Archive for the ‘Fears & Phobias’ Category

From the Psychology Today Blog with Eric Newhouse

Published on February 13, 2012 by Eric Newhouse in Invisible Wounds

After reading Dr. Norman Doidge’s remarkable book, The Brain that Changes Itself,  I tracked Doidge down by phone at his office in the University of Toronto to ask whether neuroplasticity (see my previous blog, “The Plastic Brain”) could be used as a therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“Yes,” he said immediately, adding that EMDR was the most promising treatment that he was aware of.

A number of counselors are already using eye movement and desensitization reprogramming with promising results. EMDR involves remembering a painful incident, but stripping it of its emotional content by asking the patient to follow the therapist’s fingers with his or her eyes. Then when the memory is stored away again, it’s in a less threatening form. Dr. Francine Shapiro, the founder of EMDR, found that three 90-minute sessions could alleviate symptoms of civilian PTSD in more than 77 percent of the patients she treated.

Several years ago, I interviewed Heather Krysak, who had recently ended a nine-year career with the New York National Guard in which she had been involved in heavy combat in Iraq that left her battling anxiety, fear, nightmares, depression and anger.

“Eye movement desensitization was really weird,” she told me. “It brought things out of my memory that I had been totally repressing from Iraq. One moment I was laughing, and the next moment I was crying.”

While she still experiences nightmares, she said, they were less intense and much less frequent after her EMDR therapy.

A related alternative is emotional freedom techniques (EFT), which involves remembering a painful incident. Four elements are generally components of this trauma: 1) it’s a perceived threat to survival; 2) it overwhelms the coping capacity, creating a sense of powerlessness; 3) it violates expectations; and 4) it creates a feeling of isolation and aloneness. While remembering this trauma, the vet puts a positive spin on it and begins tapping a series of acupressure points (the same points that the Chinese have used for acupuncture over the past five millennia).  A vet might say, “I had to shoot the kid who ran toward my Humvee wearing an explosive vest, but I completely and fully accept myself” and begin tapping his way through five acupressure points on his face and three on his torso. For exact locations, check out the EFT Web site:http://www.eftuniverse.com/

One of the most passionate advocates of EFT is Ken Self of Boston, a veteran of 11 years in the Marine Corps who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and two more tours in Iraq. He had three issues that were crippling him emotionally, including being forced to shoot a child.  “That came back to me night after night for years,” he told me recently. Before he started the therapy, he rated his anxiety levels as 8 on a scale of 10, but after tapping them out, they were reduced to 0, he said.

“After tapping, you still have the emotion, but it doesn’t own you,” he said.  “It’s not overwhelming. It’s just a memory.”

For more information, visit the Veterans’ Stress Project at http://www.stressproject.org/

The Veterans Stress Project has completed a study in which 59 vets with PTSD received EFT. EFT is a drug-free coaching technique which can be done via Skype. It involves brief cognitive and exposure protocols but adds the novel element of the vet’s own physical stimulation by light tapping. Before treatment, the group averaged 66 on the Traumatic
Stress Disorder Checklist-Military (PCL-M) test on which 50 or above is considered PTSD, but after six one-hour coaching sessions, the average score dropped to 35. On follow up, average scores remained far below the clinical criteria for PTSD at 35 on three-month follow-up and 38 on six-month follow up.

Dawson Church, founder of the non-profit, concluded: “The wait-list group’s results were unchanged over time, while the EFT group demonstrated statistically significant drops in PTSD, from clinical to subclinical scores, as well as improvement in the severity and breadth of a range of comorbid psychological problems such as depression and anxiety. The results of the present study are consistent with previous trials showing that brief EFT interventions improve PTSD as well as co-occurring conditions, with gains maintained over time.”

The Veterans Stress Project is looking for vets with military-related stress who are willing to participate in further studies, including an exact replication of the trial described above. For more information, visit the Veterans’ Stress Project Web site, listed above, or call 707-237-6951.

While I’m not affiliated with EFT in any way, I should say that I have personally benefited from it. In 1997, I was driving my rig along a frontage road outside of Great Falls, Mont., when a battered old car slowed down in the approaching traffic lane and the left turn signal came on.  Just as I approached it, the car edged into my lane and broadsided me on the driver’s side door. My rig dropped into the ditch, came up over a driveway and became airborne. It landed on its passenger side wheels and rolled; I remember seeing the windshield blow out in slow motion. The rig was totaled. I was unharmed but very shaken up.

   For the next few years, I had an unusual reaction every time I approached a car signaling to cross my lane of traffic. My heart started pounding, my throat constricted, my mouth got dry and my gut twisted. I generally had a strong urge to stop dead in the road and wave the guy in front of me across the road.

