Tag Archives: STL

My Takeaways from my Interview with Dr. Steve Terrell

For Therapists, Trauma Therapy, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Who is Steve?

I had the good fortune of getting to interview Dr. Steve Terrell, a leading expert in the field of developmental trauma.  He has performed more than 25,000 individual transforming touch sessions.  Steve has developed his own touch-based training called Transforming the Experience-Based Brain.  It’s a regulation based approach to working developmental trauma that he has taught to thousands of students from around the world.  And he is hosting one of these trainings in STL in Sept 2023!

He’s also still a practicing therapist in Texas at the Austin Attachment and Counseling Center in Austin, Texas. Steve has written two books.  One is called Nurturing Resilience, a book for therapists about helping clients move through developmental trauma that he wrote with Kathy Kain.  And the other is a new release called TEB LIKE 123, a book for parents and children that Steve coauthored with Shiri Sher.

Why Touch is Important in Healing Developmental Trauma

Touch has the power to heal even a very disorganized, nervous system.  It can be used as a regulation intervention at any age.  We never grow out of our need for touch.  Touch is one of the earliest forms of nurturing and regulation, starting from infancy.

Developmental trauma is anything that interrupts the development of the human from conception on.  Usually this shows up in a person’s behavior.

Shock Trauma vs. Developmental Trauma

Shock trauma is what we hear most about when we think of post-traumatic stress disorders.  It is when a traumatic event occurs and after that event your life is different.  With shock trauma often all we have is a memory of the event and the desire to return to life before the event.  There is a story, image, or narrative.

Conversely, in developmental trauma we don’t know what it was like before.  Often there is no memory of it.   Nobody has that information, so it’s like we’re working in the dark.  That’s why a therapist’s ability to hold space is so important. Being present and building trust in the relationship are key.  So is, letting go of the need to be the expert.

How to Work with Touch even in a Virtual Space

You can learn and work with touch intentionally using the same protocols that you would if you were in person.  The pandemic taught us that it actually works really well.

The Language of Touch

Before using physical touch it’s important to use collaborative language.  Instead of, I’m gonna do this to you. We are gonna do this. We are going to allow this to expression.  Co-regulation can only happen through collaboration and only in the context of safety.

For Body Workers

It is important to keep in mind that you can listen no matter how you’re trained. It doesn’t matter what school you went to. Massage and body workers oftentimes feel like they’re not doing enough. They want their client to leave happy. They want them to leave like “oh, that really felt good”.  I really try to get a release of some kind.  Your client doesn’t need to feel great when they’re done. What you want to say is “I’m going to support you even if you feel bad.”  That’s the goal.  You don’t need to fix anybody.

How  the Transforming the Experienced-Based Brain (TEB) training works

There are three modules that build on each other.  Each takes three and a half days.  All the lectures are pre-recorded and on online.  You get to view them 30 days before the in-person training.  After viewing the videos, you can ask questions at the in-person training which is hands-on learning.  Throughout the training, 6-7 interventions are gonna be taught to you. So you’re gonna get at least that many times on the table as the client and as the therapist or practitioner, and as an observer.  Each day we’re doing an enhancement or a piece of work. We explain why this is a regulation focused intervention and why it’s important.  Each module you are given plenty of time to ask questions and process as a group.  It’s an intense and rich three and a half days of training.

Post-Training Perks

After the first module, Steve or Robin Sullivan (lead assistant) gives a free online consultation every Thursday morning.  Anyone who’s finished module one can join.  Usually around 65 to 75 show up.  This is followed by a 45 minute guided healing process. You will be guided through the protocol and enhancements.  Every Tuesday at 1:00 CST Ellen Keating does a weekend review and she goes into a different enhancement and how to work with those enhancements. And that’s free as well.  Also, there is a 50% discount should you decide to retake the training.

Resources:

Austin Attachment and Counseling Center

Nurturing Resilience by Steve Terrell and Kathy Kain

TEB LIKE 123

TEB training in STL

Scholarships are available for those who qualify

Dance of Change Counseling

6 Principles of Healing Developmental Trauma using Touch

 

 

 

6 Principles of Healing Developmental Trauma Using Touch

For Therapists, Trauma Therapy, , , , , ,

Treating early developmental trauma can be a complex and challenging task for even the most skilled therapists. As healers, we often feel the pressure to quickly fix our clients’ complex problems. This is especially true when they have sought our services after having visited multiple providers before us, often to mixed results. However, developmental trauma is a tricky nut to crack, and healing it requires a different approach.  This is where somatic therapy comes in.  Understanding the underlying causes and patterns of developmental trauma is crucial. Developmental trauma is often a result of childhood experiences that can shape a person’s behavior and emotional regulation. It can lead to a variety of symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and dissociation.

