ARTICLE
The Energy Perspective of Trauma
by Oxana Bondarchuk
What I mean here by trauma, is not PTSD or clinically diagnosed trauma. I am going to talk about nature of any energy wound, about separation, split, supressed material, rejected aspects, or shadow and its healing.
Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a practical guide to working with trauma
but rather an attempt to provide deeper theoretical and philosophical foundations of understanding trauma
mainly for the Mind Mirror Practitoners but also for anyone interested in the topic
Preface
After finding and making progress ourselves,
we can become guides for others.
When I was young, I was more interested in what's fashionable and promising good career and money, I did not dare to look seriously into occupations involving helping others. Like many others I felt the drive to help later in life. Choosing to study psychology, I was not fully aware of the deeper seated need than just interest in understanding how human psyche works. The truth was: I needed healing myself and it was the only path to draw my attention. I was studying Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Transpersonal Psychology, NLP, Hypnosis, Biofeedback, Energy Practices, Meditation… I was picking new directions to study and when was finally faced with starting to practice, I had to revisit my motivation. This is when I realised that my strongest motivation was not about making money, or finding a warm position in the established clinic, but it was about healing my own trauma. The trauma that I could not even name since there was no particular event or life circumstance that I could attach it to. I have seen my life experience as absolutely normal. But nevertheless, felt that I am overly sensitive than most people I worked with in a corporate world. I tend to gravitate and resonate with those as sensitive as me, i.e., the psychologists and spiritual seekers, who tend to be gentler and more vulnerable themselves (though I have met the exceptions from that too).

I remember asking a teacher of Psychotherapy at the university: "Do psychotherapists tend to have more mental problems that those in other professions?" And he honestly admitted that 'yes', 'if they would have been normal, they would have never chosen this occupation', 'whatever we say, we first and foremost seek to heal ourselves' and 'in this search of self-healing we usually walk a long path and find maps and tools to help ourselves stay afloat or adapt to life' and 'after finding and making progress ourselves, we can become guides for others … at least to the fragment of the path we already covered'.
Clearly and honestly separate two different goals:
helping yourself (and locating it into the right context, i.e. your therapist)
and helping a client.
When I simply could not imagine myself working with severely mentally compromised people, dangerous to themselves and to others around them – it is a pain to see knowing what Human potential can be – I realised I have to address my sensitivity, my shadow or my trauma.

Since, whoever comes to me will remind me of the unresolved pain within, unless I learn to deal with it. And the most important first step is to clearly and honestly separate two different goals: helping my own self and address this to my therapist or support group, and helping a client without a potential danger of 'spreading my cockroaches to other's heads' as we say it in Russian.
No matter what issue the client presents, be it seeking physical health, financial abundance or lack of creativity, often at the origin of the issue,
we are likely to find the foundational trauma.
Those practicing family system constellation work (see abstract to the right), would add that according to field theory you will attract those clients who's own trauma will very likely resonate with yours, since the field (or Higher Consciousness) is seeking the shortest and most efficient path to heal for all. It does not care about the sides you take or who is the client and who's the therapist. We actually both work together, contributing to each other's process. And it is worth mentioning, we often attract our partners through similar resonance and gravity of trauma.

By the way the trauma may show up not just like sensitivity. It could be excessive perfectionism, criticism and negative thoughts, irritability, aggressive outbursts to yourself and others, often coinciding with co-dependent or difficult relationships and addictive behaviours, minor and bigger failures in life… Many therapists also would say, that no matter what issue the client presents, be it seeking physical health, financial abundance or lack of creativity, often at the origin of the issue, we are likely to find the foundational trauma (or the hole 'sucking out most of the energy'), and then, layers and layers of other trauma's on top of it.

