September 16, 2018, my life changed.     I received a called from my mother on September 11, who at that point, was in a hospital bed rotting away from mismanaged nursing home care. She told me that she was going to die that weekend, then she went right back into a state of psychosis.  Since I was her healthcare power of attorney, I received another call from her doctor the next day who wanted to discuss her end of life plans.  Per her wishes,  I had to make the decision to end the treatment, and watch my mother waste away in an even faster decline. My anger at the nursing facility raged.  I watched her cry, plead, and scream for physical relief.  The physicians and nurses kept my mother under medical sedation partly because of pain, but also because of fear.  Either her cancer went to her brain, or the lengthy  hospital stays caused a form of psychosis.    

On the early morning hours of September 16th,  I watch my mother take her last breath on Earth. I held her hand until it turned cold. One of her eyes was open, and  I could see her green iris clearly.   She was gone; nothing but a shell.  I have faith that this is not end, and I would not wish her back for anything. How she died was another story.

Neuro Emotional Technique(NET) saved my head.  I went back to work two days later.  It is not impossible to do it to oneself, but it is quite difficult to get everything.   A week later, I still needed help.   I would be OK during the day, but at night, I would sit on edge of my bed and only see the image of her dead body with one eye open staring at the ceiling.  I felt guilt for not doing things differently.   I felt guilt for not getting other opinions.  I even felt guilty by thinking I could have done things better.  None of this was true.  I had my associate, Gillian Squillacioti, LPC do NET on me.   I promise who ever reads this, that those thoughts and images were out of my head in less than 5 minutes.   I, obviously, can still remember what happened, but my feelings of dread are completely gone.  I still miss my mom, and that will never change. However because of NET, I can now look forward to the future, and smile about the memories that I hold dear.

 Rest easy mom -  Beth Ann Asafaylo 7/4/61 - 9/16/18
Till next time,

Justin

How does Neuro Emotional Technique compare to traditional counseling, or cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT)?  Here is a chart the highlights the difference.

            Outside of Neuro Emotional Technique(NET), OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is incredibly difficult to treat.  For those that do not suffer from it, OCD is mostly joked about in a haphazard sort of way, but to those who suffer from it, it is debilitating.  Reality is that standard talk therapy does little to address the root cause.  OCD is a form of anxiety, but unlike other anxiety disorder, there seems to have absolutely no initial cause of it.  This is where Neuro Emotional Technique comes to the rescue.  
                Unlike talk therapy, NET finds the cause by using manual muscle testing to find the physiological spot in the body where the anxiety or OCD has it origin.  I know this sounds pretty funky and completely WOO WOO, but it actually has scientific validation.  For instance, it is a known scientific fact that the mind and body are interconnected, and when emotional stressors occur, the brain records those moments any where in body.  That is why there are documented cases of people remembering traumatic experiences after receiving deep tissue massages.  So, now let's get back to NET and how we address and treat OCD.    Once we find this sweet spot, so to speak,  we use Meridian Access Points(acupuncture points for the mind).  Each point is associated with a feeling, and once the feeling is identified, we do what we call an age test.  Since the subconscious mind records everything from conception to present, we can literally go back and find the emotional reality or perceived start of the event.  Now, we have the cause.  Once this happens, we just eliminate through pressing the meridian points, breathing deeply, and feeling the initial feeling or memory.  This process literally takes 10-15  minutes from start to finish.  
                 I know what I propose sounds like some snake oil being sold by a  traveling salesperson, but I have  seen too much to know that this works, and works astonishingly well. If confidentiality was not important, I would tell everyone what I have seen. Unfortunately, people have to take my word for it, and see for themselves.    Because of this technique alone, I can honestly say that I am done with talk therapy, and have devoted my time to promote NET by showing as many people how fast and well this helps.

Till next time,


Justin

            In almost 17 years in practice, I have never seen anything quite like the Neuro Emotional Technique(NET).  It consists of 25% Neuro Psychology
                                                                25%  Chinese Acupuncture(No needles required)
                                                                25%  Chiropractic
                                                                25%  Applied Kinesiology 
  Actually, the percentages are not a hundred percent accurate, but they do consist of 4 fields of study to create one amazing method to treat underlying emotional stuck points faster than anything that I have seen before.

In the past,  I would have treated people with four different approaches that depend upon each person's personality.  A few years ago, I gave up doing talk therapy for EMDR and hypnosis. Now, I have almost completely abandoned them for NET.   What happens is this.   First we find where the emotions reside through accessing Meridian points in wrist.  For the non acupuncture type, Meridian parts are scientifically validated points in the body and wrist that store emotional energy.  Think of it as the remote control to our feelings. Different points equate to different emotions.  Then, we find the initial cause of the feeling/s.  What gets really weird is that that we may go back many many decades, but once we find the initial cause, we go back to the moment and start thinking forward.  What happens next is mind boggling because nearly every person I have done this with reports that they feel different and the anxious feelings are gone.   I must be completely honest here when I say the feelings are gone.  The feelings that we worked on specifically are gone, but there may be other feelings that we are not yet ready to release.  Usually when this happens, the other hidden feelings reveal themselves, and we can release them by next session.  This generally happens when a person has several anxieties for a particular subject.  Most of the time, we can treat in 1 session.   We will repeat the pattern until all the feelings are gone.  In average, I can do work on 10 feelings per hour.  That is why I said that we can get about a year's worth of therapy in less than hour.  Check out netmindbody.com for more info.


