New Hope for PTSD: How Neuroscience is Energizing the Brain to Produce Surprising Results

Introduction:

I’d been feeling this growing desire to bring my work to a new level and reaching more people. My work with a groundbreaking principles-based approach had been very effective for years, and I knew I was responding intuitively to the “cry” of the larger need in humanity.

Then I responded to an invitation to learn about a supposed “revolutionary breakthrough” in neuroscience. There was something different about this. It seemed to be saying that there was not just an evolved explanation of healing and transformation, but a breakthrough method as well. So I attended.

What I heard and saw changed my life and career forever. What I heard was in alignment with the most advanced understandings I had come to know. What I saw was a mind-body method that made total sense and produced a profound awakening in clients.

I immediately knew I had to investigate it more deeply. In doing so I soon realized I needed to become trained. In the process I was invited by its founder, Dr. Michael Cotton, to join his national leadership team. I am now the Director of Professional Outreach & Education and a spokesperson throughout the world.

The results of my work in all areas, including trauma, were noticeably accelerated. Because the most evolved part of the brain is energized and awakened, it subsequently can improve function and outcomes in all area of human experience.

Context:

Imagine a flow of bio-electric energy throughout your mind-body system. If flows in a complete circuit through your brain and throughout your body – simultaneously transmitting and receiving the information necessary for you to not only survive, but to thrive.

Now imagine that this system receives a shock so traumatic that it “clenches” and constrains this flow. The system is so frightened for its survival, that it’s ability to relax, heal, learn and grow is stilted. This results in the well-known symptoms of PTSD.

Trauma presents the mind-body system – and specifically the brain – a perceived or actual life-and-death threat.

PTSD is evidence that the mind-body system’s naturally flowing “circuitry” then becomes blocked or constrained, not confident it can bring its attention back to the world in the old way, because that is too threatening. And this is primarily occurring below the conscious threshold.

If the whole system “clenches” and can’t fully recover, it stays in a self-protective posture that inadvertently interferes with healthy living.

The most common symptoms include significant distress or impairment in the individual’s social interactions, capacity to work or other important areas of functioning.

New Hope:

It is only in recent years that treatment for PTSD has evolved beyond simple pharmaceutical and cognitive approaches to recognize and include the bio-neurological aspect. Perhaps the most promising of these advancements is an integral neuroscience program called Higher Brain Living®.

I say it is “most promising” because it demonstrates three astounding attributes each verified scientifically:

• In a safe and systematic way, it creates the most powerful (and therefore beneficial) organic energy surge to the part of the brain most responsible for healing and high functioning than any other method of which we are aware

• It can be deliberately applied to specific areas of a person’s life

• It amplifies whatever productive practices the person is employing, such as yoga, meditation, fitness, nutrition, etc.

How does it do this?

• In brief, a “bio-energy code” has been discovered in the mind-body system that has proven to physiologically “complete the circuit” – to loosen the “grip” of this clenching and allow the freed energy to go where nature intended it: To the part of the brain most capable of healing and high end functioning in all dimension of life.

• Working with the body’s energy meridians known for thousands of years – and combining it with the most advanced modern integral psychology and neuroscience – the mind-body “circuit” can be reestablished! This results in a sustained experience of “feeling whole” and returning to healthy functioning.

• Success requires no “belief” or faith in the program, because it is based in biology.

The Structure:

• Sessions are 45-minutes

• Sessions are conducted weekly to allow the mind-body to integrate the experience

• Sessions involve a gentle touch methodology on a massage table

• The method is witnessed prior to receiving it

• Two “Sample Sessions” are offered to experience it before committing to the full program

• The full program is 22 weeks long, based on findings that this is the number of sessions required to establish sustainable positive changes

• Clients receive a guidebook with clarifying information, applications in all areas of life, and ultimately living ones “authentic self”

• Clients may continue beyond the 22 sessions for personal health and growth reasons

Clients Statements:

“My ongoing abuse as a child was dissolved and now is a neutralized memory.”

John

“I was in a car accident in 2011 and had bad whip lash, PTSD, abdominal and chest bruising and pain from the seat belt following the accident. The driver fled the scene and my car was totaled. I saw a therapist for EMDR for 10-12 weeks for PTSD following the accident. When I began Higher Brain Living I had no idea how much fear, anxiety and stress I was still experiencing. I thought because I was able to drive without having an anxiety attack I no longer had symptoms. I noticed through Higher Brain Living that I had stress and anxiety while driving, while with people, while in public, while on all transportation, while at the grocery store, etc.

The anxiety and fear that “another accident’ was going to happen was looming at all times without my knowledge of it. Higher Brain Living revealed that the fear from the accident had “transferred” to almost all the other areas of my life.

I use to ride my bike all the time prior to the car accident. After Higher Brain Living I began riding my bike again after not using it for more than 2 years since the car accident. Through Higher Brain Living I have released the stress and fear of the accident and reclaimed all areas of my life. I am so grateful to have found Higher Brain Living!” K.P.

“HBL helped me to release stress so that I could finally see that I was actually grieving the loss of my son. I thought I'd never stop crying on the table, but I did.”

Kathy

“I first started in Higher Brain Living in October 2010 I could be compared to someone broken. Nearly two years prior, I lost my new husband to suicide as a result of mental illness. I suffered from daily survivor guilt, flashbacks, pain, and depression. I knew I had to get rid of them, since counseling didn’t help me. I trusted the program would help.

After about 8-10 sessions, I noticed the first major changes in my life. I no longer suffered from daily rounds of guilt and the flashbacks disappeared completely. I finally finished writing a story that became the base of my book That’s All I Got! Thrival: A Widow’s Journey After Suicide.

I released grief I didn’t know I continued to hold on to. After that my life changed as I became a writer and an author inspiring and educating others about my journey, creating awareness about suicide prevention, and aiding in other’s healing.”

Karen Voss

Facilitator Statements:

“I worked with a client who had PTSD. It very moving and beautiful to see her beautiful relaxed facial expressions come back to her. It was like a part of her had been frozen in time and HBL brought the life force and animation back into her face and body. The sparkle in her eyes and her smile returned more and more!”

“My 56-year old female client got up after her fourth session and told me that she remembered being molested when she was a four-year-old girl. She had not thought about it until now as it was being released. She said she felt so light and grateful. She knew it was gone from her system and said she did not need therapy for it.”

Leading-Edge Emersion:

I now have a local Higher Brain Living practice in the Twin Cities and continue international outreach to health and mental health professionals to consider certification. I am especially looking to work with those suffering from PTSD (and will participate in anonymous research) and professionals who work with trauma.

Mental health, addictions, health and medical professionals and others now can be certified. Higher Brain Living® is not positioned as a treatment but rather a personal development program. However, because of it powerful therapeutic outcomes, such professionals are incorporating it into their services.

An in-depth Ecourse (2014) produced for mental health and addictions professionals is available at no charge, as well as videos describing certification.