Systemic Family Constellations, is a therapeutic method which draws on elements of family systems therapy, existential phenomenology and isiZulu beliefs and attitudes to family.
Family Constellations take their form from family systems psychology. Influential figures in this movement include Jacob Moreno, the founder of psychodrama; Iván Böszörményi-Nagy, the pioneer of transgenerational systemic thinking; Milton Erickson, a pioneer of brief therapy and hypnotherapy; Eric Berne who conceived the concept of life scripts; and Virginia Satir, who developed family sculpture, the precursor of Systemic Constellations. In the past decade, further advancements in the use of the process have been innovated by practitioners throughout the world.
What is trauma?
Trauma is not about the event
but rather how we respond to it!
When we think about trauma, we think about big catastrophic events like wars, earthquakes, tsunami's… or smaller individual events like car crashes or family violence. We may not even think of a minor loss, like losing a favourite pet as a traumatic experience for a child. We do not think of prolonged in time stressful experiences of depressed mother or aggressive schoolteacher - that eventually builds up like water making a hole in the rock – ends up in trauma. Thus, children raised in lack of care or overstimulation, in all kinds of abnormal conditions, may end up in developmental trauma. As we were growing, our personality formed this as an adaptive response to life. Often, missing vital connections with others, like so much needed healthy attachments, loving and trustful relationships with those around us. One of my later teachers said that since no human (and mother) can be perfect, we all are invalids of our childhood.
Bert Hellinger and his followers say that over 70% of how we relate to life, our relationships with ourselves, our bodies, partners, self-realisation, and money would depend on our relationships with mother and father, since they gave is the very first imprint or template of interaction with the world, with life. The worst part is that these relationships get internalised, and we may carry the perpetrators and victims in our minds at the same time, where one part is attacking the other, and it might be challenging to find a safe and secure place inside, discover self-acceptance and self-love if there is … no relevant frequency reference in the internal states map.

We do not think of losing a job or migrating to another country at our own will as a trauma. We do not think of witnessing the hardship of fellow humans as a trauma. But it can be.

Berth Hellinger
(1925-2019)

German psychotherapist associated with a therapeutic method best known as Family Constellations and Systemic Constellations which in later years evolved into Movements of the Spirit-Mind.
The first important thing about trauma: it is not about the event! Trauma does not equal the event despite of how bad it may be. It is always about how we perceive this event, it is always about our individual response and experience. Even siblings in the same family may look at the same family violence occasions differently, one – severely impaired, another coming out of them perfectly fine.

So, it all depends on our individual capacity to withstand the stress of the situation, out individual set up and resources. Or if we talk about energy interactions, about what we resonate with. And the secret is that our energy cloud may carry in itself the traumas of our ancestors, the ones we might have never met in our lifetime but nevertheless, inherited from them their supressed material, their unspoken suffering, grief, pain, all those tears that never came out and created a strong tension, charge in the field that we as descendants can carry and seek to release through now our own individual experiences. Since we lost wholeness and smoothness (see the picture of the smooth light bulb on the insert as a metaphore), the fragments that we carry are like hooks drawing similar experiences into our life, making us repeat the life scenarios generation after generation. Some call these scenarios karma.

You may ask who is subject to pick up this supressed material from the ancestry? Anyone, who lifts its head from survival mode and happen to have some resources to be able to look at it, is likely to pick it up. In Vedic teachings, the parents and all ancestors were really praying to bring a spiritual child into this world to help them resolve their 'sins'. But what sins are we talking about?
Healing implies returning of wholeness, integrity, balance.
Like any cut in a physical world with all the pain and bleeding and interrupted communication between cells, trauma on the energy level is always about separation and loss of wholeness. The smooth integrity of skin was damaged, and vital force links, connections were lost. This is when we sometimes feel shocked from expectance of this event, followed by pain and then, actions to disinfect and put a bandage or stitches to restore the connection, to heal. Russian word 'healing' literally can be translated like 'returning wholeness'.
Trauma is interrupted flow of LOVE-LIFE,
lost context of space and time, loss of wholeness.
The nature of trauma always implies separation, split, cut, disintegration as a result of which there is often a part or aspect which remains disconnected. Usually it is a very vulnerable, weak, or simply, undesired, unacceptable (as we perceive it) part that we turn our attention away from and separate from to avoid discomfort and pain. Often, we might be even unaware that there this supressed and suffering part of us is still there 'hanging in the air' behind the veil (or even a fence that we are doing our best to hold tight) of our conscious mind, triggered and causing pain with from the first sight irrelevant stimuli.