Till next time,


Justin

Survivors of sexual abuse, often times, hide in darkness.  For years, survivors suffer afraid that if they tell, they will be accused of lying, face rejection, and worse, judgment. 
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We at Bright Hope want survivors to know that there is hope, and just by reading this post, salute and applaud the courage that is being taken to just read this blog.   For starters, I am going to give a synopsis of treatment options available to treat and help survivors heal. 

1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - Trauma Focused - (CBT-TF)
           This form of therapy is designed to confront irrational thinking about what happened, and to provide education so the survivor knows how to better cope with the negative feelings.  I am not going to lie, this technique is my least favorite by far.   Research shows that it works just as well as the other two methods that Ia m going to describe.  However, in my almost 17 years of experience, I am not a believer. 

2.  Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing - (EMDR)
               EMDR is the treatment of choice for veterans coming home from conflict.  It's premise is that the brain is set up in two parts - Emotional and Logical.   When trauma occurs, the emotional side of the brain basically freaks out and cause a freezing effect very similar to when a computer freezes up.  The result of this is the all too familiar feelings of panic, fear, nightmares, etc.  What EMDR does is connect both sides of the brain by either tapping back and forth on both sides of the body, holding vibrating paddles, and using the eyes to look right and left.  When this is happening, the survivor starts to discuss or think about what happened.  The result is that the trauma starts to be processed by the logical side of the brain.   The results are usually nothing short of astonishing.  Now, I must warn of the downside to this technique.  It is exceptionally difficult for the survivor to go through. It is a controlled flashback, and for healing to occur, the trauma will have to be relived.

3. Hypnosis 
        No, I will not make anyone bark like a dog.  Clinical hypnosis uses the subconscious mind to work through the sexual abuse with little emotional pain.  It is slower than EMDR, but is still significantly faster than CBT-TF. To fully explain what hypnosis is and does would require several more blog posts. Fortunately,  I already discussed this great detail in earlier posts.  In the beginning, until the brain takes hold and eliminates the trauma completely, relapses may occur.  They are not, however, as strong or as bad as before.  This is my personal favorite all around because it is holistic and can be applied to almost any situation in life.  Plus, it is not as painful as EMDR.  Rule of thumb that I tell my patients is that however long EMDR takes to provide relief, it will usually double that with hypnosis.  

4.  Exposure Therapy
       It is EMDR with out the paddles, eye movement, and tapping. Faster than CBT-TF, and more painful than EMDR because it is longer.   Basically, the survivor recounts their story until they no longer have anxiety about it. 

All in all, please know that help is available. Reality is that different people prefer different things.   My usual course of treatment is a 1, 2, punch with both hypnosis and EMDR because hypnosis strengthens the person before undergoing the difficult task of EMDR.  Again, whatever method is used, please do not give up,  and seek help.

Best Wishes,

Justin

Relieve a panic and anxiety attacks in these easy steps:

1.  Pick the smallest and farthest object across the room that your eyes are able to see.

2.  Stare at this object as if you are trying to burn a hole through it with your eyes.  Stare so intently as if you very life depends upon it. 

3. Take slow deep breathes and try to blow the object away.

4. Repeat until panic attack resolves.


This is a Zen Buddhist mediation trick of "emptying the mind."  Because panic attacks are the result of the mind racing, we need to rapidly  cause the mind to stop.  What this trick does is force the mind to only think of one thing and one thing only.  Once this happens, the thoughts causing the panic attack can no longer race.  This causes the person to feel better almost immediately.  

Now, this is not a permanent solution, but a mere band aid in order to survive until  the cause of the panic attacks can be resolved. For a permanent solution, check out this video.
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Bright Hope Counseling Center
1558-G Union Road
Gastonia, NC 28054
​704-772-0333

 When life gets us down, we seem to overlook the options that are before us.   Sometimes, what we need is to look through our predicament through a different perspective. If we seek professional help, there are so many counselors and therapists that we do not know where to turn. Know that not all therapists are the same.  Do not necessarily worry about what letters are after the name, but focus on what the therapist provides and how they approach a particular issue or problem. 

At Bright Hope Counseling Center, we pride ourselves on being different because we know that what we do works.  We often times are the counseling center of last resort because by the time a person comes to us, they have already been through three, four, or even five different counselors.   What makes us different is our approach.  While most therapists and for that matter, most schools of counseling, preach traditional talk counseling such CBT(Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), we focus on techniques that work directly with the subconscious mind and use methods that wok on rewiring the actual synapses of the brain.  Our difference is that we get people better fast.  For example, we have had many people who have experienced traumatic events such as rape, violence, car accidents, etc.  Instead of talking about it for what feels likes years, we jump right to the heart of the problem, and work on reprogramming the brain.   The result is that the person usually feels better after 1-2 sessions.   We come with a guarantee, that if we can not help a person feel significantly better in month, that we need to be fired, and help the person find a more suitable referral.