How is Mind-Body Oriented Psychotherapy Different From Traditional Psychotherapy?

I have written about Experiential Therapy, which is also known as mind-body oriented therapy or bottom up therapy, in prior articles (see links for a list of articles below).

Mind-Body Oriented Therapy vs Traditional Therapy

How is Mind-Body Oriented Therapy Different From Traditional Therapy?

Mind-body oriented psychotherapy is different from traditional therapy because it integrates the physical body into the psychological healing process instead of relying only on verbal dialog, intellectual analysis and insight alone.

As I have mentioned in prior articles, traditional talk therapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), uses a "top down" approach focusing on thoughts to influence feelings and behavior.  

In contrast to traditional talk therapy, mind-body oriented therapy or somatic therapy uses as "bottom up" approach. This means it uses physiological regulation in addition to focusing on thoughts and behavior to calm the nervous system and unlock psychological change.

Core Direction of Healing

• Traditional Therapy (top down): Targets the conscious rational mind. It analyzes problems, restructures distorted thinking and explores personal history to change emotional responses.

Mind-Body Oriented Therapy vs Traditional Talk Therapy

• Mind-Body Therapy (bottom up): Targets the autonomic nervous system. It addresses how stress and trauma are physically stored in the body as well as posture and breathing patterns.

Comparison of Key Differences

Primary Vehicle

• Traditional Therapy: Verbal communication and cognitive reflection.

Mind-Body Oriented Therapy vs Traditional Therapy

• Mind-Body Therapy: Bodily sensations, movement and physiological tracking as well as reflection on the connection between the mind and unconscious processes.

View of the Body

• Traditional Therapy: The body is a passive bystander that reacts to thoughts.

Mind-Body Oriented Therapy vs Traditional Therapy

• Mind-Body Therapy: The body is an active partner that can express unspoken trauma.

Key Objectives

• Traditional Therapy: Insight development, behavior modification and narrative reframing.

• Mind-Body Therapy: Nervous system regulation, awareness of the body and trauma processing.

Pacing and Flow

• Traditional Therapy: Continuous conversation, logical analysis and structured debate.

Mind-Body Oriented Therapy vs Traditional Therapy

• Mind-Body Therapy: Frequent pauses, mindful silence and inward sensory tracking.

Differences in Applied Technique

• Traditional Therapy: Relies on cognitive restructuring, behavioral tracking, exposure exercises and exploring historical family dynamics.

• Mind-Body Therapy: Incorporates targeted breathwork, progressive muscle relaxation, grounding exercises , containment exercises and psychological and physical release of painful experiences.

Trauma Processing

• Traditional Therapy: Can sometimes overwhelm clients by revisiting traumatic memories in an abstract way without containment.

Mind-Body Oriented Therapy vs Traditional Therapy

• Mind-body Therapy: Mind-body therapy, like EMDR therapy, Somatic Experiencing, IFS Therapy and AEDP, focus on discharging the physical survival energy bound to the traumatic memory. This usually provides faster and safer psychological and physiological relief.

Therapeutic Synergy

While traditional therapy and mind-body therapy are distinct, these approaches aren't mutually exclusive. 

Mind-Body Oriented Therapy vs Traditional Therapy

Many modern psychotherapists use an integrative approach where cognitive insights from talk therapy are grounded and stabilized through mind-body oriented techniques.

My Approach

My original training over 25 years ago was in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy which are both depth-oriented therapies.

Over the years, I trained in mind-body oriented therapies like EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, IFS, AEDP, hypnotherapy and Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples because I found that psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy were limited. 

As a result, I use an integrative approach which combines the best of depth psychology and mind-body oriented therapy to help clients heal emotional wounds.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, IFS/Parts Work, EFT (for couples), Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

I use an integrated approach to therapy to help individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

I provide a free 10-15 minute phone call before setting up a first appointment.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Also See My Articles:

What Are the Benefits of Integrative Therapy?

What is the Difference Between a Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach to Therapy?

Healing From the Inside Out: Why Intellectual Insight Isn't Enough 

What is Somatic IFS Therapy? 

Integrating Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Experiential Therapy

As a psychotherapist of nearly 30 years, I've find that many people still think of psychoanalysis as Freudian psychoanalysis--even though this is an outdated perspective.

Integrating Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Experiential Therapy

Why Does the Public Still Have Outdated Views on Psychoanalysis?

Since Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis, it's understandable that people still view psychoanalysis in this outdated way.

Contemporary psychoanalysis has undergone significant changes in the last 50 or so years but, unfortunately, it hasn't gotten much publicity outside of psychoanalytic circles.

Pop culture tends to focus on outdated and stereotypical perspectives on psychoanalysis related to the early days of psychoanalysis such as: 

• Clients lying on the couch 
• Therapists sitting behind them
• Clients free associating and talking about their childhood
• Therapists sitting silently maintaining a "neutral" presence
• Therapists taking notes and occasionally makes "interpretations"

What is Contemporary Psychoanalysis?