It might be that once in a lifetime it was a useful survival strategy that saved a little girl from aggression of an alcoholic father but barricading under the table is no longer needed. The barricades now actually can protect to the extent of preventing a girl – now a woman – to live her life in the world of people.

Trauma is always lost in a context of space and time. It lives in our limbic brain related to Theta brainwaves (4-8Hz), which does not have idea of time. Traumatized people often have overly sensitive and even enlarged amygdala as the main danger alert centre and confused and sometimes shrunken hippocampus as the major memory storage place, who works together with amygdala and could not properly 'record' or 'process' the event for the long-term memory storage and messes up with our orientation in space and time. If traumatized as a child, we might not have had prefrontal cortex with its logical analytical Beta brainwaves (15-30Hz) developed enough to be able to split the event into pieces, then put them into one story, label it with proper title, time and date and place it into the right folder and shelf of the library of our memory (Theta 4-8Hz) again. Needed Beta analytical, reasoning, external world orientation skill, as well as simply verbalization, is only possible when we have developed mature Alpha (8-14Hz) not until we are 8+ years old, to make sure Beta can pack everyday experiences for storage and through Alpha (8-14 Hz) pass it down to Theta for storage in the long-term memory.
Unable to digest (integrate) certain experiential content,
trauma is like energy burping
The best metaphor I came up with for trauma phenomenon of reminding of itself is like a digestive problem of burping. We could not process the energy-information content of some life experience, we might have been lacking some digestive fluids, acids (like analytical Beta), or other resources, and thus, face this sort of 'energy burping', often coming along with dizziness and sickness from toxins built us as a result of indigestion and poisoning, leading us to losing taste to life.

Trauma is 'burping' or reminds of itself with every convenient and inconvenient occasion not necessarily through the same life events but through similar experiences, behaviour patterns, emotions or in energy terms, frequencies. Some theorists even say, trauma wants to heal itself through another trauma.

It simply wants to be back, to be integrated. Like all the energy that was supposed to flow through us – as a channel for LIFE and LOVE flow (see the inserts with my energy vision of inseparable LIFE and LOVE notions) – these parts are like encapsulated packets of divine energy that wants to be assimilated back into our energy system, back into LIFE.
Trauma is energy consuming and holds great energy potential!
Bert Hellinger called every trauma the interrupted flow of LOVE. The flow of LIFE within us (or within our ancestors) was once interrupted, stalled. We lost integrity and carry these hanging fragments of LIFE like very heavy load, like suitcases of rejected stuff, which at the same time holds a huge potential when released and reintegrated.

Healed trauma is like unlocked LIFE energy making your navigation through life lighter and powering you up like extra added battery or circuit to your energy system. Hence, thinking of the energy management, think not just about resting well, sleeping and eating well, and avoiding conflict or waste of energy. Think of all these shadow processes in the back of your computer that slow down your everyday functioning due to constant virus scanning. Imagine how much better you would feel, and your efficiency could increase after discontinuing and deleting these unnecessary energy-consuming programs! You might have heard of Jungian shadow and potential residing in it (see the insert of Trauma Potential).
It is not surprising that trauma resolution becomes acute when our energy resources are undermined: we give birth to a child or become parents, our vital energy and metabolism simply slows down after 35-40 years old… Often it coincides with what is called middle-age crises. Not only for the reason that we let go of youthful brisky energy and idealistic illusions about life, we no longer can remain ignorant to all these shadow processes and heavy suitcases and have to face the truth of who we are, what we are doing here, revisit the purpose and meaning, reset our belief and energy systems to become more connected to our and universal truth, the spiritual energy network of LIFE and LOVE (see the inserts about TRUTH and SPIRITUALITY). This is exactly when most people come to Awakened Mind Training or if they had not done it before, start their true spiritual search.
All Humans share the trauma of separation from
the Source or Higher Consiousness.
Spirituality represents a compensatory drive to restore this connection.
My intuition suggests even more. The very nature of Human life here on Earth can be seen as a separation from the wholeness of the Source, Creator or Higher Consciousness. We separate into physicality, into duality, as if driven by the foundational sort of inferiority complex introduced by Alfred Adler (see tee Abstract), we are pushed to compensate for it and sooner or later desperately start looking for our origin and roots, for a true place of our puzzle within the bigger living puzzle of LIFE, spirituality becomes our major drive.

