I was perusing the internet a little bit ago, and I stumbled upon a website called BeyondOCD.org.   It is a non profit website that attempts to provide a service for people seeking treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD.  What irked me the most is that they tout the benefits of CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy.  They posted an article on how to find a therapist who uses CBT for treatment.   For that, I call total bullsh*t.  CBT is slow at best, and worthless at most.  A research article came out earlier this year that declared CBT is no more effective than reading a self help book.  In other words, it is bullsh*t. The majority of my practice stems from people who have had failed CBT.

I have said in other posts that CBT has its value and it's place, but in the realm of anxiety and anxiety based disorders such as OCD, it significantly over steps its place.  Here is why CBT and any variation is essentially a waste of time and money in treating anxiety disorders.

1. OCD and any other form of anxiety has CAUSE that occurred sometime in the past. 

2. The cause may or may not be known consciously to the person. However, the subconscious mind always knows in the biochemical storage of the body's nerves.

3. Energy Psychology such as Neuro Emotional Technique  accesses the body's subconscious through applied kinesiology and acupuncture points. -  No other technique does this level of detection and elimination.

4.  When a person is suffering from OCD or anxiety, whatever is learned from CBT is quickly thrown out the window because of the body's flight or fight response.

5. CBT is a mind only approach to treatment, and everyone who experiences anxiety feel it in the pit of their stomach or have the tightness in their chest.   This clearly shows that the body stores emotions that CANNOT  be accessed by CBT alone.  

6.Results speak for themselves.  Why waste the money on countless sessions of CBT, when a few session of Neuro Emotional Technique are enough to completely eliminate anxiety, panic attacks, and OCD?

To any therapist, psychologist, or medical doctor who spreads false information due to lack of understanding of Energy Psychology and Neuro Emotional Technique, I personally challenge you to experience Neuro Emotional Technique for yourselves. I promise, your life and the lives of your patients will be forever changed. 

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

     I have said in other blog posts that depression and be categorized as two types:  Organic and Situational.  Organic depression almost always requires medication because there is a lack of serotonin being created in the brain.  Situational depression is the nasty result of some sort of past event that we can not for whatever reason get over.  Both types of depression are treatable.   The fastest method, bar none, that I have come across over the years is Neuro Emotional Technique.
     Neuro Emotional Technique is a mind/body approach to eliminating stuck feelings in the body.   It is so different from traditional talk therapy because it uses the scientifically validated energy systems of the body to locate specific feelings associated with the negative event.  This is done through a two step process of using a technique called manual muscle testing and touching on meridian pulse points on the wrist.  This process takes literally just a few minutes.   When I had this done to me, I literally felt a surge of emotions that felt like an electrical charge leave my body. The feelings are still gone, and chatter in my brain from before is not there. Most people who I do this technique with experience the same thing. It is strange, yet amazing.  
     Getting back to how Neuro Emotional Technique can treat depression.  Depression can rear its ugly head in so many ways, and sometimes the feelings of why we feel depressed are just masked by a feeling of dread and sadness. In traditional talk therapy, we would run around in circles trying to figure out some rhyme and reason to the depression, but with Neuro Emotional Technique, the research shows that the subconscious mind already knows, and is willing to let go with some simple investigative work.  Literally, by pressing the meridian pulse points in the wrist we know almost immediately the underlying feeling, and then, we generally know the cause. From there, we add a few more steps, and the feelings are released. As I have said in other posts, with Neuro Emotional Technique, I can quite literally get  a year's worth of traditional therapy done in under an hour.   Just the other day, I got a person to smile and joke for the first time in two years after they experienced what they experienced.  We did that in under 20 minutes. I can not begin to express how this has changed my practice, my life, and my view of the world.  I am going to keep doing these blogs and  tell as  many people as I can until everyone who needs it gets to experience the release that I felt and now many of my patients.

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