by Joyce-Anne Locking

Just after I wrote the article saying life changes take time and hard work, I watched a TV interview on life transformations. The lady being interviewed was saying life transformations might possibly be done instantly, effortlessly and joyfully.

It seems our belief system is the thing that governs our lives and sometimes all we need do is remove negative thought from our beliefs and our lives will be instantly transformed. NLP (neurolinguistic programming) trainers teach about words we tell ourselves. The self-talk we give ourselves is what we believe in or at least, what we come to believe. By changing the self-talk to a different programming or patterning is like changing channels on TV. Suddenly we are in a different zone and we have a whole new set of choices. New doors open and we almost instantly become on a different path.

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by Joe Rubino, PhD

Research points to the fact that each child suffers an early assault to his or her self-esteem at a young age, typically between birth and 6 years of age. The child's initial realization that he or she is imperfect and somehow does not measure up, is flawed, or is not worthy of love, happiness, rich relationships, abundance, and fulfillment comes as a result of this early traumatic episode when the child either buys into the disparaging view of another or creates an interpretation that he or she is defective in some important way, even though no such conclusion was offered or intended by another.

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by David Kohlhagen LPC, NBCCH

Part 1: A Case Study

The Buddy System in Force of Habit

For my book Force of Habit: Get Well and Stay Well by Clearing up Your Bad Habits of Mind, Body and Spirit I developed a "buddy system" wherein people can train a friend to facilitate their self-healing. Solo self-healing has its limitations. The Force of Habit Buddy System requires one subject--whose job is to have an issue or "bad habit" to be cleared up--and one listener, or buddy whose job is to facilitate the subject in staying focused and on topic. In Force of Habit (FOH) terms a "bad habit" is any undesirable mental, emotional, physical, health or spiritual tendency or condition.

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by Mark Gorkin, LICSW

One Small Step for Employee-Management-Community Consensus Building: Affirming the Purpose, Participation and Power of Admin Professionals

One of the challenges for an Organizational Development Consultant is getting management and employees on the same page, if not singing from the same sheet of music. Sometimes you don't need management to generate static. Status distinctions within the employee ranks may exacerbate in-house tensions. For example, in one government directorate, scientists and IT folks were called "professional" staff while the clerical/administrative personnel were labeled "support" staff. (On a retreat, I quickly changed the nomenclature: all were professional staff; some were scientific, others were administrative.)

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by Joe Rubino, PhD

Studies show that high self-esteem is the #1 ingredient essential for developing happiness, fulfillment, rich relationships, and overall success in life. In the life of every child, usually sometime between birth and age 6, something happens to have the child doubt him or herself. Someone says or does something that has the child believe that he or she is flawed, unlovable, not worthy, imperfect.

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by Marta Luzim, MS

Healing our childhood awakens the unconscious hunger for the love of our mother and father. We cannot be in the present until we satisfy the loneliness of the child's deep craving to be loved, seen and cherished. This is where romantic loves begins. Children believe that their parents are the perfect gods, all knowing and all loving. The trauma that comes from the first sting of rejection, criticism and abandonment in our youths carries on into our adult relationships. It is our parent's validation of our existence that gives us a sense of meaning, purpose and worthiness. As adults we remain frozen in the past, searching for the perfect mother or father in our intimate relationships to fulfill the child who felt unloved and forgotten.

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This is an excellent Discovery Channel video. The hypnotist is Seth-Deborah Roth, CRNA, who is an Institute member and an expert in medical hypnotherapy.

It brings up several interesting concepts. First, does the effectiveness of hypnotherapy require a trance state. In the video three people are tested for suggestibility using a type of EEG machine. The belief that trance is equal to reduced brain wave frequency is proposed by biofeedback. technician. Second, they presuppose that there is a relationship between suggestibility and trance state. While there may be a correlation at times, this is not a requirement. Hypnosis is a process of bypassing resistance. This may or may not happen in a trance state.

