I could not be more excited to announce that I am now qualified Traumatic Birth Recovery (TBR) 3 Step Rewind Technique Practitioner! As a qualified Hypnotherapist I already use rewind technique in my ‘tool kit’ of therapies, however I was really keen to learn and train with a birth trauma specialist to make sure I was giving the very best care and therapy to the clients I work with. The sad fact that 30% of all parents would describe their birth as traumatic tells me there is a definite need for such therapies to be available and easily accessible.
I recently attended TBR 3 Step Rewind training with the wonderful Alex Health – owner and founder of TBR 3 Step Rewind Technique. I already followed Alex’s business page on Facebook and Instagram and was aware how her technique was the original in the UK and considered the best by many professionals, and it had amazing results. I was sure she was the practitioner I wanted to work with (not to mention her method has the same initials as my name – it was a sign!) No sooner had I made the decision to invest in this training, it popped up on my Facebook that Alex was coming to Exeter. A rarity to get local (ish) training here the South-West, so I signed up straight away. Having now completed by case study have been signed off as a registered practitioner.
So what is TBR 3 Step Rewind?
TBR 3 Step Rewind is a fast, gentle and (in most cases) effective process that works on trauma symptoms stemming from a traumatic birth experience. It can be used to make powerful, instant and lasting change. The trauma event doesn’t have to be the actual ‘birth’ – it can be effective with any event that holds trauma for example breastfeeding, poor postnatal care, miscarriage, fertility treatment and still birth.
To understand how this works its useful to understand the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from a neurological perspective. “The symptoms experienced by someone who has gone through a traumatic event can be distressing day to day. Constant replaying, or avoiding the memory, hyper vigilance, anxiety and anger can all wear away at a person’s confidence and resilience after a while.
The fight or flight response is one of our most primitive survival systems and is designed for to allow us to act in the face of life-threatening danger. The highly aroused emotions of fear and helplessness present during the trauma become inextricably, biologically linked to the memory of the event.
A person suffering from PTSD symptoms is triggering their fight or flight response unnecessarily when there is no present danger, constantly reliving what happened and igniting the feelings all over again each time. From a neurological point of view these symptoms can be compared to a faulty burglar alarm that is triggered and goes off for no reason.
The rational, thinking part of our brain (pre frontal cortex) can be thought of as the policeman in this scenario. He tries to reassure the owner (the traumatised person) that nothing is wrong but he can’t be heard over the alarm. This is why sometimes well intentioned advice to ‘move on’ or ‘get over’ what happened is pointless because the connection has been made and so it is extremely difficult to rationalise or to wilfully stop the thoughts or feelings.” Alex Heath (www.traumaticbirthrecovery.co.uk)
The 3 Step Rewind treatment involves 3 stages:
* The treatment would start by hearing your birth story (if you are happy to tell it) and then understanding the changes you would like to feel and experiences if your trauma symptoms were lifted.
* The next stage of the treatment involves a deep relaxation, similar to hypnosis or meditation. I will guide you into a relaxed state. Whilst in this state you will be guided through remembering the event in a specific way, all the while feeling safe and secure.
* The third stage is imagining the future, free from the trauma symptoms; coping, feeling and responding differently.
So to outline - the TBR 3 Step Rewind is a form of therapy - it is a brief intervention that seeks relief of PTSD symptoms. In the majority of cases people report a significant diminishing or complete eradication of symptoms and heavy feelings, but on a rare occasion the treatment needs to be repeated. The great thing about this technique is if talking about your traumatic experience makes you feel uncomfortable there is no need the share what happened to you. You will need to remember it yourself, but you can do this without re-telling it out loud.
It is never too late to recover! Don't think that just because your trauma experience happened a long time ago that it is not relevant. This treatment is equally effective 3 months after the event as it is 3 years or even longer after the event. If PTSD symptoms or heavy feelings are still evident then the treatment is useful in eliminating them. It might be that you recognise that some of the unhelpful responses that you have day to day are as a result of what happened. If this is the case then this treatment can help.
I will now be offering this therapy as part of my range of services. If you’ve read through this blog and thought that this is something that you could benefit from or you are curious to talk through in more detail please contact me via email (info@cornwallhypno.co.uk) or give me call on 07900805116 to arrange a free 30 minute consultation.