Contemporary psychoanalysis has moved beyond classical Freudian analysis to emphasize the relationship between the client and the analyst.  They also incorporate various other disciplines (more about this later in this article). In addition, contemporary psychoanalysis includes:

• A Relational Dynamic: The relationship between the client and the therapist is seen as the primary vehicle for change. Contemporary psychoanalysis focuses on the "here and now" of this dyadic interaction. This is a shift from older models of psychoanalysis where the focus was historical and the analyst was viewed as a detached authority in the therapy.

• Collaboration and Mutuality: Contemporary psychoanalysis is seen as collaborative and interactive where both the client and the therapist are involved in a two-person psychology. The internal world of the therapist and client can intersection and the mutual influence is understood and worked with (see my article: Psychotherapy as a Co-created Process Between Clients and Therapists - Part 1 and Part 2).

Integrating Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Experiential Therapy

• Integration of Research: Contemporary psychoanalysis incorporates findings from other disciplines to build a more comprehensive understanding of the mind, including:
• Child development
• Attachment theory
• Neuroscience
• Memory research

• Emphasis on Subjective Experience: Contemporary psychoanalysis values the unique and subjective experience of the client to understand their inner world in a way that is meaningful and transformative for the client.

• A Goal of Deeper Insight: Contemporary psychoanalysis strives to uncover unconscious processes and relational patterns that keep a client "stuck." It allows for a deeper understanding of the client and new ways of relating (see my article: Making the Unconscious Conscious).

Integrating Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Experiential Therapy

• Rigorous Training: To become a contemporary psychoanalyst, a therapist must undergo intensive training at a psychoanalytic institute and their own three-time-a-week psychoanalysis, a lot of clinical supervision and coursework. In addition, contemporary psychoanalysts usually continue to keep up with new theories, trainings and continue to work on their own personal development (see my article: Striving to Be a Lifelong Learner).

Integrating Contemporary Psychoanalysis With Experiential Therapies

I completed my four year psychoanalytic training in 2000. 

After I completed my psychoanalytic training, I trained in various Experiential Therapies including:

• Hypnotherapy (also known as Clinical Hypnosis)

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy

• AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy

• Parts Work Therapy (Ego States Therapy and IFS: Internal Family Systems)

• Emotion Focused Therapy For Couples (EFT) (EFT)

• Somatic Experiencing

• IFS and Ego States Therapy

I also became certified in Sex Therapy to work with individuals and couples who are having sexual/relational problems. As of this writing, I also teach and supervise licensed therapists who are in postgraduate training in a sex therapy program, Institute For Contemporary Psychotherapy (ICP) in New York City.

As a psychotherapist who works in a contemporary way, I have found that integrating contemporary psychoanalysis with experiential therapy produces the best results, especially when working with a client's unresolved trauma (see my article: Integrating Contemporary Psychoanalysis and EMDR Therapy For Trauma Work: A Powerful Combination).

Combining contemporary psychoanalysis and experiential therapy provides an opportunity to integrate depth psychology and the embodied mind-body connection including:

• A Relational Focus: The "here-and-now" focus on contemporary psychoanalysis is also found in experiential therapy like AEDP, EMDR, IFS, Ego States Parts Work, hypnotherapy, Somatic Experiencing and other experiential therapies.

• An Embodied Experience: An integration of contemporary psychoanalysis and experiential therapies emphasize the client's and therapist's embodied experience. Together they link physical sensations and non-verbal cues (key components to all experiential therapies) to relational patterns, central to contemporary psychoanalysis (see my article: Experiential Therapy and the Mind-Body Connection: The Body Offers a Window Into the Unconscious Mind).

Integrating Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Experiential Therapy

• Affect Regulation: Therapists who use experiential therapies help clients to regulate their emotions which would otherwise be overwhelming. At the same time, both  contemporary psychoanalysis and experiential therapies help the client to understand the historical perspective of their emotional responses in early in therapy before using healing techniques.

• Trauma Work: Experiential therapies provide evidence-based protocols for processing trauma. At the same time, contemporary psychoanalysis helps to contextualize the client's personality and history. 

• Challenging the "Quick Fix" Mentality: Both contemporary psychoanalysis and experiential therapies challenge the idea that there can be a "quick fix" for long-standing problems. While it's generally true that experiential therapies can potentially bring about transformation in a more efficient way than psychoanalysis, both contemporary psychoanalysis and experiential therapies attempt to achieve a more meaningful and longer lasting transformation as compared to a"quick fix" (see my article: Beyond the Band-Aid Approach to Overcoming Psychological Problems).

Conclusion

Contemporary psychoanalysts who integrate experiential therapies value a flexible, client-centered approach that provides the deep contextual understanding of modern psychoanalysis and with powerful, targeted experiential therapy techniques.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples), IFS/Ego States Parts Work, Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

I work with individual adults and couples (see my article: The Therapeutic Benefits of Integrative Psychotherapy).

