Therapy Methods

Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with Biolateral sound, which is deep, direct, and powerful yet focused and containing.

Brainspotting functions as a neurobiological tool to support the clinical healing relationship. There is no replacement for a mature, nurturing therapeutic presence and the ability to engage another suffering human in a safe and trusting relationship where they feel heard, accepted, and understood.

Brainspotting gives us a tool, within this clinical relationship, to neurobiologically locate, focus, process, and release experiences and symptoms that are typically out of reach of the conscious mind and its cognitive and language capacity.

Brainspotting works with the deep brain and the body through its direct access to the autonomic and limbic systems within the body’s central nervous system. Brainspotting is accordingly a physiological tool/treatment which has profound psychological, emotional, and physical consequences.

It is theorized that Brainspotting taps into and harnesses the body’s innate self-scanning capacity to process and release focused areas (systems) which are in a maladaptive homeostasis (frozen primitive survival modes). This may also explain the ability of Brainspotting to often reduce and eliminate body pain and tension associated with physical conditions.

Traditional psychotherapy addresses the cognitive and emotional elements of trauma, but lacks techniques that work directly with the physiological elements, despite the fact that trauma profoundly affects the body and many symptoms of traumatized individuals are somatically based. The way that cognitive, emotional, and sensorimotor (body) levels of information are processed is found to be implicated in trauma symptoms. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy developed by Dr. Pat Ogden is a method that integrates sensorimotor processing with cognitive and emotional processing in the treatment of trauma. Unassimilated body based responses evoked in trauma involving both arousal and defensive responses are shown to contribute to many PTSD symptoms and to be critical elements in the use of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. By using the body, (rather than cognition or emotion) as a primary entry point in processing trauma, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy directly treats the effects of trauma on the body, which in turn facilitates emotional and cognitive processing. This method is especially helpful to clients struggling with dissociation, emotional reactivity or managing day to day emotions, living in a hypervigilant state or other PTSD symptoms.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy® draws from somatic therapies, neuroscience, attachment theory, and cognitive approaches, as well as from the Hakomi Method.

If we could solve our problems just by thinking about them most of us would be problem-free since we often find ourselves obsessing about them.  Focusing is a body-based practice that teaches how to mindfully attend to the knowledge found in your body and relate it to your mind.  This significant information is often not accessed by most of us.  Focusing is initially done best in relationship with a therapist guiding the practice. However, since the wisdom is from within your own body, the process can be learned as a tool to use by yourself.  Focusing relies on the understanding that your body is continually sending you information about your life.  Most of us often do not know how to listen to this information or make sense of it.  By listening to what is called the “felt sense” and using the practices that help communicate with it, you can gain vital information that was previously unknown to the mind about problems and difficulties you are facing.

1. Clearing a space
2. Felt Sense
3. Handle
4. Resonating
5. Asking
6. Receiving

Utilizing these steps becomes more fluid as practiced in therapy and insights begin to emerge, not through the intellectual way we usually seek them.  This process can help find the keys to overcome the obstacles that we find ourselves stuck in.

A lucid dream is when you consciously wake up inside a dream. The word “lucid” means “clear” so it literally means “clear dreaming”. It is a result of heightened consciousness in the dream state, initiated by the realization that you are dreaming and self-aware. Most people will have one or two conscious dreams in their lifetime by accident. But with practice, you can learn how to have lucid dreams regularly and at Seattle trauma counseling we use it for personal development. When people have chronic bad dreams or nightmares, learning to take control ones dreams is the way to stop this. Lucid dreaming is learning this ability. While some children can program their dreams naturally, for most adults it requires some knowledge of lucid dreaming techniques.

In the last 30 years numerous have begun on the subject of lucid dreaming. Studies of frequencies of nightmares among adults show that one third to one half of all adults experience occasional nightmares. A study of college students found that almost three-quarters of a group of 300 had nightmares at least once a month. In another study, five percent of college freshmen reported having nightmares at least once a week. [1] If this rate applies to the general population, then we might find that more than ten million Americans are plagued by wholly realistic horrifying experiences every week!

Some factors that seem to contribute to nightmare frequency are: illness (especially fever), stress (caused by situations like the difficulties of adolescence, moving, hard times at school or work), troubled relationships and traumatic events, like being mugged or experiencing a serious earthquake. Traumatic events can trigger a long lasting series of recurrent nightmares.

What gives nightmares their special terror? In dreams, anything is possible. This limitlessness can be wonderful, since it allows us to experience delights of fantasy and pleasure unachievable in waking life. However, turn over the stone, and anything you can imagine that you would not like to experience, however unlikely in waking, can happen as well.

In nightmares we are alone. The terrifying worlds we create in our minds are populated with our fears. We may dream that we are accompanied by friends, but if we doubt them they can just as easily turn into fiends. If we run from an axe- wielding maniac, he can find us no matter where we hide. If we stab a devil with a knife, he may not even notice, or the knife may turn to rubber. Our thoughts betray us; if we think, I only hope he doesn’t have a gun—lo! he has a gun. It is no wonder we are grateful to return from nightmares to the relative sanity and peace of the waking world.

Thus, it is understandable that people in the midst of nightmares who realize they must be dreaming frequently choose to wake up. However, if you become fully lucid in a nightmare, you realize that the nightmare can’t really hurt you, and you don’t need to “escape” it by awakening. You can learn to understand why you are having the nightmare and change it within the experience itself. This requires a special training.

Internal family systems is a unique way of working through internal conflict with oneself. IFS sees human beings as complex systems of interacting “parts”, which are natural divisions of personality.
The model ascribes to our personality a multiplicity that is normal and views a unity of personality as myth. It posits that the human mind is made up of a variety of subpersonalities or “parts”. Parts can feel like thoughts or feelings or just dominant inner states. Internal family systems provides a non-pathological paradigm in which to view the human being. For example, I may recognize jealous or selfish parts of me which I don’t like; thus, view myself as a jealous and selfish person which lowers my self concept. However from the IFS point of view, just because I have jealous or selfish parts, doesn’t mean that the whole of my being is jealous and selfish. I can have loving and compassionate parts as well. In fact, instead of judging those parts, I can become curious about them which frees me to understand their purpose and perhaps release them from these roles.
The model also posits that every person has a Self which can and should lead the individual’s internal system. This Self is something that we learn to discover through the practice of mindfulness and is a connected to a non-critical state of self observation. To a different state of Being than we experience presently. This original self was present at birth and is the true essence of who we are. In the IFS model, the “Self” is our soul or “seat of consciousness.” It has all the “necessary qualities of leadership and agency, such as compassion, perspective, curiosity, acceptance and confidence.” The model also assumes that all parts want to play a constructive role in the life of the individual, but often are forced into extreme roles due to trauma or other destructive influences in the person’s environment. Even within their extreme roles, parts often cannot see the harm they are doing to the individual overall. In this work we help parts to being to communicate with one another and relate to one another in a new way. IFS is often used in the work with Dissociative Identity Disorder as a way to work compassionately to help parts better accept one another.

Intensive Workshops are offered by Robert Espiau.

Intensives provide focused, uninterrupted therapeutic blocks of time to concentrate on therapeutic goals and healing without the constraints of a typical therapy session. Intensives can be customized for the needs of an individual or group. They can last one to three days, six to eight hours daily with nightly homework. They can also be weekly or monthly meetings.

Intensives are designed to help individuals or couples who are in crisis, as well as those who want to break through barriers that keep them stuck in old problems and patterns. It provides a blueprint for those who feel they need a jump start on traditional therapy. Intensives are designed to identify the problem, explore the core, and provide therapy and experiential experiences to heal and change lives.