How developmental trauma happens

Developmental trauma occurs when a child experiences a lack of nurturing, support, and protection during crucial stages of their development. This can lead to patterns of behavior and emotional disturbances on the nervous system level that can be difficult to identify and treat. It can affect all aspects of a person’s well being. From their physical and mental health, to their ability to form healthy relationships or attachments with others. Touch therapy, also known as somatic touch therapy, has been shown to help clients with developmental trauma to regulate their nervous system, process emotions, and build healthy relationships.

 

Why somatic touch therapy is helpful for healing early trauma

Studies have shown that somatic touch therapy can be an effective way to help clients with developmental trauma to regulate their nervous system. Developmental trauma can lead to disorganization of the nervous system, making it difficult for clients to manage their emotions and responses to stress. Research has shown that somatic touch therapy can help to reduce stress and promote relaxation, which can help to regulate the nervous system and improve emotional regulation.

Developmental trauma can lead to a variety of emotions, such as anger, fear, and shame, that can be difficult to process and manage. Often clients spend a lot of time just managing symptoms. Somatic touch therapy can help clients go beyond simply symptom management by allowing them to access and process these emotions & physical reactions in a safe and supportive way. In some cases, the symptoms are greatly diminished or may even become a non-issue over time.

The 6 core principles for healing early trauma using touch

That said, healing developmental trauma is definitely not easy. There are many programs out there to help both therapists and clients in this endeavor. But not all programs and practices are helpful. Here are a few practices and principles that I think are really essential for healing developmental trauma.

1. Practice Healthy Separation

Learn to identify what’s happening in your own body-mind experience as separate from your client’s. The tendency to merge with a client’s experience is real. And often it can lead to therapist burn out. This is especially true if you do any hands on work. You can easily get sucked into a client’s energy field and trauma material. On the other end of the spectrum you also don’t want to have overly rigid boundaries. Some healers, in attempt not to merge with clients will hold back too much. Not touching, responding to or having compassion for clients are just some examples.

2. Lay a Strong Somatic Foundation for Touch Work to Happen.

Somatic touch therapy can be a direct and extremely effective way to help clients                     with developmental trauma to heal. And it is considered an advanced skill. That’s                     why you should have a strong foundation in somatic work before attempting to use                 touch to heal this type of deep trauma. There are a few basic somatic therapy                             training programs I really like for this kind of foundational work. One program is                       Somatic Experiencing another is Pat Ogden’s work.

It’s important that you, as a therapist, get solid training and awareness of boundaries of self and others in order to provide sensitivity and respect for a client’s boundaries. Some clients with developmental trauma may have a history of physical or sexual abuse, and touch therapy may trigger traumatic memories or feelings of discomfort. Also if a client has never experienced a healthy boundary before they may become confused. Clients may have a tendency either to blur boundaries or to have overly rigid ones or some of both. That is why it is essential to create a safe and supportive environment as a foundation for touch therapy

3. Get Tools to Help you Stay Grounded, Regulated and Clear in the Midst of the Chaos.

Developmental trauma can lead to a variety of emotions, such as anger, fear, and shame in the client that can be difficult to process and manage. And that’s just the mental health side of it. Often there are a constellation of physical symptoms as well that are some times changeable. Clients often come in understandably overwhelmed and with a lot of confusing symptoms that can also lead to overwhelm for the therapist too.  Touch therapy can help a client access and process these emotions in a safe and supportive environment. But they can only do that if the therapist is relatively present and grounded.

4. Learn to See the REAL Nervous System Pattern that’s Underlying all those Confusing Symptoms BEFORE you Intervene.

Often there’s an underlying nervous system pattern that’s really running the show.  The truth is that when it comes to trauma, looks can be deceiving. And if we jump too soon for an intervention in order to relieve our client as quickly as possible ( which, let’s face it, many of us do) we end up missing the mark. This leads to spending too much time and energy throwing intervention after intervention into the trauma fire to little or no effect (at best), or worse, we end up making things worse. Why? Because in our rush, we failed to see what was TRULY going on in our nervous system and theirs. In other words, we didn’t take enough time with the assessment of the two bodies in the room before we intervened.

I don’t want that for you, or your client. What I’d like is for your to feel confident enough in your own regulation to actually see clearly. And from that clear seeing, to be able to know exactly when to intervene and also why.