Then a friend introduced me to EFT. The next time an approaching car signaled a left-hand turn, I told myself, “This scares me, but I totally believe that driver will obey the traffic laws.” Tapping seven pressure points seemed too complicated, so I just tapped my own breastbone, right over my thumping heart. After four or five encounters, I was totally surprised to realize that I no longer needed to do it. And it has not been a problem since.

I wondered at the time if that was like PTSD so I asked a local counselor about it. “You were probably suffering a small stress disorder, but a tiny one compared to most vets,” he said. “You were in an accident, but you weren’t harmed, nor was anyone else. You weren’t out in the field, picking up pieces of your friends and putting them in body bags. And this happened to you once, not two or three times a day for 12 or 15 months.”

That gave me a whole new appreciation for what our combat vets are going through.

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Ella Griffin had two choices: take a fumigated capsule into space or tackle her spider phobia. It was a tough call…

I am the 27,867th person to watch an adorable eight-year-old girl called Amena playing with her pet, Eliza, on YouTube.

“She’s a little bit shy,” Amena giggles as Eliza snuggles into the crook of her arm, then changes her mind and starts to climb up her T-shirt.

Eliza has more hair on her legs than the entire Irish rugby team and only slightly fewer legs.

She is a Chilean rose-haired tarantula.

The fact that I can even look at a spider the size of a mini pizza crawling over another person is a miracle — five years ago, it was about as likely as George Clooney finally settling down with Kerry Katona, or Seamus Heaney turning up as a judge on ‘The X Factor‘.

For most of my life, I have been terrified of spiders.  Read on here http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/arachnophobia-3045755.html

A friend recommended Aisling Killoran, a hypnotherapist who treats all kinds of phobias. The most common are fears of driving, flying and public speaking, but she has treated people who are terrified of Barbie dolls and buttons.

Aisling used a combination of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), hypnosis and desensitisation technique to deal with my fear. This last bit turned out to mean huge rubber spiders.

EFT is a kind of psychological acupressure without needles. Aisling taught me to tap acupuncture points on my face and the chest while I remembered how scared I’d been in my kitchen.

She promised me that this would take the emotional charge out of the memory and I didn’t believe her for a second.

I made her promise to keep the rubber spiders in their box and, in between the tapping, I opened my eyes to check that she hadn’t cheated and taken them out.

By the second session, I was able to let her put them on the floor between us. And by the fourth and final session, I was able to put one on the back of my hand.

But a rubber spider is, well, made of rubber. What would happen when I met a real, live one?

Before I went to Aisling, just imagining that was enough to ring every alarm bell in my mind, but now I felt oddly calm.

A few weeks later, I came across a mammoth spider on the bathroom floor. Without even thinking, I picked up a toothbrush mug and popped it over him before either of us had a chance to leg it.

My husband released him when he got home. “How did it look?” I asked him. “Startled,” he said, looking kind of startled himself.

That was more than four years ago and I haven’t killed or maimed a single spider since.

If you would like to book an appointment to get rid of your fear or phobia once and for all then call either Ray Manning 087 6778049 or Aisling Killoran on 087 1352122 of Accomplish Change Clinic, you can also call us at 01-2986507

Source: Irish Independent – Lifestyle – Arachnophobia.     Well done Ella Griffin :-}

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Can hypnosis help with childbirth?

“Hypnobirthing” is growing in popularity around the world

Giving birth without pain medication or medical intervention is becoming more and more popular here in Ireland.

For years, we’ve heard about Lamaze and other techniques that help you get through the delivery. But now, a growing number of expectant mothers, including some celebrities, are trying hypnosis in preparation for achieving a relaxed safe birth within a shorter time frame.

Hypnobirthing is not new, it is the rediscovery of the philosophy of birthing as it existed decades ago and is based on the work of Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, an English obstetrician.

In Ireland it has been growing in popularity since 2000 as more women look for drug-free options to get through delivery.  You do not have to have a natural birth with no intervention; it’s about preparing you to make smart decisions, so no matter what happens by the time you give birth you know that you have done the best that you can do.

Who is it for?

Hypnobirthing is for women who are having healthy, normal pregnancies. It is designed for those who know that birthing can be a calm relaxed experience. It is also for women who are petrified of giving birth or who have previously had a traumatic birth and don’t want a repeat.

So how does it work?

It addresses and eliminates fears, stress, worries that both mums and dads might have around birthing, leaving you filled with an internal knowing that you are ready and looking forward to your birth.

When women are scared and fearful all the blood drains out of the uterus and it can’t function properly. Women are thought relaxation methods to go into deep states of relaxation so that their bodies can stay calm and relaxed which gives room for the uterus to function as it needs to so that baby can descend through a relaxed body.

