When your clients can't visualize
Energy workers and healers already know that cognitive techniques don’t work for everyone. This is particularly true for some neurodivergent clients and people whose brains have been changed by trauma.
We’ve all had clients who’ve struggled with visualization exercises. If you’re anything like me (or most practitioners!), you probably thought it was your fault that it didn’t work for them.
Maybe you felt your skillset was somehow lacking when you couldn’t help them? When you took them through your usually effective visualization process, did it feel awkward – even forced?
Often, accessing imaginal states and curiosity is challenging for people whose brains have been impacted by early trauma. (It doesn't mean they can't do it, but other neuronal pathways might fire more rapidly.) Neurodivergent people may need a different way to access creative states - they may already know how (ask them).
Let’s Start with Some Brain Basics
The brain's neural pathways to happiness, wealth, satiety, and pleasure are formed by the experiences an individual has had in their life. Different life experiences mean brains function uniquely.
If your client has trauma rooted in early childhood experiences (likely to impact on critical stages of neurological and nervous system development), then methods that access conscious thought via the brain’s cortex (the thinking and analysing part of the brain) are often only partially effective.
That's because people with early trauma have an over-conditioned amygdala which sets off an alarm whenever stress chemistry is present – even if it is ‘good’ stress that comes from excitement or novelty, and in some cases, even when there is no obvious stressor at all. The amygdala’s job is to set off an early warning signal so that the body can react accordingly when in situations that could present a survival threat; however, people with early trauma experience an almost constant state of ‘alarm/early warning’, even when there is no environmental need for it.
Visualizing can be hard for some neurodivergent people
Mobilising Self-Protective Defences
If the trauma happened at an early age (before arms and legs were able to respond), the person was unable to mobilise physical defences (e.g., running away, hitting, striking out). If the person experienced ongoing, repeated threats from an early age and were unable to defend themselves, their only response would be to use their mind to escape danger.
Thereafter, whenever that person thought about assessing danger and finding safety, their neural pathways etched deeper neural grooves directly to the neo-cortex to ‘think’ their way out of the problem (instead of mobilising their physical resources to get away from the problem).
This means that someone with frequent experiences of overwhelming stress in their childhood is particularly effective at thinking and analysing, and they default to this strategy to escape from stressful situations.
In the face of overwhelming threat, this person will freeze or respond ineffectually. Their brain and body will shut down because there is no neural learning of mobilising a bodily response to defend against threat.
People with developmental trauma (also known as ‘complex trauma’, ‘C-PTSD’ or ‘relational trauma’), have practised over-riding their internal alarm that goes off whenever they are around other people so they can have the social connection they simultaneously crave and fear. They try to over-ride their instinctual fear by diverting neural resources to the neo-cortex, which sadly sets them up for anxiety disorders and panic attacks down the line.
On the flip side, adults who have survived childhood trauma are incredibly adaptive and creative – they are able to problem-solve like none other. Many can creatively problem-solve at lightning speed. For some, it's not even a conscious process – their minds easily find the shortest route to the most innovative solutions.
The other thing many trauma survivors know how to do well is to get out of situations that don't feel good to them; and if doing a visualisation or imaginal exercise doesn't feel good, they will find creative ways to avoid it – even constructing what looks like self-sabotage when it's actually a survival strategy.
The good news for practitioners is that the body doesn't lie. Implementing somatic techniques to help your clients bypass their rational mind will empower you to assist even your most stuck clients meet their goals for change. This is exactly what students learn in the R.E.S.T. Relational Embodiment Somatic Therapy™ somatic experiencing practitioner training.
They learn ways of holding a contained space and non-judgmentally welcoming the expression of their client’s whole self to help them sense that you are safe enough. A practitioner who can let go of their agenda to ‘help’ their client or their need to help their client feel safe, will create the necessary conditions of safety (and consequently be more helpful).
Without safety, the client cannot work. Recognising that the real ‘work’ is embedded in the relationship between the practitioner and the client is the most important thing to bring attention and presence to when facilitating transformation.
Read more about working with clients here.
Become a qualified R.E.S.T. Relational Embodiment Somatic Trauma® therapist with my somatic therapy courses.
We are now accepting applications for the second round of R.E.S.T. Relational Embodiment Somatic Therapy® Practitioner Training – request the prospectus and get your somatic therapy certification.
Sign up for R.E.S.T.® by July 31st, 2023, you’ll receive a bonus 1:1 session. You’ll also be able to upgrade to VIP and receive additional 1:1 sessions at a subsidised rate so you can start your journey straight away.
These 1:1 sessions are hugely transformational and can lead to significant breakthroughs – we can talk about this more when you book a call with me to discuss your participation in the training.
The call is your opportunity to ‘feel’ me out, ask questions and better understand how this program can open the way into something bigger, deeper, greater in your practitioner journey. There will be no selling from me - just honest conversation and generous sharing to help you on your way.
Or if you’re not quite ready to chat yet, start here to find out more.