5. Learn to Undo the Many Double Binds on a  Nervous System Level.

Because early trauma is by its nature a relational trauma, often many double binds exist for the client. Those double binds make up part of the overall pattern of disorganization in a client’s nervous system.

A double bind is a situation in which a person is faced with two conflicting options or expectations. In the context of developmental trauma, double binds can arise when a caregiver is perceived as unpredictable or inconsistent in their behavior towards a child. For example, a child may feel two seemingly opposite reactions towards their caregiver at once: the impulse to go towards that parent for protection and away from the parent out of fear. These conflicting emotions can create a sense of confusion and helplessness that can be difficult to overcome without therapeutic intervention.

This is why adult survivors of developmental trauma can  find it difficult to form healthy relationships with others in their present life. They have so many double binds when it comes to relationship. Touch therapy can help people process these double binds and also learn how to establish healthy boundaries, communicate effectively, and build relationships based on mutual trust, respect and safety.

6. Enjoy the Connection

Yes, trauma healing can be hard work, but it can be deeply rewarding too, both for client and therapist. Not enough people are talking about this side of it. Perhaps we are embarrassed to admit we all have this basic human need that gets easily overlooked, even in healing circles. But trauma healing after all is about restoring connection, maybe even for the first time. And that is a reason to celebrate!

Jump Private Practice

Need help putting these principles into hands-on practice? Join us!

Whether you want more confidence in working with difficult cases of complex trauma, or you are interested in healing your own trauma or both, there is help and support for you!

Please consider joining us for Steve Terrell’s training on how to use touch skills for healing the effects of early developmental trauma. It’s called: Transforming the Experienced Based Brain (TEB). If you are in or near Saint Louis the place to go is here. If you are in another part of the country or world you can go here. In this training you will learn how to see, feel and treat developmental or attachment trauma. Knowing the how, why and what to do in a hands on, supportive environment, makes a huge difference. Hope to see you there!

Chronic Pain Relief Guide

Body-Mind Medicine, , ,

Chronic Pain Chronic Pain Relief Guide:

8 Essential Practices you need to live pain-free.

Are you part of the 20% of  people living with chronic pain? If so, you are in good company. It’s estimated that more than 1 in 5 Americans suffer from chronic pain. What’s worse many doctors may feel at a loss about how to help pain suffers, other than to prescribe more medication. For some, medication offers some needed temporary relief. For others, the side effects can be just as bad as the pain itself. Its seems that many solutions are often temporary or may not work at all. This can add to the sense of overwhelm, fear and exhaustion that is already part of the pain experience.

Health care: where we are now

Let’s face it, the pandemic hasn’t made things any easier. With long-haul COVID reported in anywhere from 15-50% of cases, it’s likely that many millions of people worldwide will be suffering from chronic pain. And with chronic pain often comes grief, depression, trauma and anxiety.  It doesn’t help that our current  healthcare system is already stretched to its limits.  Many folks can alternate between hopelessness and desperation when it comes to getting help.

This guide was designed to give you a window into another way. Both another way to think about your pain and another way to deal with it. That way involves a body oriented, holistic approach. I know! You likely feel you’ve tried that already. Perhaps you’ve done acupuncture, herbs, over the counter medicines, prescription medicines, maybe you’ve even tried meditation. That’s all good. But let’s explore for minute what might be at the source of the pain for a moment.

The Pain Dance

Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing and author of Freedom from Chronic Pain, has this to say “Since pain comes from the body, we abandon and leave our bodies behind. In that way we betray our bodies.” But many people also feel betrayed by their bodies and so it’s easy to abandon them in the first place. It can feel like a vicious cycle .

So the purpose of this guide is to help you gradually think about how you can build trust with your body. Once you have even a little bit of trust with your body you start to befriend it. Befriending you body is the essential first step in beginning to free your self from the pain dance. The challenge is to befriend your body even when it feels bad.  This is not an easy task. But like learning anything new, befriending your body gets easier over time. It’s like a muscle that gets stronger the more you use it.

1. Befriend Your Body, Shift the Chronic Pain Dance

    1. Identify a pain free or less pain place within your body.
    2. Pendulate between a place of no pain or less pain ( hold your awareness there for 5-10 seconds). Bring your attention to a moderate pain point – not the most painful spot ( hold your focus there for 5-10). Bring your focus back to the experience of no/less pain ( hold focus for 5-10 seconds). Rest.

Do this during your free time at your own pace.

The more you can identify sensations, the richer your relationship with your body.