If we revisit the concept of HEALTH as I put it eventually with the help of neurophysiology and … not surprisingly sacred geometry, Buddhism, and shamanism (watch our last webinar on 'Energy Reading' for more), it is always about
- BALANCE, as well as
- flexibility (nothing stuck),
- permeability (high receptive capacity for the flow of LIFE),
- response-ability,
- adapt-ability, and thus,
- creativity.

We cannot be rigid, get lost or stuck, we have to see the changing reality of LIFE as is. And despite of the energy-saving idleness and inertia of our minds, adapt our responses, actions accordingly, adequately to the new demands and contexts of time and space, which in the end implies we have to be creative and create every moment of our life as new. Easier said than done, of course but nobody is stopping us from trying… except ourselves.

Alfred Adler
(1870-1937)

Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology
Healing trauma is about restoration of
lost communication, trust and faith in LIFE-LOVE.
Healing trauma would imply calming to access limbic brain and fish out (or gently and carefully archeologically dig out) all pieces and fragments of trauma to assemble them together into a complete story line with all parts/participants seen, named, acknowledged, appreciated for all the lessons we've learned to bridge the gap of the traumatic wound and file it back into long-tern memory stamped with a correct date in the past and finally, switch other states, experiences (or frequencies) to explore in this lifetime.

Sometimes, just discharge of energy would do. Even without naming the details. The bodywork often does it this way, releasing the traumatic blocks in and through the body, returning once lost flexibility. What we need is to release the flow of energy back to life, let it go, and officially assign it to history. Releasing the resources for here and now on. And in the core of it would be shift of the energy frequency, underlying the traumatic experience we become so attached to.
There are many healing techniques of working with trauma, many paths leading to making a hole in this capsule with enclosed life energy and assimilating what is nutritious and eliminating what does not serve us anymore. It is always about restoring once lost connection, communication, dialogue which comes with trust. See the insert on TRUST – FAITH – BELIEF.

Interestingly, the word TRUST in the Russian language originates from the word FAITH. Needless to say, FAITH opens the doors to us of what is possible and there are plenty of examples how FAITH heals. Only if we let ourselves BELIEVE (which also originated from the word FAITH in Russian), we can face what we call miracles (see the insert on MIRACLE), including the miracles of HEALING. Forgiveness is another word that bridges and does this magic. Compassion. Gratitude. Appreciation. All the mentioned words energetically in this or that way indicate the restoration or facilitation of the energy flow of LIFE-LOVE, may be opening the new paths, new forms or ways of living.
Can trauma be ever healed? This is a good and complex question. As a first step seeing and acknowledging that we have trauma as well as allocating an appropriate place and time for it, i.e., therapy with the right specialist or circle, would already save us from the pain of 'burping' in the wrong time and place, which may lead to painful relationships, conflicts, failed tasks, etc.. And then, as the second step, restoring the trust and ability to connect deeply with at least one other right person (therapist, priest, or even beloved one), recollecting the missing link, finding the right context for it and leaving it in the past, so that it stops aching and disturbing our everyday normal existence.

Or it may naturally get timed-out when we say that 'time' heals, the time creates the needed perspective and makes it really small and insignificant. Or maybe, we could only take the acuteness of it, just the top few most painful layers, since many therapists know, how much entanglement is there and when we release one, the other comes up. In this case it is more like a life-time journey of natural LIFE processing, healing, and growth.

