Page 32 - NAMAH-Apr-2016

Namah Vol. 25, Issue 1, 24th April 2017

himself to go to sleep.” positive shift in the patent’s prospective.
Perhaps the shift is assisted through a
In session Andrew himself stated, “I listen to process where the patient experiences the
music or try not to think about them.” story through a different sensational context,
downloading the episode, if you will, in a
What further confirmed the hypothesis of more relaxed and calm manner, breaking the
an avoidance defence mechanism was the chain of a fear-based fight or flight autonomic
observation that Andrew tended to avoid response.
answering any questions related to the
zombies with any details. Rather, he dodged Determining the patient’s defence mechanisms
the topic and spoke in vague and minimal — continued
terms. It became apparent that in order to
eliminate his fear we needed to make his Another defence mechanism that Andrew
fear concrete and present, rather than vague seemed to employ was ‘Minimisation’. At the
and distant. Increasingly, we focused on this start of both sessions #2 and #3, he reported
approach, asking Andrew endless questions he was doing much better whereas his father
about the zombies. had reported some improvement but with
still some fear. We suspected Andrew was
Employing Relaxation Techniques — Aromatherapy, experiencing discomfort and shame relative
EFT, Deep Breathing and Touch to his fear. We addressed this in several ways.
One was in the EFT re-frame where we added
Since having Andrew revisit the fearful “And I’m a good kid”. We also confronted
episodes might activate the fear response him directly, asking why he continued to
and deepen his trauma we employed various sleep in his parents’ room if he was so much
relaxation techniques. Firstly, we placed a better. This question later proved beneficial
few drops of essential oils in the palm of his on many levels since it clarified the issue in
hand, asked him to rub his hands vigorously his father’s mind as well as set a plan and
together and inhale very deeply several times. target that we could later validate.
We then employed EFT (Emotional Freedom
Technique), which consists of tapping with Employing other Depth Psychology modalities
one’s finger pads on particular acupuncture
points on the face and upper torso that activate To help strengthen his pre-existing intellectual
the relaxation response. We tapped on him, understanding, that all of this was in his mind
gently touching acupuncture locations on and a product of his own imagination, we
his face and torso as he recounted the same did not deny, dismiss or minimize his visions
scary story he had told himself countless when he was gripped by them, but rather,
times. From our experience, this approach, tried to enter into his reality. We encouraged
which is a combination of aromatherapy, him, through ‘Mirroring’, to articulate the
deep breathing, EFT, which makes use of scary story in a rather matter of fact manner.
physical touch, has demonstrated to be highly We continued to dialogue with Andrew in a
effective in the consulting-room in eliciting tone and with a presence that validated his
the relaxation response and facilitating a experience. This approach, coupled with the

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