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From Trauma
to Transformation

From Trauma to Transformation

This workshop was be based on the content of my book, TRAUMA: Treatment and Transformation that was released in the Spring, 2004 with foreword by Dr. Daniel Araoz, noted therapist and author.

The presentation examined stress and how it effects the individual, the community, and especially the therapist. The effects of trauma are all around us, and our responses to trauma are three-fold: fight (the angry man next door), flight (the neighbor who moved to the Amazon) and freeze (the immobile lady who appears numb or in an altered state of consciousness.) Although it is rarely written about, the freeze reaction is the most dangerous. In both the fight and flight reactions, energy is discharged. In the freeze reaction, the stress continuously bathes the body and brain with stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline produced by the amygdala, the brain's rapid response system located in the anterior lobe of the brain. We will explore hypnotic methods that will help therapists and patients regain control. The amygdala acts without instructions from the conscious mind.

We considered environmental, social, economic and physiological stress. The common denominators among all these stressors are helplessness and fear which trigger the autonomic nervous system (the pituitary and adrenal glands that produce stress hormones). The long-term effects can include impaired memory, weakened immune system, high blood pressure, stomach ulcers, and premature, underweight births in pregnant women. Other emotional effects may lead to specific Phobias, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety, or Depression until the brain can no longer distinguish between major disasters and minor bumps in the road.

When you are constantly bombarded with double-binds (two incongruent messages, i.e., stay calm but be alert), it becomes normal to be "abnormal." As most hypnotherapists know, inner reality is more negotiable than people realize. This workshop will explore new ways to use our inner resources by reframing and searching out new directions using Abraham Maslow's model of a healthy person and Joanne Jozefowski's model called The Phoenix Phenomenon: Rising from the Ashes of Grief. These tools can enable therapists to broaden their toolbox of treatment during these traumatic times, help themselves and their patients get their hands on the control knobs that are usually beyond their experience, and live better lives in this stressful world. 

In summary, the transformation portion of the workshop was based on the works of master hypnotherapists Milton Erickson, Daniel Araoz, Bill O'Hanlon, the Spiegals and Jon Kabat-Zinn using both direct and indirect suggestions. All effective therapy is actually hypnotherapy. Meta communication, (i.e. hypnotic trance) allows us to step outside of ourselves and investigate new resources of the unconscious part of the brain, the part that makes it possible to breathe without thinking about it, or send oxygen to your blood cells. Some people refer to this process as dissociation, while others call it a trance state.

Our beliefs about ourselves are pretty well formed between the ages of twelve and fifteen. Meta communication (i.e. hypnotic language) can access the part of the brain where those beliefs are stored and speak to it in its own unique language.

Hypnotic language can communicate with that creative part of the brain in the same language style used to form your original beliefs. It permits us to use alternate methods to access our unique capabilities and increase the quality of our lives in the "here and now."

In this stressful post 9/11 world, we are bombarded daily with threats of terrorist attacks, war, biochemical threats, economic disaster and arrogant control by managed care. I call this phenomenon The National Trauma Syndrome. The transformation portion of my book and workshop offer indispensable tools for therapists in hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis that can help expand their toolbox of techniques. It will provide methods for developing more adaptive responses to living a healthier life.

To buy
Trauma, Treatment & Transformation, send a check for $20 & $5 postage.

To buy:
From Trauma to Transformation, send a check for $40 & postage to:
 
Dr. Muriel Prince Warren
Prel Plaza South Wing #15
Nyack, NY 10962

With your Name & Address & Phone #.