Situations of severe trauma can sometimes be resolved simply by going immediately after the event. The goal is for the client’s Subconscious Mind to realize that the event is over.
It needs to realize that the client survived, the client is still alive, that they’re in the chair in your office, and they’re all grown up. This allows that experience to be moved into long-term memory as a past event. That’s where it belongs.
If it was too much the first time, it’s probably too much for the client, now. But you can go after the event and drain off a lot of the emotional intensity. You can talk to the Child immediately after all the drama.
Even if they don’t have all the details, they’re still feeling the feelings. That’s all you need. Releasing the feelings and emotions after the event will allow the client to come to clarity about what happened.
Process the event using past tense language.
This allows the client to have some distance from the source of threat which provides safety. That’s what was missing the first time. You can then clear what happened in hindsight.
The client is still regressed. They’re just at a point immediately after the event. So, they’re still in a regressed state. This allows you to help the client realize:
- They’re not alone
- They’re safe
- They made it through that experience
- It’s over.
Remember, you’re just dealing with a Story.
The Story is just how that experience got stored as a memory. This is based on the perceptions, thoughts and feelings of the client at the age at which the event occurred. So, the younger the Child is, the more errors in perception there will be.
Whatever the Child wasn’t able to make sense of or cope with, was too overwhelming for the Child. So, it didn’t get stored as a past event. This means that, Subconsciously, that event is still happening.
Memory is not static.
It’s not a recording of a factual event. It’s a recording of perceptions, thoughts, feelings and responses. And our memories are constantly changing. This is why Subsequent Sensitizing Events (SSE) can flow back into the Initial Sensitizing Event (ISE) making it stronger.
It’s because the more times we get triggered, the more emotional intensity gets added to the original event. So, the ISE is getting stronger over time because of later events.
