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Resourcing"Resourcing" is a term that may be defined as creating and deepening coping skills. The goal is to increase both emotional regulation and affect tolerance. Resourcing is a combination of guided imagery, restorative and gentle yoga poses, resource tapping and the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). The clinician focuses on client's present issues and feelings, and co-creates guided imagery and affirmations, using slow bilateral tapping and EFT to both create and strengthen adaptive neural networks. Using a restorative yoga pose as the context for the above allows for the nervous system to settle into a parasympathetic state, creating receptivity to experience and deepen this variety of coping tools.
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Emotional Freedom Technique. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) consists of self-administered tapping of acupressure points. It can be used to both acknowledge and reduce the intensity of negative emotions, and/or to strengthen positive thoughts, beliefs or goals. Multiple research experiments provide evidence for the reduction in cortisol, a biological marker of stress. Elevated cortisol levels are also associated with physical conditions such as impaired immune system function, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and accelerated aging, as well as psychological distress. EFT can be effective in 4-10 sessions for veterans with PTSD.
Guided Imagery/Resource Tapping. Laura Parnell (2008), a researcher and EMDR therapist, focuses on attachment-related trauma, and resourcing is used to develop a peaceful/safe place and other guided imagery, which fill needs that were neglected in early development. Parnell uses the slow bilateral stimulation (BLS) from the EMDR protocol to stimulate the neural network in a way that is physiologically calming and reinforcing. “Guided imagery is a form of deliberate, directed daydreaming - a purposeful use of the imagination, using words and phrases designed to evoke rich, multisensory fantasy and memory, in order to create a deeply immersive, receptive mind-state that is ideal for catalyzing desired changes in mind, body, psyche, and spirit” (Naparstek, 2007). Naparestek has found evidence that guided imagery provides relief from depression, anxiety and physical pain. Naparstek advocates this treatment for both PTSD and addiction. Restorative Yoga. Restorative yoga originates in India in the twentieth century with B.K.S Iyengar, who founded Iyengar Yoga. It is a meditative practice, quieting the mind and body, which leads to deep relaxation. Thus reflection and insight becomes embodied. (Forbes, 2011) Restorative yoga supports movement from the sympathetic (fight, flight, freeze) to the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). As Forbes describes: “through regulating the breath and relaxing the body, we learn to be present with our issues and our pain…we learn to resist getting caught up in our reactions, or letting them define us” (Forbes, 2011). |