And my favourite version of trauma healing would say, we simply have to grow perspective high enough to find, access ourselves untouched by trauma, the level before... and after. That eternal soul or higher consciousness level which does not know the physical body suffering and is prepared to pay the highest price life takes to learn new lessons and evolve.
Trauma with the Mind Mirror
and Alpha-Theta Neurotherapy
The Mind Mirror is an electrical device that measures the electrical activity of our brain (see the insert on the MIND MIRROR). And to me, the brain is the organ registering the activity of our energy body. The Mind Mirror Vilistus 6 is a unique portable and affordable biofeedback device is first of all electroencephalograph (dual-channel EEG) and measures brainwaves and displays them in colourful bands for left and right hemisphere displaying them live and, thus, offering a great opportunity to explore the response to any stimuli (phrase, your own thoughts, image, symbol, etc.). The research done with the Mind Mirror studies highly aware swami's and yogi's which allowed to create a map of consciousness. A map consists of a few basic patterns related to various deeper or higher states that can be easily 'read' and also trained.

The device allows you to do classical Mind Mirror training via progressive meditation and exercises for brain optimisation or audio/visual feedback with the Mind Mirror software or do a clinical neurofeedback too with Vilistus software. You can also use additional biofeedback meters to enhance your understanding of physiological response of your nervous system through Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), Blood Volume Pulse (BVP) and Temperature meter. GSR responds to minor stressors (highly charged for you issues) almost like a lie-detector. BVP allows to measure and train key heart resilience marker for sportsmen and other peak-performers. Temperature meter shows whether you or your client is going high with relaxed body but active mind or simply falling asleep.

The Mind Mirror traditionally has only 5 electrodes hook-up, one reference, 2 on temporal lobes and 2 on occipital lobes which is far from 19-channel EEG but works well for mini-Q assessments and core Alpha-Theta training required for peak performance and personal transformation.

Watch this video to learn about the Mind Mirror Vilistus 6 and what it can do, its uniqueness in comparison to clinical neurofeedback.
The main marker indicating trauma with the Mind Mirror is Alpha blunting. Alpha amplitude is supposed to increase up to around 50% or more upon eyes closing which is especially evident in the occipital lobes related to processing of our visionary stimuli located right across from our eyeballs in the back of the head (Mind Mirror hook-up locations O1 and O2 ).

Watch a fragment about Alpha and trauma in a video by Paul Swingle (British Clinical Psychologist and pioneers of Neurotherapy. His clinical work provides examples of dual EEG markers on different disorders, including trauma). In this video Paul will show the example of low Alpha response upon eyes closing as well as what he calls "traumatized artists' of supressed creativity Alpha" or, in other words, inability to sustain Alpha in people of creative professions.

In relation to this video, I also want to mention that he's sharing the results of a simple experiment of exposure to strong emotionally negative pictures for 10 sec, resulting in average Alpha blunting response of -62.3% (while no photo +33% and positive photo +108.9%). Clearly, pointing at how even witnessing a traumatic event can cause trauma and definitely something to think about and remember while watching the news. Later we will also mention the important of self-care to therapists working with trauma, because what they do is in essence no different from 'witnessing the clients' trauma'.
Alpha is the dominant frequency band in a healthy adult mature brain which is formed around 6-12 years old associated with subjective state of relaxed alertness or tranquillity. It originates in Thalamus which is a relay station for integration of sensory information and feedback through multiple pathways connecting sensory (input) and motor (output, execution) regions of the brain.

Within the Mind Mirror theory, we refer to Alpha as an essential bridge that when open allows a free energy-information flow between our conscious brain and deeper subconscious levels of the mind. Without bridge open, we feel trapped in our small conscious mind-box, limited to only what we know and are aware of, unable to connect to the depth of our inner wisdom, intuition and connect with our bigger, deeper or higher self.