Of course, the TV program unfortunately full of the typical media lingo. The announcer frequently uses the term "going under" to signify a trance state. Most reputable hypnotists avoid that phrase, which is one that too often misleads and scares members of the public.

Nevertheless, I did appreciate that they "busted" the concept that a person can be forced to do something that is suggested while in a hypnotically-induced trance.

posted by Tim Brunson, PhD

by Anne Arsenault

They say "You are what you eat", so we can also say that your mental health is affected by what you eat. If your blood sugar is all over the place, then your moods will be too. If you are eating foods devoid of B Vitamins and Omega 3 Fats, then Depression can set in. If your liver and arteries are clogged from high fat foods, then you will feel sluggish and grouchy. Your brain is very much affected by what you eat and how you digest it.

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by Joyce-Anne Locking

Human nature, as described in Wikopedia, the online enclyclopedia, is the concept that there are a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting that all human beings have in common. It is also human nature, I might add, to expect some abundant form of reward for the work we provide.

There are conditions that apply to the flow of natural rivers of wealth. It is said that money flows back to us if we follow our heart, for example. Millions of books have been written about the topic of how to make money. This is not the reward I intend to explore in this article, however. My topic might better be described as payment in psychic dollars. What I mean to say is "invisible pay" might turn out to be far more valuable than other, more obvious forms of remuneration.

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by Randy Herron, SPHR

Think about the people who work for you. Do any of them need to improve performance? Should you have had a discussion with one or two of them within the last 60 days? Is there a gap between their performance, the job description and your expectations? Think of the one who needs this discussion the most... the one with the most significant gap between actual performance and your expectations (P/E gap).

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by Brenda J. Crawford-Bee

Detoxification of the body has been around for centuries, as far back as Ancient Egypt. Body detox or body cleansing became popular in recent centuries during the 19the century, but fell out of favor in the early 20th century. Detoxification, ridding the body of toxins, is a treatment in alternative medicine, and abandoned my mainstream medicine.

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by Adele Wang

Over the years in working with people, I've noticed a number of interesting attitudes people have on why illness occurs, from a spiritual or metaphysical standpoint. I've collected them here to share with you. It's a fascinating study of people and spirituality if it weren't also so serious in its impact on peoples' ability to heal. Peoples' beliefs on illness vary widely, often lurking subconsciously. What I find interesting is the context behind these attitudes. It's as if things have gotten a bit distorted from the meaning of the initial idea. Sometimes these ideas do not serve people well.

Ultimately, serious illness always brings up the fear of the unknown. This is not so easy for our human egos to handle! We feel we should know the reason for everything, and that everything simply must have a logical answer. Even something as illogical as illness and how we go about healing....

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by Deidre Madsen, OM

How am I going to go about sharing all this great Transformational Guided Imagery (TGI) knowledge if I don't really get into sharing some of my own personal examples and experiences using TGI? In this article I will share an intense experience that relates to each and every woman. I share this not to tell you how to do your own healing but to give you an avenue of creative expression in healing.

My family has a risk of ovarian cancer and for years I have been battling a feeling of pain in that general area. Dowsing and muscle testing (kineseology) showed I indeed had issues in that area. In order to correct this I knew I needed to do several things to realign my body/mind/spirit back to health. In addition to eating more properly, incorporating some exercise I have worked extensively with my own imagery work in order to facilitate inner healing. The following experience was dramatically healing. This involves decisions we women make every day. It will touch your soul. Below are my session notes.

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by Randy Herron, SPHR

Although employee termination may not be easy, proper concern for important issues (1) before, (2) during and (3) after the termination meeting decreases the pain, improves effectiveness for all concerned and strengthens your position in case of legal action.

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by Tim Brunson, PhD

There is a cost paid by people who work in the healing professions and occupations. Whether drawn to these vocations by altruism, compassion, or other motivations, each practitioner runs the risk of contracting adverse mental and physical consequences. The ineffective coping strategies used by practitioners – coupled with the necessity of working long hours – may serve to complicate matters. They not only fail to mitigate problems caused by constant exposure to negativity, they in fact further accelerate the onset of the resulting costs that are too often inherent in their work. Furthermore these typical responses detract from the environment and experience of clients and patients, resulting in degradation of speed of healing and even potentially contributing to the continuation of their illnesses.

