alternative T styles question

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alternative T styles question energy therapies anyone?

#1 linnea

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Posts: 1,541
Joined: 29-January 02

Posted 16 March 2002 - 10:13 PM

elisabeth,

I have done three different types of alternative therapy in conjunction with traditional talk therapy - yoga, therapuetic massage and acupuncture.

I did about three years of therapuetic massage with a woman experienced with delaing with SA/rape survivors and it ws wonderful. She was very sensitive and more in tuned with my body than I was. I think it's important to find someone who knows what they are doing and that you are comfortable with. It really helped me to start feeling more comfortable in my own "skin" and to help me begin to "feel" more about my own body - it used to be that I wouldn't "notice" a migraine until it was full blown, or notice my back had been bothering me until I was flat on my back in pain. It also helped me be less defensive when touched by other people. I think the best way to find someone is to get referrals from other folks. There are some not so nice characters in the field. I was had one that was very inappropriate with me but was willing to stop when I told him I was uncomfortable. I have friends that swear by La Stone therapy - where they use hot onyx and cold quartz stones, but I foundout how expensive it was and decided to stick to my once a month massage.

Yoga was wonderful - I did it with a lovely group of ladies in a group that included 1/2 yoga and 1/2 talk. The yoga is designed to touch that mind/body connection, which may of your instructors at the local Y or gym may not really be aware of. Don't be surprised if certain poses bring up emotions - if it's too much, you can modify the pose until you are ready to do a little deeper. I think sometimes it's easy for those of us who are perfectionists to hurt ourselves physically by the need to do every pose correctly, but yoga is not supposed to hurt, it's supposed to stretch and help the body and the mind be more in tuned with one another.

I loved acupuncture, too. I would recommend going to someone trained in China (TCM - traditional chinese medicine). I was actually able to find one who also has a western medical degree and felt very comfortable with him.

I think there are elements in all effective therapies that will cause us to deal with unpleasant emotions and memories, but I've come to believe that going through our pain is the only way out of it. I also think that we can embrace ourselves and walk through the fire, trusting some how that we have what we need to wlk through the fire, especially when we find trustworthy folks to walk with us...

And there are many of us here...

linnea

#2 Guest__*

Group: Guests

Posted 17 March 2002 - 12:52 AM

i lucked out in this feild... one of the top massage therepist/holistic healers in this area offered to do huge amounts of work with me for free :) :) besides massage therepy and lymbic system drainage, we used sound therepy (tedious to figure out which freq will work but effective when you do),and some of the naturalistic/herbal remedies. like its already been said, you HAVE to find someone who comes higly recommended and has experience with trauma survivors... she taught me a lot about being able to locate where i stored the stress from exact events (Which figureing out makes it easier to release them), listening to my body more in general... and one heck of a library of info about herbals, trauma and its relationship to the body... she basically had enough training (40+ years) and knows at least the basics of most alternative styles, which is important b/c they do all interact, and its important to keep that in focus when you're working on something (your health) from so many angles at once.
i've done accupressure (Same concept of accupunture except useing pressure instead of needles), had some success, but couldn't really go into it b/c they best person in the area is a man that is triggering for me.
i've also had some luck with a form of movement/massage therepy that i can't remember for the life of me what its called, but basically you work on releaseing muscles from trauma/stress that is stored in them by repetitive movement.

any of the alternative therepies thou are likely to bring up strong or even overwhelming emotions, so you need a practitioner who is trained to deal with this.... b/c if you aren't comfortable with them you can't deal with your emotion at the time it comes up, and it needs to be dealt with when it comes up, not shoved back down to deal with later to be helpful. my massage therepist was in essence acting as a sort-of talk therpist, b/c issues that were stored in certain areas of the body needed to be talked thru WHEN we were working on that specific part.
and its late and i'm tired so i'm probably rambleing and not makeing sense... so i'm gonna go to bed.

angel

#3 Monika

~~Yogalicious~~

Group: Advisor
Posts: 9,125
Joined: 16-April 01

Posted 18 March 2002 - 05:49 AM

(((Elisabeth)))

I've done Polarity therapy, Thought Field Therapy, Guided Self Healing with Kinesiology (VERY cool!) and have talked with two different healers, one of whom was a channeler. All were very helpful and none made me feel remotely upset or bad. Guided self-healing I did about two years ago and it was truly amazing. I got an incredible sense of peace. It was so powerful I was riding on it for a few months in fact. TFT I did around the same time and found it to be a decent, non-pill route to managing some pretty horrific anxiety. Polarity I did about 10 years ago and I remember it as being helpful and relaxing, but also somewhat upsetting by what came up through the therapist (her specific images of me as a child).I've done acupuncture and massage for pain management but never for "therapy." I loved them in terms of their physical benefits (massage is particularly difficult for me b/c I'm nota fan of being touched). I think the energy therapies are amazing and beneficial. Some people are able to do only an energy therapy and surmount the obstacles of rape and abuse. I felt I needed more and turned to conventional talk therapy...but who knows, I may return to the self-guided/kinesiology wrap ;) It's all pretty amazing. Best wishes on your journey! Rain

#4 hilary

hurt, but healing

Group: Member
Posts: 2,851
Joined: 16-April 01

Posted 19 March 2002 - 04:06 AM

wow. i think all this is so interesting! i've never tried anything except yoga, which i LOVE. i take a class through my university and the instructor is this tiny blonde woman who was trained in india in ashtanga tradition. she always says on the first day of the class (each quarter) that certain poses may bring up emotions and that it is totally ok to cry or yell or leave if we need to. only once did a pose make me cry, but it was good. i just felt some tremendous release and the tears just started to stream out. it was a little embarrassing tho. i had a friend a few years ago who was planning to study kinesiology and holistic health. maybe i should get back in touch with her :). my brother is currently in training to do sound therapy.
the biggest problem for me is money. i'm still a student (til june anyway) and don't have much to spare for experimenting with different kinds of therapy, but i'd LOVE to.