If we look at its neurophysiological functions, Alpha is a main clock or pacer for the brain which regulated the timing and frequency for the brain processes helping us to fasten or zoom in when we need to focus on a detail (in Beta) or slow down when we need to zoom out into a wider perspective of higher wisdom and creativity (of Theta) or even go further to growth-restoration-healing-sourcing energy-information scanning mode (of Delta). When the clock is not there yet (a childhood trauma) or broken, the memories cannot be integrated properly and got trapped somewhere in the loops of our limbic system of which Thalamus is a centre. As soon as we close eyes and our attention turns inwards, our brain is trying to deliver the supressed stuff which eats the most energy in our subconscious, i.e., our biggest traumatic material, thus, Alpha is blocking this material from coming to our awareness to avoid the pain of reliving it. It may slip through in our dreams or flashbacks at brief moments of opening Alpha, and subconscious content coming through when we naturally open Theta.
The circular Evolved Mind pattern reflects restoration of wholeness.
When opening Alpha-Theta we return to our energy core.
In regards of trauma, surprisingly, or not at all, the Mind Mirror EEG will show this separation or lack of communication from what we are aware (or want to know about ourselves) from who we truly are (our core energy self, soul). Our conscious externally oriented mind (Beta 15-30Hz) cannot communicate with internally oriented subconscious mind (Theta 4-8Hz), since the only way to do it is via Alpha (8-14Hz) bridge or lever which regulates how much attention and energy goes outside-inside and is in charge of the balance (synonymous to health) of our mature brain and stability of our energy body. Clearly, it is hard to leave in a state when your centre of gravity is off-balance. Can you imagine your energy body skewed? If we assume that what we see with the Mind Mirror is more than a flat representation but more like a toroidal field, Alpha-Theta would clearly be in the very core of our energy self.
During one of our Mind Mirror Meditation Club meetings, we looked at the brainwaves when focused on lower Dan-Tjan (a point to inches below the naval), which in many eastern traditions is associated with the energy gravity centre, I will allow myself to hypothesize that Alpha-Theta when maximized into what we see as Evolved Mind pattern would represent being rooted in your energy centre, in your core. In other words, it also represents the state of being stable, balanced, grounded, present. Metaphorically, you can imagine it as a ball where gravity centre sits right in the core and prevents it from being skewed on either side, again, from becoming dependant and/or addicted as a part of search for lost balance when the core is dislocated.
Skewed and unstable would also mean that it cannot self-regulate itself and will be prone to seeking something to reply and lean on… This is the nature of all dependencies or addictions. As we'll see substance abuse, be it common alcohol or marihuana, would be such search for stability we might not be able or know ways to achieve it naturally otherwise. Moreover, we also can see the instances of genetical predisposition to alcoholism with a low-alpha phenotypes profile. Could it be a proof for transgenerational trauma? See the insert below.
Clinical neurofeedback dealing with trauma and related substance abuse is called Alpha-Theta neurotherapy where production of Alpha and Theta is stimulated to evoke a dream-like hypnagogic state that would allow for emotional release and memory reconsolidation or integration of traumatic material with our Beta conscious mind into the right context, weaving it back into the story to be filed into our personal history.

Peniston-Kulkovsky protocol with its modifications would be the closest to what we do with the Mind Mirror during Awakened Mind training. Let's have a closer look at what Alpha-Theta is about and stands for and what's in common with our work.

Alpha-Theta proved to work well with chronic anxiety, substance abuse and PTSD. It was firs tested on a group of Vietnam war veterans suffering from trauma (PTSD) and alcoholism (SUD) and then, extended by Scott-Kaiser to polysubstance abuse. Key components of the therapy include creating a safe, relaxing, trustworthy atmosphere in a comfortable chair and usually darkened room. Usual protocol includes:
1. Initial peripheral temperature biofeedback training, autogenic training, and breathing exercises to induce relaxation
2. Mental imagery scripts based on drug and alcohol rejection scenes, treatment goals, and lifestyle changes developed prior to neurofeedback were read to subjects during the initiation of the alpha-theta training session.
3. 30 min A/T EEG session in occipital regions during eyes closed training to induce a hypnagogic state (15-30 sessions) Targeted healing happens ina hypnagogic state of Apha-Theta cross-over (Theta waves overlapping, exceeding Alpha in amplitude for 3 or more minutes), which allows for abreactive imagery to be released and assimilated.
4. Discussion about visualization experience during EEG session to access, integrate and process the experience
Yes, Awakened Mind training also starts with relaxation techniques (1) and finding those keys that will create a quick and predictive response for individual. We have a set of autogenic as well as relaxation exercises to do that. (2) In the very end of the brain profile, a quick diagnostics that we do, there is a guided meditative exercise asking you to imagine your life as you'd like it to be (we may not see life free from alcohol but set many other desirable goals for what we need to improve in our lives).