Let it go on the exhale

  1. Bring attention to a pain free part of the body. Sense into it as you breath in. Let it go as you breath out.
  2. What are you finding now in your body that you didn’t notice? ( no right or wrong answer here). There is only your way. And that way is always changing because you are always changing.

“““

2. Flow of Breath

I often invite people to explore breath flow in their body. Chronic pain suffers are often also shallow breathers. Or you may be more of a breath holder. Either way, both breathing patterns can create a sense of constriction in the body, which can aggravate pain. The following is a mindfulness practice using the breath.

To practice, do this now:

Take some time to sense your breath in your body. You are looking for areas that  feel OK,  relatively OK, as well as areas of discomfort. In addition to chronic pain, you might also notice parts of you that feel numb or disconnected. Now begin to notice the felt sense of right side of your body. Compare this to your breath. Is there a difference? Often there is. See if you can get clear on that difference. Usually, it’s a difference of quality or texture. Maybe one feels heavy and another light. Perhaps one feels tingly and the other calm. What ever that difference is see if you can hold both in your minds eye for at least 10 seconds. Breathe.

Now let’s do the same on the left side. Is there one side of your body that’s more comfortable than the other? See if you can use the language of sensation ( hot/cold, heavy/light etc) to sense that difference from the inside. Imagine you can breath in through and up the more comfortable side of your body. Starting up through your foot, to the center of your breathing, your belly. Sense your breath crossing up through your body and as you exhale, cross over. Feel your breath moving down and through and out through the other leg, through the center of the breath

Breath + Image

Imagine for a minute that your breath is a magnet that can pick up more comfortable sensations. What sensations would it pick up? Warmth? Coolness? Calm or ease? Pulsation or stillness? Take your time to imagine this now. As you breath in the breath picks up the comfortable sensation. Then, as you exhale visualize  bringing those more comfortable experiences into your body. You can either see these sensations move down from the top of your head to the rest of your body. Or  you can see them traveling up through your feet to your leg.  Pause and see what’s different in your body. No rush here.

When there’s flow in our bodies, we don’t experience the pain as much, and sometimes not at all. Flow is the opposite of the pain state.  Where there is a sense of flow there is no pain.

 

For back discomfort: Imagine, as you inhale, breathing from the base of the pelvis up to the mid line.  Imagine coming all the way up to top of head.  Feel your spine naturally lengthening. As you exhale, imagine your breath down through your low back and out your mid line. What’s different? What’s the same?

 

3. From Chronic Pain to Deep Rest 

Start at your head or your feet. Take a journey up or down your body and find places of respite or rest from your pain. Pay particular attention to parts of your body you can’t feel. Now go up to your legs and pay attention to areas where you tend to connect and also where you tend to disconnect.  Move up or down the body gradually.  Take a few moments to use your breath and sense your way into the numb and disconnected places you have found.  Breathing in, feel the numb or disconnected parts of your body. And now do the same breathing out.

What’s different? Are there ways you feel more connected?  Is your sense of pain different?

Chronic Pain

4. Touch  Ground to Ease Pain

There often exist a connection between trauma and physical pain. If this true for you, than you already know that spending too much time in your body can sometimes feel like too much.  This next exercise may be helpful. The goal is to fine safety in your physical environment, but also in a neutral body part, like your feet. If your feet are the primary source of pain for you than choose a different body part such as your hands. Assuming your feet are a neutral place than let’s begin there.

You can do this in a standing, sitting or laying down position, though sitting is better. Notice how each of your feet contact the ground. Allow your feet to become wider as you breath. Notice the ground support you from the bottom up.

Gently shift your weight more onto your left foot. Shift your weight ever so slightly so there’s a little more weight on your right foot, subtly shift back and forth.  As you do this a few times you’ll probably notice a rhythm emerge. Allow your body wants to continue to go from one side to another. Remember to stop and rest if your get tired or dizzy. Enjoy this sense of rhythm and flow.

5. Simple Breath 

Follow the flow of breath as it moves and it moves out again. Notice what changes in your body with that one simple cycle. What a changes in your pain? Try another breath, like waves on the beach. What changes next time?

Explore Sound:

Sound can open and create vibrations in the organs and in the belly.  Expression through sound can also send new signals to the body and brain that may have been shut down due to stress.  When you make a sound you stimulate the vagus nerve which helps signal relaxation and also social engagement. You also open up the chest, throat, and lungs. It’s also a great way to help to  self regulate.