What you experience is similar to daydreaming totally relaxed, aware, awake but fully in control, because you will have trained yourself to reach complete relaxation, you will be able to determine the degree to which you will feel the contractions. You get to experience birthing in an atmosphere of calm relaxation, free of the fear and tension that prevents the muscles of your body from functioning as nature intended them to.  In this calm state your body’s natural anaesthesia, endorphins, replaces the stress hormones that constrict and cause pain.

What is hypnosis?

Hypnosis as a “natural state” and we experience it on a daily basis.

“If you’ve ever been driving down the road and missed an exit because you were zoned out or you read a book and you get to the bottom of the page and you don’t know what you read — or watched a movie and felt absorbed by it , then your in hypnosis.”

What are the benefits of using Hypnosis for Birthing?

• Reduces the Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome before, during and after birthing.
• Reduces the need for chemical painkillers.
• Shortens the first stage of labour, by several hours. ( approx. 50% )
• Eliminates fatigue during labour, leaving mother fresh, awake, and with energy for actual birthing.
• Eliminates risk of hyperventilation from “shallow” breathing methods.
• Promotes special bonding of mother, baby and birthing companion.
• Promotes rapid postnatal recovery.
• Creates a more integral role for the birthing companion.
• Breathing techniques are really great for breast feeding

Source: Aisling Killoran one of the experts  from How healthy are you Tv 3

Want to learn more about using relaxed options for birthing

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Professor Karin Nader is a Neurobiological Scientist who featured in Discovery Science Magazine.

He reports in his studies that shows that we can actually re-write our memories. He hopes it means that people with PTSD ( Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) can cure themselves by editing their memories. He says that by altering remembered thoughts could also liberate people imprisioned by anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder.

Changing DNA Through Intention

In a study, researchers have tested this idea and proven its veracity. The power of intentional thoughts and emotions goes beyond theory at the Institute of HeartMath.

HeartMath researchers have gone so far as to show that physical aspects of DNA strands could be influenced by human intention. The article, Modulation of DNA Conformation by Heart-Focused Intention – McCraty, Atkinson, Tomasino, 2003 – describes experiments that achieved such results.

For example, an individual holding three DNA samples was directed to generate heart coherence – a beneficial state of mental, emotional and physical balance and harmony – with the aid of a HeartMath technique that utilizes heart breathing and intentional positive emotions. The individual succeeded, as instructed, to intentionally and simultaniously unwind two of the DNA samples to different extents and leave the third unchanged.

“The results provide experimental evidence to support the hypothesis that aspects of the DNA molecule can be altered through intentionality,” the article states. “The data indicate that when individuals are in a heart-focused, loving state and in a more coherent mode of physiological functioning, they have a greater ability to alter the conformation of DNA.

“Individuals capable of generating high ratios of heart coherence were able to alter DNA conformation according to their intention. … Control group participants showed low ratios of heart coherence and were unable to intentionally alter the conformation of DNA.”

Energy Psychology – is fast becoming popular in re-writing memories and erasing emotions safely by using EFT ( Emotional Freedom Techniques), EMDR (Eye Movement Desentisation Re-Processing ) TAT ( Tapas Acupressure Technique )

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Approximately there are 74,418 babies born in 2010

It is predicted that the number of births for 2011 will be  74,500

Caesarean section is now the most commonly performed major surgical procedure in this country.

The number of babies born by caesarean section last year was 26pc, up from 25.8pc.

It means around 19,372 babies were born through surgical means. which is  above the international target set by the World Health Organisation of between 10pc and 15pc. Like any major operation, it carries the risk of bleeding and infection, and the wound can also make it harder for a new mother to cope in the first few weeks following birth.

Reasons why are:

Women are having children later in life because they are concentrating more on careers.

Older women tend to experience more difficult first labours, some of whom inevitably require caesarean delivery.

Doctors have also pointed to a rise in obesity in many pregnant women which increases the chance of a caesarean delivery.

Women’s preference for caesarean section instead of natural birth and the rise in fertility treatment which increases the chances of having twins or triplets.

The caesarean section rate inDublins hospitals for 2009

Holles Street for was 19.8pc

Rotunda Hospital’s was 28.5pc

Coombe Hospital 1 in four mothers had a caesarean section

The main risks from a caesarean section include:

• Wound infection.
• A blood clot in the legs, which can be a risk if it lodges in the lungs.
• Bleeding.
• Damage to the bladder or the tube that connects the kidney and bladder, risking more surgery.

The most common problem for babies born by caesarean is breathing difficulties.

About 35 out of every 1,000 babies born this way have breathing problems after birth. This contrasts with five out of every 1,000 born naturally.

Source : Eilish O’Regan for more detail

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