(3) Awakened Mind training meditations are structured to induce production of sustainable Alpha and gradually taking you deeper into Theta without falling asleep and keeping your conscious Beta online as an observer. The meditations are presented in a logical progressive way to build up the experience of entering into Awakened Mind and being able to do transformational work in this state. The training usually ends with one or more Personal Transformation meditations that tend to bring healing or help to remove the blocks, finding solution to the problem or creative insight. And yes, we do see crossovers, they are confirmation of Theta-Beta communication and transition of material from unconscious to conscious, unknown to known, transcendental healing event. (4) Every session ends with the discussion of subjective experience, feedback on correlations with objective brainwaves experiences as extra evidence for the depth of inner work performed.

Modified protocol (Scott-Kaiser) was extended to include frontal Theta-Beta and Sensory Motor Rhythm work (10-20 sessions) before introducing Alpha-Theta sessions (30 sessions). This is done to improve Beta awareness and attention and stimulate flexibility since SMR is like one of the major brain highways in integration and processing of sensory (input, receptors) and motor (output, speech, movement) information in preparation for a deeper work. Mind Mirror locations cover only temporal and occipital lobes but the set of exercises done in the very beginning of Awakened Mind training includes exercises aimed to stimulate Beta (say, concentration) and develop some brain flexibility with a whole range of Alpha sensory, body-switch-on exercises, so we also are gradually training the brain to get ready for deeper and harder tasks of inner work on slower frequencies.
Alpha-Theta neurotherapy results showed significant personality changes,
• reductions in the need for psychotropic medications,
• increased attention,
• increased abstinence (77% after 1 year, 2005)
• decreased depression and anxiety,
• reduced rearrest rates`,
• optimization of the surfacing of abreactive images in Vietnam war veterans (Peniston & Kulkosky, 1989)
Yes, we also do observe better focus and attention, and as a result, awareness or mindfulness, less cravings, reduction in anxiety, better moods and sleep, intuition and creativity may kick in as well as general well-being, feeling more capable and present.

A few things to add from clinical experience that might be helpful to know for Mind Mirror practitioners who may face clients with surfacing trauma (even if it was not presented as such in the main request for the training). There could be potential adverse reactions when we go deep into Theta (any Personal Transformation of Higher State meditation):
• Depression
• Experiences of depersonalization
• Regression
• Remembering of inaccessible traumatic memories

We have to keep in mind that a client (and his brain) should be ready for integration of this material and/or this is not the best therapy at this moment in time. Sometimes it is not the case and slowing down to Theta may aggravate hidden depression or cause depersonalisation in attempt to escape and protect oneself from reexperiencing pain, activating previous defence strategies or childhood programs (stored in subconscious Theta) or addressing material that is too deep, may be preverbal and cannot be yet accessed.
Logically, trauma destabilises, and the system (brain) may have developed or become very unstable which dictates contraindications to note and ensure ethical practice in case you are not clinical psychologist, psychotherapist or certified in other mental health occupation. They are:
• Subclinical seizures
• Bipolar disorder
• Psychosis

Alpha-Theta neurotherapy results showed significant personality changes,
• reductions in the need for psychotropic medications,
• increased attention,
• increased abstinence (77% after 1 year, 2005)
• decreased depression and anxiety,
• reduced rearrest rates`,
• optimization of the surfacing of abreactive images in Vietnam war veterans (Peniston & Kulkosky, 1989)
Stages of Healing Trauma
We get stuck in trauma.
There is a potential of getting stuck in... healing trauma.
As we already know, being stuck is unhealthy, but dealing with trauma therapists also get stuck. I would like to remind the 5 stages of healing by Kubler-Ross, usually they refer to grief, but they equally should be noted for trauma for the mere reason that if you do not know, you will not be able to notice yourself or your client being stuck in one of them.
When sudden change happens, we are in shock. This does not last long and super-survival powers will end and we will stop running eventually if the bones are broken. Denial comes next, when we simply reject and refuse to believe it happened, we say "It cannot be true". Frustration comes when we see that despite what we may wish, think or do, things are different, and the reality and others will keep throwing truth in our face and it can make us feel like bargaining, fighting, and feeling angry. When we deplete our energy resource, we hit the bottom – depression. Despite of the usual negative connotation, it is the beginning of the healing, cause we start recognizing the truth. We might start seeking help, experiment, look for answers and scenarios of new form of life for ourselves, until we find and assimilate change.