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by David Kohlhagen LPC, NBCCH

Definitions

Much of the controversy in the field of mind/body healing can be attributed to the way terms are defined. Mind and consciousness are fundamentally non-scientific words and yet mind/body scientists and practitioners still must employ them to describe their results and their work. Any definition will carry an element of the subjective posture of the one giving the definition. The definitions of these words express theoretical constructs that guide research and clinical practice.

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by Randy Herron, SPHR

Start by Improving Your Organization's Communication Skills

Obviously, people communicating with each other and psychology lay as a blanket over every organization. Communicating with each other and living within the behavioral truths of people are two key elements of our work environment. The degree of integrity, openness, and overall communication skills of its people directly affects productivity and each individual's satisfaction and contribution.

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Full Title: Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in postwar Kosovar adolescents using mind-body skills groups: a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether participation in a mind-body skills group program based on psychological self-care, mind-body techniques, and self-expression decreases symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHOD: Eighty-two adolescents meeting criteria for PTSD according to the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (which corresponds with 16 of the 17 diagnostic criteria for PTSD in DSM-IV) were randomly assigned to a 12-session mind-body group program or a wait-list control group. The program was conducted by high school teachers in consultation with psychiatrists and psychologists and included meditation, guided imagery, and breathing techniques; self-expression through words, drawings, and movement; autogenic training and biofeedback; and genograms. Changes in PTSD symptoms were measured using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. The study was conducted from September 2004 to May 2005 by The Center for Mind-Body Medicine at a high school in the Suhareka region of Kosovo. RESULTS: Students in the immediate intervention group had significantly lower PTSD symptom scores following the intervention than those in the wait-list control group (F = 29.8, df = 1,76; p < .001). Preintervention and postintervention scores (mean [SD]) for the intervention group were 2.5 (0.3) and 2.0 (0.3), respectively, and for the control group, 2.5 (0.3) and 2.4 (0.4), respectively. The decreased PTSD symptom scores were maintained in the initial intervention group at 3-month follow-up. After the wait-list control group received the intervention, there was a significant decrease (p < .001) in PTSD symptom scores compared to the preintervention scores. CONCLUSIONS: Mind-body skills groups can reduce PTSD symptoms in war-traumatized high school students and can be effectively led by trained and supervised schoolteachers. Copyright 2008 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

This article provides an overview of a new theory of suggested involuntariness in hypnosis, developed in conjunction with Irving Kirsch. The theory is based on the following ideas. First, high hypnotizable participants enter hypnosis with a conscious intention to feel and behave in line with suggested experiences and movements. Second, people who are easily hypnotized hold firm expectations that they will succeed in following the suggestions of the hypnotist. Third, the intention and expectation in turn function as response sets in the sense that they trigger the hypnotic response automatically. Fourth, given the intention to feel and behave in line with the hypnotist's suggestions, hypnotized individuals show no hesitation to experience the suggested movements as involuntary because (a) these movements are actually triggered automatically, and (b) the intention to cooperate with the hypnotist as well as the expectation to be able to do so create a heightened readiness to experience these actions as involuntary.

Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 1997 Jul;45(3):239-50. Lynn SJ. Psychology Department, State University of New York at Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA.

BACKGROUND: Hypnosis has been used clinically for hundreds of years and is primarily a phenomenon involving attentive receptive concentration. Cognitive science has not fully exploited hypnosis and hypnotic suggestion as experimental tools. This study was designed to determine whether a hypnotic suggestion to hinder lexical processing could modulate the Stroop effect. METHODS: Behavioral Stroop data were collected from 16 highly suggestible and 16 less suggestible subjects; both naturally vigilant and under posthypnotic suggestion. Subjects were urged to only attend to the ink color and to impede reading the stimuli under posthypnotic suggestion. RESULTS: Whereas posthypnotic suggestion eliminated Stroop interference for highly suggestible subjects, less suggestible control subjects showed no significant reduction in the interference effect. CONCLUSIONS: This outcome challenges the dominant view that word recognition is obligatory for proficient readers, and may provide insight into top-down influences of suggestion on cognition.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2002 Dec;59(12):1155-61. Raz A, Shapiro T, Fan J, Posner MI. Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 1300 York Ave, Box 140, New York, NY 10021, USA. amr2006@med.cornell.edu

by Lawrence Gold

Part 2 of 2.

