Lifting the Burden of Emotional Pain and Suffering
We seem to be in a period of great turmoil, of uncertainty and violence both natural and manmade. Your clients may be reaching out to you in different ways, as world events cause feelings of anxiety, rage and sadness. This is a time to share our skill and knowledge, teaching clients that although they can’t control many of the events around them, they can learn to shift their emotions and reactions.
Working to Uncover Resilience
The World Health Organization has designated October 10 as World Mental Health Day. It can be a useful occasion to consider the ways in which we help patients discover resilience and the ability to “bounce back” from emotional pain. Globally, more than 300 million people struggle with depression, the leading cause of disability. More than 260 million are living with anxiety disorders. Many of these people live with both. Though very often intertwined, emotional pain differs from physical pain — and some specialized treatment modalities can be effective in overcoming this sort of suffering.
We can work with clients to shift their emotions using acceptance, vulnerability and its relationship to courage. By understanding the roots of their anger, anxiety, shame or grief, we can teach our patients strategies to recover from heartbreak and loss.
Discover specialized treatment modalities for working with emotional pain in this month’s webinar. To learn more and register click here.
Improving Outcomes Using Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP)
Our Western perception of the brain as the total all of human experiences has limited psychology’s effectiveness, given the great diversity of patients in need. Techniques such as Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) highlight how to better work with challenging emotions. Developed by Dr. Raja Selvam, ISP is a method to improve clinical outcomes through greater embodiment of all experiences and all levels of the psyche in the physical body of the individual.
Selvam believes that scientific information on the physiology of emotions and self-regulation has not found its way into clinical practice. Finding, accepting and deepening various types of emotions can expand tolerance and a greater embodiment of related cognitions and behaviors. We can learn how different types of emotions are generated — as well as defended against — in the brain, body and energy system.
Therapeutic modalities differ in their emphasis on varying experiences and levels of the psyche. But no matter which primary therapeutic modality you use, you can integrate ISP techniques to impact outcomes: not just emotional outcomes, but also cognitive, behavioral, relational and spiritual. Patients can learn to regulate the body during difficult emotional experiences, so that emotions are not overwhelming nor the body too dysregulated from them. This can also be effective when working with the combination of challenging emotions and difficult psychophysiological symptoms such as chronic fatigue.
Don’t miss Raja Selvam PhD! Learn how you can integrate ISP with your primary therapeutic modality. To learn more and register click here.
Shifting Emotion, Lifting the Burden
Embodiment refers to connecting experience and the psyche in close relationship to the physical body. When patients learn to identify and support different types of emotions, their capacity to tolerate emotional pain can increase. Integrating of all aspects of experience through the human mind-body container has the potential to expand endurance.
This sort of resiliency allows us all to survive difficult times and circumstances. I hope that none of you or your patients have been directly impacted by some the terrible events of the past couple of months. But again, avoiding devastating weather or violence is not always possible. What is possible is learning to lift the burden of emotional pain.
Join me this month as I talk with Raja Selvam, developer of Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP). To learn more and register click here.