(((((hugs)))))

hilary

(Edited by hilary at 8:08 am on Mar. 19, 2002)

#5 Guest__*

Group: Guests

Posted 20 March 2002 - 12:31 AM

Linnea:

I've tried massage for this... and I know it just further illustrates the problem (I feel like I should be smacking the side of my head here or something) but my legs are a powerful trigger at the same time... I try to have them worked on sometimes, but I always panic... and tense up everything when I know the therapist is going to touch them. Is there any way to 'ease' into this?

#6 Guest__*

Group: Guests

Posted 20 March 2002 - 09:59 AM

Aoife:

Yup, I can see how that would cause confusion too - besides, a lil excitement is good for me. *LOL*

#7 linnea

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Joined: 29-January 02

Posted 06 April 2003 - 03:21 PM

bump

#8 Guest__*

Group: Guests

Posted 16 March 2002 - 09:19 PM

Hi everyone,
I'm having a lot of doubt about T right now, so I'm wondering if any of you would share your thoughts/ experiences with different styles. Does anybody do EFT or other energy healing styles? acupuncture, crystals, color healing, whatever at all? Meditation?

Is all T supposed to make you feel tremendously upset? Is it just because I'm still so new? Of course I've decided it's because there's clearly something wrong with me (admittedly not in the most rational mindset.)

I'd like to hear whatever you're willing to share.

elisabeth

#9 Guest__*

Group: Guests

Posted 17 March 2002 - 12:23 AM

What a great posting... I find hearing others' experiences helpful.

I've been a huge user of therapeutic massage - but like Linnea said, there are good and bad therapists. My first was a luck of the draw, and he was fantastic (yup, I've seen men). He was gentle, and careful, and helped me tremendously. My current MT was recommended by one of his former teachers, who listened to my rambles about what I did and didn't want, and he's been fantastic.

I've also tried something called Somato Emotional Release therapy. I've only done it once - it's not cheap - but it was.. hmm.. interesting. The woman placed her hands at different points on my body - throat, breastbone, stomach, and lower belly/top of pelvis (but this last one is always asked first, and isn't necessary). The therapist is supposed to be able to "feel" blockages in your energy caused by emotion, and I'll give it to her - the points she commented on were definately bringing up memories and things. I did cry, but not until I was home, and it hit me. Practitioners usually recommend using this therapy in conjunction with talk therapy, though. And make sure you find someone really qualified. While the whole session is fully clothed, it has a lot of possiblity for making you uncomfortable - the woman I saw wasn't only experienced and highly trained, but had also used the therapy herself to heal trauma in her own life.

Hmm.. I've tried yoga, but find the more upset I am, the more impossible it is. Am still trying to stick with it though.

#10 linnea

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Joined: 29-January 02

Posted 18 March 2002 - 12:38 AM

Anna,

With yoga, try modifying the any pose that is hard for you emotionally. My instructor was great about helping me do that - often it's just not going quite as deep into the pose. Chest openers are still very hard for me - the ones that open up my heart. Many of the tapes available will show you three or four versions of each poses - take the easiet and then go to the next as you are emotionally ready for it and see if that helps.

(((elisabthe))) (((angel))) (((anna)))

it's nice to see that other folks have tried some of the same things...

linnea

#11 Elle

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Posts: 1,297
Joined: 06-August 01

Posted 18 March 2002 - 11:20 AM

Great thread!

I did a Rolfing series a long time ago, which helped a great deal with tension and awareness. I wasn't ready to deal with much of my body responses from rape though, so I think I resisted the deeper parts of it. I would love to do it again but it is really expensive so that's not in the cards now. BTW rolfing is a kind of deep-tissue work and can be painful, though not overly so. Depends on who you're working with. Also part of it is analyzing how you hold yourself and that involves walking around in your underwear and nothing else in front of the rolfer so that can be really hard! It's traditionally done in a series of 10 sessions (around 1.5 hours each). Each session concentrates on one area of the body, for an overall body tune-up kind of thing. Suposedly you get a bit taller by the end of it (like half and inch or so)!

I am a huge fan of massage in general, and try to do it when I can but again money is an issue. My therapist told me I should go once a week to conquer my chronic tension - that's a dream, no way could I afford it. It helps A LOT when I go, though.

Yoga is good for me too. I don't do it as often as I should but I'm working on that.

My therapist has been after me forever to try the Rosen Method. I haven't done that though, with the excuse being money...but I think I was just scared. Has anyone tried it? I'm really curious.

I haven't tried any kind of alternative energy type stuff. It's just not my kind of thing (I'm too pragmatic and skeptical and all that) but I'm a true believer that whatever works for you is right...and body-based work works best for me, so that's what I've been doing.

I think I kind of froze up for many years after being hurt. I was never athletic to begin with and afterwards I think I lost touch with my body, and in some way I was afraid to move, to inhabit my body fully. That's why this kind of bodywork is so good for me, I think. Make sense?

Elle

#12 Guest__*

Group: Guests

Posted 19 March 2002 - 07:13 PM

Wow - finally found this thread! *L* I missed the move.

Just wondering, since a lot of the people here have tried some form of "bodywork" (massage, acupuncture/pressure, yoga), if someone could offer up a suggestion.

I'm sure a lot of people have the same difficulty I do - when you "can't feel" a part of your body. I was out for a walk today when i realized I couldn't feel my legs - like they weren't attached to me. And this is normal, that I feel nothing is "mine" from the hips down.

Any suggestions for therapies/treatments that will help me find my legs again?