Complex post-traumatic stress, often referred to as disorder, or response, refers to the symptoms or sequels left behind by the experience of a series of traumatic events through which someone’s safety, stability, physical or emotional well being were compromised.
Trauma Understanding
Without in-depth experience, understanding and knowledge of the effects and after-effects of trauma, it is difficult for others to understand, comprehend and relate to the ingrained patterns left behind by traumatic experiences. “How could you let this happen to you?” is often what adult survivors of bullying, physical, emotional abuse or endangerement hear. “Why did you not walk away?” “Why did you not fight back?” Or worse, they will be accused of being responsible for or misrepresenting the abuse. A deeply damaging reaction known as a double-bind. Being accused of misrepresenting the traumatic event, or being responsible for it, shatters whatever was left of the fragile emotional stability of the mind as it is struggling to comprehend and recover. Questioning the survivor’s perception of reality leads them to further lose their grasp of their right to safety, boundaries, respect and protection.
Trauma-Related Guilt
Guilt and self-doubt are among the most common symptoms experienced by trauma survivors. “How could I let this happen?” “What is wrong with me?” The should-haves and would-haves act like endless thoughts spinning around in our minds as we try to make sense of what happened, why it happened, what we should have done differently and how we could have prevented the event from happening.
Early-Life Conditioning
What makes an adult, who should be capable of saying no, standing up for themselves and fighting for their safety, submit to verbal, emotional and/or physical abuse? The patterns ingrained in their mind in early life. The way a child is raised is determining to the adult ability and capacity to understand, protect and defend their boundaries.
When a child is beaten, threatened, verbally, physically or emotionally abused by his or her caretakers, there is often nowhere and no one to turn to. The only survival mechanisms become submission and dissociation. When you are cornered and your physical, emotional, psychological safety is compromised, the mind will dissociate in order to cope with the fear, pain, vulnerablity and helplessness. Dissociating is a natural response from our central nervous system to unatural events the mind is not capable of processing any other way. Once the mind has taken the habit of dissociating, it will typically, instinctively resort to dissociation whenever similar situations are encountered.
Later in life, whenever facing a situation resembles the initial trauma, the mind will automatically revert to the time of the initial trauma. We are no longer dealing with the adult’s logical, analytical mind, but with the mind of the child who first encountered a similar threat. The adult will then react as they child they were at the time of the initial trauma, in other words, dissociate, revert to the submissive, vulnerable, helpless, non-reactive response with which they were forced to cope with similar earlylife traumatic events. The submissive response is not a conscious decision. It is a subconscious, automatic, survival mechanism, deeply ingrained in the mind and beyond the control of the conscious mind.
Additionally, a child who is beaten, threatened, endangered by those closest to him, those from whom the child was supposed to learn love, trust, bonding, family, respect, is taught they do not deserve safety, care, protection, kindness. The child is brainwashed to believe closeness or caring equal pain and endangerment.
It’s a double-sided coin. On one hand, the child is brainwashed to believe they are not deserving of respect, protection, care and safety. On the other hand, they are taught that when they attempt to stand up for themselves, their safety becomes severely compromised. The only survival mechanisms become submission and dissociation. Patterns of survival this deeply engrained in the mind in early life take over whenever the mind encounters similar situations later in life.
Retraining the Brain
By allowing us to go back to the root cause responsible for the symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress, hypnotherapy enables us to understand, address and resolve the negative emotions and limiting beliefs left behind by the initial trauma. Being able to unveil, address and release the trauma wounds of the past, opens the way for a more balanced, solid and peaceful present.
Rescuing the Child
Can you imagine the adult you have become today being able to rescue the child you once were? This is what we do with regression to cause hypnotherapy. We give the adult of today the opportunity to go back in time to rescue the child you once were in its most critical times of need. A gift of rescue, transformation and relief, most never get the chance to experience.
The Scope and Boundaries of Hypnosis
As clinical hypnotherapists, we are not licensed medical professionals. For this reason, we only work on diagnosed conditions under the supervision of, and in close cooperation with medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurse practitioners and social workers. We require a physician’s authorization prior to initiating work on diagnosed conditions. Working in close cooperation with your medical team enables us to ensure your progress in an optimal manner.
To learn more about how hypnosis can help you retrain your brain, visit the following link: Hypnosis in Portland, Oregon.
“My doctor requested I made an appointment with you because I’ve been suffering from anxiety for years. This is why I’m here, but I’m very worried. My husband and I have loved each other for 25 years. We are best friends and partners. We couldn’t imagine life without each other. I haven’t been able to sleep since my doctor requested I see you. If you work with my mind, I will no longer have the same mind. That means my husband might no longer love me. Do you think it is possible for my husband to still love me, even if I have sessions with you?”
A praciting criminalist for over 10 years, specialized in lie detection and forensic hypnosis, Eldon is the award-winning best-selling author of over 300 books, audio and video programs. The host of the popular radio show Provocative Enlightenment, Eldon has been featured in films, print, television and radio. A Fellow with the American Psychotherapy Association, he has made a lifelong study of the human mind, earning doctoral degrees in psychology and metaphysics.
I explain to those I train that our role, as hypnotherapists, is in fact to de-hypnotize you from the negative influences and limiting beliefs you took on along the course of your life. As we grow up and evolve through childhood, we depend primarily on those around us to learn about ourselves, life and the world we live in. As others, and often authority figures, those we look up to, admire or depend on, may sometimes express negative statements about who we are and what we are capable of, we often take these statements as truths. The reality is they are simply the reflections of other people’s beliefs, born from their own, separate experiences. Once we accept a belief as truth, it begins influencing the way we think, act, react and, in other words, experience life. The more we practice these beliefs, the deeper they anchor themselves in our emotional body.