Typical mistake of non-specialist is to be stuck in denial. We try to devalue someone's emotions, pain, and experience, trying to reduce the magnitude or switch attention to other things. If the limb is lost, putting band aid on and pretending that nothing happened does not work. As a practitioner, we first of all need to respect others feeling and experiences and do not be afraid of our own pain within. (This comes from investment into own self-exploration, healing and supervision to know your personal weak spots and triggers as well as having supporting therapist or group of your own, so that your material is not discharged at the expense of the client on the client).

Another mistake could be encouraging 'to fight it' or 'fixing' depression, which could be just a part of natural healing cycle which takes time, and time may differ individually. The main takeaway here is knowing that this is a process taking its natural course and unfolding in its way and time. Sitting with it in observer's outpost is the best to let it run through you and leave you, eventually transformed since all of its energy passed through and there is nothing you are holding on to and nothing fighting. It transforms itself as it ends.

To sum up, the main healing resource comes from nature, LIFE itself, it wants to restore the balance. The second, comes from the therapist.
Principles of safe holding
Kuntsugi, meaning 'joining with gold', this centuries-old art is more than an aesthetic. For the Japanese, it's part of a broader philosophy of embracing the beauty of human flaws. It is a beautiful illustration of healing trauma. See the insert.
Allocate your own trauma .
Approach from connected state.
Moderate volume.
As one of the therapists said, most of clients come with the silent request to be held, seen, acknowledged, cared for…to restore the flow of LIFE orders of LOVE.

The first principle of safe holding is:
1. Be aware your own trauma (healed, no acuteness, or not interfering = left to your therapist). If you feel or know of potential unresolves stuff, take it off like a heavy winter coat and leave it in the corridor till the session is over. Do not bring it into the treatment room, take it to your therapist later to take care of it.

2. Approach from resourceful state (adult position, presence, silence, and not knowing). This is clearly what I call Energy Perspective. Act as a professional who offers one's resources to facilitate healing: knowledge about inner world maps and tools, attention-torch (energy) to be used to shine out and fish out the missing fragments from the darkness. Adult position also implies do not hiding or running away, sustaining our own balance, sitting in our energy core (or at least be able to quickly return there if losing). Acceptance, silence and humility are critically important. We might scare the unknown with what our biased knowledge. We are recognising the superiority and gratefulness of LIFE and welcoming it to unfold in the most efficient and appropriate way. This implies we should be able to withstand its truth ourselves in whatever form it shows up to help it find the flow.

3. Approach safely from "here and now", monitor/zoom in-out distance (and volume). Here and now – simple words and mindfulness anchor that should help to remind that this is not reoccurring in the present, present environment is safe and therapeutic setting can handle to look at it from the distance of the present moment, returning the event the right context of time and space. We might be able to Zoom in and out with our attention to moderate the applicable volume for material presentation and integration. It is a master level but too much of our attention may lead to 'flooding' and we might sink together, too little may not give enough compassion to feed the process unfolding. We need to be right in the middle, not taking sides, just holding and regulating the boundaries for both, ourselves and the client, trusting the process, respecting the ultimate soul's will to whatever it will eventually chose to experience.
Inspirational Quotes
Accept your shadow and your soul's desire
to experience the full spectrum of LIFE.
To finish up the topic, let's look into a few quotes which nail it once again from the energy perspective.
Recommended meditations and webinar programs
Visit our Mind Mirror Portal Meditation Centre and check out a great collection of meditations for self-healing and personal transformation as well as collecting healing energy for sending others. I listed below t a few of my favourite ones. I also invite you to join our Mind Mirror Meditation Club meetings where we try new meditation each month and look at its brainwaves.
If you liked this, you might be also interested to watch related webinar programs by Institute for the Awakened Mind (see below) or visit our Video Gallery.
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