How Our Way of Operating in Life Triggers the Neuromuscular Reflexes of Stress

PROCRASTINATION AND URGENCY
a disorder of beginning and a beginning of disorder

Have you ever procrastinated? Have you noticed that resisting doing something you felt needed doing only added to your tension in life? That once you did it, you felt relieved?

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by David Kohlhagen LPC, NBCCH

Since Freud there has been a tradition in the field of Psychology to think of the human mind (not the brain) as having two parts, the conscious part and the subconscious part. That way, functions of mind can be accounted for without regard to whether or not they are done intentionally, reflexively, or habitually. Within sub-traditions, such as that developed by Carl Jung, the subconscious became the unconscious, and even the collective unconscious. Many people seem to use the words subconscious and unconscious interchangeably.

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by Coach Cary Bayer

"Success is not in never falling but in rising every time you fall."--Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi, who coached the Green Bay Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowls, was not just a taskmaster obsessed with winning; he was also a coach committed to having players give their all, and not give up. It's fundamental to the yang world of football as much as to the yin world of hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, chiropractic, energy medicine, and every other form of healing modality. Mary Pickford, the movie star who co-founded United Artists with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, wrote: "If you have made mistakes...there is always another chance for you...you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."

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BACKGROUND: The neural mechanisms underlying the modulation of pain perception by hypnosis remain obscure. In this study, we used positron emission tomography in 11 healthy volunteers to identify the brain areas in which hypnosis modulates cerebral responses to a noxious stimulus. METHODS: The protocol used a factorial design with two factors: state (hypnotic state, resting state, mental imagery) and stimulation (warm non-noxious vs. hot noxious stimuli applied to right thenar eminence). Two cerebral blood flow scans were obtained with the 15O-water technique during each condition. After each scan, the subject was asked to rate pain sensation and unpleasantness. Statistical parametric mapping was used to determine the main effects of noxious stimulation and hypnotic state as well as state-by-stimulation interactions (i.e., brain areas that would be more or less activated in hypnosis than in control conditions, under noxious stimulation). RESULTS: Hypnosis decreased both pain sensation and the unpleasantness of noxious stimuli. Noxious stimulation caused an increase in regional cerebral blood flow in the thalamic nuclei and anterior cingulate and insular cortices. The hypnotic state induced a significant activation of a right-sided extrastriate area and the anterior cingulate cortex. The interaction analysis showed that the activity in the anterior (mid-)cingulate cortex was related to pain perception and unpleasantness differently in the hypnotic state than in control situations. CONCLUSIONS: Both intensity and unpleasantness of the noxious stimuli are reduced during the hypnotic state. In addition, hypnotic modulation of pain is mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex.

Anesthesiology. 2000 May;92(5):1257-67. Faymonville ME, Laureys S, Degueldre C, DelFiore G, Luxen A, Franck G, Lamy M, Maquet P. Departments of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine and Neurology, and the Cyclotron Research Centre, University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium. anesrea@ulg.ac.be

by Lawrence Gold

Part 1 of 2. Part 2 of An Expanded View of the Three Reflexes of Stress will be available on 11/11/09.

"We become how we live."

In his book, Somatics1 , Thomas Hanna described three neuromuscular reflexes of stress: the Landau Reaction2, the Startle Reflex3, and the Trauma Reflex4. He described his view of how, when repeatedly triggered, these reflexes lead to the formation of tension habits that create the pains and stiffness commonly attributed to aging.

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