Hi Butterfly Warrior, sorry, I didn't follow your train of thought earlier. You were right, it was a bit of a tangent...I get inspired and there I go!

I read in one of your posts that you found "exposure therapy" yukky. I can really relate to your comments about it. Actually, I get quite worked up about the subject. I think too often "exposure therapy" is actually "flooding". And, in my books flooding isn't good for the nervous system.

Exposure therapy doesn't have to feel yukky if it's titrated. But I can't imagine using it without knowing what's going on inside someone, which is what I get when I use somatic therapy.

Problem is, exposure therapy works. But not in the way that's always beneficial. I hope you don't find yourself in a similar situation.

If you permit to go on a bit of tangent...for years behaviour therapy (the basis for exposure therapy) was the rationale for letting babies cry themselves to sleep. It worked! They stopped crying and each night they cried less and less. Problem is, they weren't recognizing that the babies were becoming docile. In effect, they were becoming depressed or as some practitioners might say, they were going into dorsal.

Behaviour therapy is based on good science. It's the application of its principles that I have a problem with. Not enough measures are taken to look at the whole person to see the impact of an intervention.

I think we're wired to avoid fear inducing stimuli for good reason. And, when we're ready, we step into the change. It doesn't need to be forced. And getting to that point of readiness, comes about with safety. Until that reptilian brain is safe, it will work against efforts that are contrary to what it feels is survival related.

So what am I questioning with the baby example above? How do we know that your fears aren't going underground where they might be harmful to you in other ways? I've certainly seen people become more activated once they've been flooded, which is what exposure therapy does.

So, I was glad to hear that you didn't like it. I'd say that's good instincts.

Well, that's my rant for the day,

Take care,
Shrinklady