Drop the mental baggage. Work with your body

In Psychology and many other methods there is a huge misconception and disconnection between mind/body/emotions. 

I agree that cognitive approaches, sense-making and rewriting narratives can be very helpful tools, but most of these tools exclude the oldest parts of the brain and the rest of the body. 

The Prefrontal cortex (where sense making happens) is a much newer part of the brain compared to the reptilian and the Limbic system. So when we are in talk therapy analysing stories and working towards goals, we are using the Prefrontal cortex. This is the conscious part of the brain, but the root of the unwanted behaviours is in the older parts of the brain and in the nervous system. 

This is the reason why repeating old stories and making sense of them in talk therapy often doesn’t produce long lasting results. In fact, repeating old traumatic stories activates the autonomic nervous system without providing the space for the necessary processing of residual stress. 

The solution to this issue is the introduction of the right tools to help the nervous system to discharge and integrate the experiences. 

That’s why Somatic experiencing (SE) was the only method that worked for me personally and that’s why in my practice I have chosen SE as the golden standard method for the work I do. It helps discharge residual stress and to reorganise the nervous system. It doesn’t leave the mind and logic out of the equation either, but the meaning, memories and images come up naturally as we access the body. 

The body needs to be included in the healing. 
It’s not your mind. 
It’s your nervous system that is reactive.