SRT - Self Regulation TherapySRT was developed by Clinical Psychologists Drs. Lynne Zettl and Ed Josephs, based on the latest neuroscience research. It is the most effective therapy I know of for relieving uncomfortable or painful emotional and /or physical symptoms. Treatment leaves you feeling better able to handle day to day stresses.
Drs. Zettl and Josephs live in British Columbia but teach throughout North America, Europe, and Russia. They have established a non-profit organization, Canadian Association for Trauma Research and Education (CFTRE), with the purpose of providing education and research in the treatment of traumatic conditions. They also provide training courses to counsellors and psychotherapists. You can learn more at their website:
www.cftre.com
Symptoms relieved by SRT
When we are threatened by danger, big or small, our brain instantly floods our nervous system with hormones such as adrenalin and cortisol, and our bodies respond in one of three ways: fight, flight or freeze. When the crisis is over, this excessive arousal needs to be discharged from our body by reactions such as shaking, quivering, crying, yelling, until our system has returned to a normal level of activation. When we do not sufficiently discharge the stimulation triggered by these scarey or alarming events, they leave an imprint on our autonomic nervous system (ANS). Our culture does not support ‘quivering and crying' - we approve of having a stiff upper lip - and therefore the excess traumatic energy is stored in our bodies where it builds over time until we have an overflowing ‘container'. This means one little incident may tip us over the edge and we have a huge overreaction. Meanwhile, we have been easily over-stimulated, perhaps quick to anger and impatience, and generally feeling low levels of anxiety or perhaps depression. We have lost our capacity for being resilient in the face of adversity and cannot maintain emotional stability. SRT reduces this excess energy charge by working gently and carefully with body sensations, which are the language of our autonomic nervous system. This is done with client and therapist each sitting comfortably in their chairs. There is no touching and no need to retell traumatic events.
Further Information The following two articles refer to aspects of Self Regulation Therapy. I wrote them for my column which appears weekly in eighteen newspapers in Canada.
First Aid for Your Nervous System Sixteen year old Sonia and her friends are having a ball. At dusk on a July evening, they are whooping through the new community playground, deserted by the younger kids an hour before. Sonia shouts joyfully from her stance on the highest railing, seconds before losing her balance and tumbling backwards onto the unyielding sand. "Are you okay, are you okay?" voices float around Sonia who has knocked the wind out of herself. "Don't move," commands Kathy, who teaches swimming and knows first aid. The subdued teens cluster around as Kathy takes charge, kneeling beside Sonia who is stunned and gasping for breath. Ryan shouts "I'll get my Mom. She's a nurse," and he races across the grass to his house a block away. Sonia's breath starts to normalize, and Kathy asks her what she feels. "I can't tell what I feel." Everyone starts talking excitedly, until Kathy interrupts and asks again how Sonia is feeling, telling her not to move anything but her fingers and toes. Sonia wiggles her fingers and toes and suggests she sit up, but Kathy insists she continue to lie still on the sand. Ryan's Mom, Barb, arrives in few minutes with a blanket she grabbed off the couch on her way out the door. She tucks the blanket around Sonia, praises Kathy for her quick-thinking, and checks Sonia over carefully. Barb assures Sonia she seems to be okay, and allows her to sit up and lean against a post, but suggests they wait a few minutes to allow her system to recover from the shock. "Oh my gosh, what's happening," Sonia gasps, "I'm shaking like a leaf." Barb reassures her everything is happening as it should, and explains she will have trembles and twitches for a few minutes. "Have you ever seen a video of a polar bear that's been pursued by a helicopter and tranquillized by a dart? When the anaesthetic starts to wear off, the bear starts to twitch and tremble, its way of releasing the stressful energy of life-threatening fear. After a few minutes, it is able to walk away with no apparent negative effects." Barb explains that Sonia's nervous system would have released a full load of ‘fight or flight' chemicals the second it realized she was falling. "Our brain doesn't wait to see how bad it is. It instantly gives you an amazing amount of energy to defend yourself . This trembling is your body's way of discharging that energy so it doesn't stay locked in your nervous system and contribute to future symptoms." Sonia trembles and twitches for a few minutes and then says she feels calm. Her heart rate and breathing are back to normal, and Barb allows her stand and walk around. Meanwhile her parents arrive, and Sonia leaves with them to go home.
If you are interested in learning more about the accumulative effects of undischarged energy on our nervous system, read Dr Peter Levine's book , Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, the Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences.
It's Better if You ‘Pronk' Wham! A crumpled bicycle crashes against a lamppost as a red-haired cyclist sprawls over the hood of the shiny black sedan which has just screeched to a halt. Katie, the 33 year old cyclist explained, "I thought I was dead for sure, but I only had a few scrapes so I called my husband, and he dropped me off at work. My bike was a write-off, but I seemed to be fine. Soon after though, I started to feel jumpy and nervous. The accident was eight months ago and I'm tired of feeling tense and hyper all the time." Katie's experience was sudden, unexpected, and life-threatening, creating a feeling of helplessness and loss of control: in other words, a trauma. Recent research confirms that feelings such as overwhelming fear and a ‘maybe this is it' experience, create powerful changes which can become locked in our nervous systems. This locked-in energy alters our relationships, our moods, our health, in fact, everything. To maintain a healthy quality of life, we need to discharge this stored energy. Ideally Katie would have allowed herself to shake, tremble, cry, quiver, yell, talk about it, collapse, or rest, in order to discharge the shock energy. Pronking Animals discharge naturally. For example, a deer that has outrun a cougar, seems to celebrate by making long high graceful leaps. This is called ‘pronking', and is her way of discharging her ‘fight or flight' chemicals and calming her system. Humans do not do this as naturally as animals. In fact, we take pride, as Katie did, in dusting ourselves off as quickly as possible and carrying on as if our nervous system has not been impacted A key to understanding the effects of trauma is that trauma is stored in our nervous system. This explains why similar symptoms can result from quite different traumas. For example, Katie's symptoms (jumpy, nervous, hyper vigilant) were caused by a bike accident, but similar symptoms could also be caused by rape, war or even medical or dental experiences. People can heal from trauma, and a new kind of therapy called SRT (Self Regulation Therapy) uses the best and newest scientific research to release the after-effects of traumatic experiences which have left our systems ‘dysregulated'. Even everyday experiences such as disappointments, minor falls, or disagreements are stored in our nervous systems, and can affect us later, often without our even realizing it. Typical symptoms are anxiety, depression, panic attacks, sleeplessness, chronic fatigue, headaches, neck and back pain, and more. Katie liked SRT because, unlike other kinds of psychotherapy, she did not need to talk about the accident. SRT uses attention to bodily sensations and the unresolved trauma is transformed as the stored energy is gently discharged. After SRT therapy, Kate reported feeling safer and more calm inside, and her husband told her she was a lot easier to live with. She even started riding her bike to work again.
Self Regulation Therapy (SRT) was created by Canadians Dr Ed Josephs and Dr Lynne Zettl to treat traumatic conditions using the latest neuroscience research. They conduct research and have established international training groups. For more information go to
www.cftre.com |