Voo Sound. This is both a sound exercise, as well as a breathing  breathing practice. To get a sense of how this works you might first watch this video.  Feel the vibrations that are created in your belly. Imagine a fog horn. Enlivens our viscera while creating an optimum balance of carbon dioxide in the blood. Getting down deep to the very reptile part of our brain can shift your relationship to the chronic pain dramatically. But it takes some time! Do this as much as you want. At least 3x a day especially when you notice your chronic pain increase or you start to feel stressed.

6. Shift Your  Posture=decrease chronic pain

A combination of life habits and trauma can have an impact on your posture. That posture can then reinforce chronic pain patterns. Mane people get stuck either in a bracing pattern or a posture of collapse. The goal here is to shift out of these patterns to a neutral posture.  Bracing posture is often characterized by tightness or rigidity through the spine and limbs. When you are in a collapsed posture, your shoulders curl forward and there is weakness in the belly.

Practice:

Feel strength in your legs. Push down into your feet. Notice vertebrae by vertebrae how your spine starts to strengthen and lengthen. Notice how the strength in your legs starts to move up into your spine and how the shoulders begin to rest open into a more even position. Imagine a tiny string attached to the top of your head. And as you feel the string pulling you up to the sky, feel your spine elongating. Feel your head floating and moving toward the sky. Notice what happens to the feelings of helplessness and collapse. As you feel the strength, the feelings of helplessness and collapse disappear. Practice times several times throughout the day. Whenever we feel triggered by feelings of helplessness, notice the collapse in your body and the strength

Move a little bit into the familiar collapse posture, then move out. Notice your spine elongate again. Your breath now has more room to move. Feel the strength in your feet and also the length of the spine. Imagine your head as though it were a balloon. The balloon is light and lifting upwards. yet, your feet still keep you connected to the ground. See if you can sense both. Note what happens to your pain when you create this much space in your torso.

7. Notice Exceptions to Chronic Pain

When your pain is at it’s worse it’s easy to fixate on it. That’s understandable but not helpful. the problem is that your brain can easily get into a habit of fixation. This can actually amplify your experience of the pain and make it feel more chronic. To counteract this, it helps to notice exceptions. For many people this is hard to do! You’re not alone if you struggle with this exercise. The brain’s natural negativity bias is partly to blame. But you can change it!

Practice:

Try answering the following questions:

When in the past days or week have you felt less chronic pain?

When in the past day or week have you felt less anxious?

Are there any times in the past week to two weeks when you felt most like yourself?

Can you feel what happens in your body as you recall this experience? Take your time. This is what the late Dr. Maggie Phillips called the conflict free moment.

8. Explore Your Fight Response

Many of us have an unhealthy relationship with anger. It’s one of the strongest and hardest emotions to navigate. Anger can get triggered for any reason, but it often gets triggered in our most intimate relationships with partners, friends, kids and family. Some people express anger too much, and it can become almost like an addiction. Others do not express it enough. Regardless of where you fall on the anger spectrum,  anger, like any emotions can get stuck. Especially, for chronic pain suffers. When anger gets stuck it is often held in the body. When that happens it’s often helpful to explore your fight response. By exploring you fight response you can gently begin to release it.

Practice:

Imagine you are your favorite wild animal. Picture in your mind’s eye what that animal looks like. See it’s face and body. Notice how it walks, whether it makes noise or not. Now, step into the body of the animal. Feel the strength and power of this animal in your body. How does this animal see, move, taste or smell? What’s different about this experience compared to your own?

Now, pretend that an equally powerful animal is entering your territory. They are coming closer. Remember, this is YOUR territory and it’s your job to defend it. If you notice your body moving into fear, retreat or collapse, then stop. Go back and imagine the animal again. Take time to feel the power in your own body and also your connection to the ground. This may be enough for now.

You can go back to explore the fight response again whenever you are ready.  Practice feeling the determination to protect and fight back. Remember, this is not about anybody getting hurt. It’s about simply practicing a natural nervous system defense. You may start to feel yourself prepare for action. Notice the strength in your arms and legs. Feel the readiness in your torso. How long are you able to stay with this strength? Stay with this experience as long as possible until it begins to naturally shift.

Want some guidance with these practices?

Connect with a highly trained Somatic Therapist or Yoga Therapist by contacting our office.

Book your appointment now.

We are located in St Louis, Missouri and serve people in the following communities: Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Crestwood, Maplewood, Brentwood, Rockhill, Richmond Heights, Clayton, Shrewsbury, Lindenwood, Ladue, Central West End and the surrounding areas.

Give us a call at: (314) 827-5448 or email us at admin@danceofchange.com

We offer in person sessions in our office in Saint Louis, MO in Webster Groves as well as video (Telehealth) session for anyone located in the state of Missouri.