A page particularly for those new to this area. Healing is both an individual and a collaborative experience, so personal exploration and suggestions/feedback are encouraged. It all starts with the Breath: Many cultures have breath work techniques for regulation. Here are some pranayamas from yogic traditions (lots of videos are available online):
‘Vu’: Somatic Experiencing Founder Peter Levine’s vagal nerve regulating sound, not dissimilar to ‘Ohm’
We are ultimately aiming for a regular, unconcious pattern of 'pelvic floor' breathing - where the respiratory diaphragm is in coordination with the pelvic one, indicating that the organs and connective tissue of the whole torso are integrated. Other ANS/immune/inflammation stabilisation/exploration techniques/practices/practitioners: Accupuncture Alexander Technique Art Therapy Clinical Somatics (Hanna tradition) Craniosacral therapies Dance/embodied mediation such as 5 Rhythms or Open Floor Emotional acting Equine therapy Feldenkrais Floatation (magnesium based) Low Intensity Vibration therapy Massage (intuitive/trauma informed) Meditation (embodied) Mindfulness (embodied) Music/Sound therapy Pulsed Electromagnetic Field therapy Qi Gong Red and near-Infra red light therapy Rolfing Singing (particularly group singing) T’ai Chi Yoga (trauma informed)/ e.g Yin Books/TEDs/other links of particular relevance to identity/esteem and ANS/emotional stabilisation work: ADD/ADHD (high-functioning): Gabor Maté Scattered Ceremony (the importance/power of): Charles Eisenstein Every Act a Cermony Coping Strategies: Siobhan Reddel (podcast) Coping Strategies Emotions and exercises: Karen McClaren The Language of Emotions Illness as an expression of disconnection/'dis-ease': Yolande Lucire Constructing RSI: Belief and Desire Erwin van Meekeren Starry Starry Night: Life and psychiatric history of Vincent van Gogh Memory (and brain/body lateralisation) Michael Levin and Iain McGhilchrist in conversation. Perspective/self exploration (and delusion)/connection with self: Tony Moore Cry of the damaged man. (An Australian surgeon’s autobiographical account of recovering from trauma.) Philip Shepherd Radical Wholeness Bronnie Ware The Top Five Regrets of the Dying Mary Westmacott (Any of the novels by Agatha Christie writing under a pseudonym around the period of her own existential crisis / fugue state.) Shame: Traumatic Stress Institute Shame and attachment Siobhan Reddel On Shame in Modern Society and Medicine Trauma Bonds: Patrick J Carnes The Betrayal Bond Brenda Schaeffer Is it Love or is it Addiction? 3rd Ed. Trauma (physiology) specifically: Peter Levine In an Unspoken Voice Trauma and Memory Waking the Tiger Bessel Van der Kolk The Body Keeps the Score Vulnerability: Brene Brown (TED talk) The Power of Vulnerability |