a synaptic level, where neurons communicate with each other- old neural pathways can fall away, and new ones be created.
Hope this makes sense. For more info, Google Wise Counsel and then search for 2 podcast interviews with Bruce Ecker; and another more recent one with Ecker at Shrink Rap Radio- they are easy to listen to and very informative.
James |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 03/10/2013 : 08:40:42
quote:
Originally posted by Dr James Alexander
...I would only add that neuroscience research in the area of reconsolidation makes it clear that (in reference to your statement- 'Once an alerting memory is stored in the limbic system it cannot be erased. HOWEVER...it can be over written.') memories stored in the lymbic system can indeed be erased.
...counteracting psychological approaches, the best they can hope for is to have the limbic arousal be contained- hopefully, controlled (usually will bust out under certain circumstances).
...If people instead seek out transformative psychotherapies, those that replicate what neuroscience has found in research to create reconsolidation, then people can indeed erase the emotional sting which goes with traumatic memories.
...In terms of TMS, when the emotional pain associated with traumatic memories has been erased via reconsolidation therapeutic expereinces, then there is no need for chronic pain to be created.
...There are obviously other therapies which can result in this type of change as well.
James
Dear Dr. Alexander,
Thank you for that, it seems important. I recently moved and haven't unpacked my three psychology dictionaries yet. Could you kindly translate that from Psych to English for those of us in the peanut gallery.
Cheers,
tt |
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