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

What Are the Rewarding Benefits of Attending Experiential Psychotherapy?

Many people seek help in therapy when they're in a crisis. 

A crisis might involve a loss in their life or a major change where they're struggling to cope (see my article: How a Crisis Can Bring Positive Change in Your Life).

The Benefits of Attending Experiential Therapy

But aside from seeking help in therapy in a crisis, there are many benefits to attending therapy even when you're not in a crisis, which I discuss in this article.

The Benefits of Attending Experiential Therapy

If you're considering beginning therapy, here are some of the rewarding benefits:

Treat Mental Health Conditions 

Putting your well-being first and getting the help you need is a sign of strength (see my article: Common Misconceptions About Psychotherapy: Going to Therapy Means You're "Weak").

Some people who need help don't come to therapy because they're afraid of the stigma, but there's a lot more psychoeducation now that there should not be a stigma involved with going to therapy and the alternative, which often means remaining unhappy is much worse (see my article: Mental Health Awareness: Reducing the Stigma of Getting Help in Therapy).

The Benefits of Attending Experiential Therapy

Anxiety and depression have increased, especially since the pandemic, so if you're feeling anxious or depressed, you're experiencing problems that millions of people are also expeirencing.  

There are safe and effective modalities of therapy to treat anxiety and depression, so you don't need to suffer alone (see my article: Self Help Tips on How to Cope With Anxiety).

One of the most common problems is unresolved trauma--whether it's a new experience of trauma or, more often, an unresolved trauma from earlier in life that continues to affect them now (see my article: How Past Unresolved Trauma Can Affect How You Feel Now).

The good news is that there are specific types of trauma therapy that have been developed specifically for unresolved trauma.

These modalities are known for being Mind-Body Oriented therapies which are also called Experiential Therapy:

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy

AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy)

Somatic Experiencing Therapy

Parts Work (also known as Ego States Therapy and Internal Family Systems)

See my article: Why Experiential Therapy is More Effective Than Regular Talk Therapy

Develop Coping Skills and Strategies

Whether you want to improve your overall coping skills and internal resources or you want to learn to cope with a particular problem, working with a skilled psychotherapist can help you to preserve your sense of well being.

Developing Coping Skills in Experiential Therapy

Depending upon how your therapist works, here are just a few of the coping skills, strategies and internal resources you can develop in Experiential Therapy:

Meditation

Grounding Techniques

Anchoring Techniques

Somatic Awareness

Embracing Your Shadow Self

Strengthening Your Resilience

Learning to Empower Yourself With Parts Work

Develop Increased Self Awareness

Self awareness is part of emotional intelligence (see my article: How to Develop Emotional Intelligence).

Developing Self Awareness in Experiential Therapy

Learning to be self aware can help you to understand yourself as well as the impact you have on others, including your loved ones (see my article: What is Self Awareness?).

Developing increased self awareness is a skill you can learn. 

Self awareness includes:

• Being able to tap into your own thoughts and feelings

• Recognizing your personal strengths and areas where you have challenges (see my article: Discovering Your Personal Strengths in Psychotherapy)

• Recognize self limiting beliefs you have about yourself so you can work on changing them

• Recognizing how your thoughts, feelings and behavior affect others

Learn to Handle Your Emotions

Emotional regulation is an important skill you can learn in psychotherapy, especially in Experiential Therapy (see my article: Learning to Manage Your Emotions).

Emotional regulation includes understanding and managing your emotions so your emotions don't overwhelm you or cause you to engage in impulsive behavior.

Experiential therapy can help you to manage triggers that cause you to feel emotionally dysregulated.

    See my article:Responding Instead of Reacting to Stress).

Learn to Overcome Negative Thoughts About Yourself and Improve Self Esteem

Everyone has negative thoughts once in a while, but if you tend to have negative thoughts about yourself often, psychotherapy can help you to overcome these habitual thoughts and increase your self esteem (see my article: How Psychotherapy Can Help You to Change the Negative (Distorted) Stories You Tell Yourself).

Focusing on Inner World to Improve Self Esteem

Improve Communication Skills

People who attend psychotherapy often develop increased self awareness which, in turn, improves their interactions with others so they can communicate their thoughts and feelings more effectively (see my article: Improving Communication in Your Relationship: How to Stop Defensive Behavior).

Improving Communication Skills

Develop Stronger Relationships

With increased self awareness and improved communication skills, you're more likely to develop stronger relationships.

You can gain insight into how your behavior affects your relationship and, if you need to make improvements in this area, learn how to change behavior that might be contributing to a negative cycle in your relationship.

Developing a Stronger Relationship

You can also learn how to set healthy boundaries in your relationships as well as accept the healthy boundaries that people in your life are setting for themselves (see my article: How to Set Healthy Boundaries Without Guilt or Shame).

Learn to Accept Healthy Support

Psychotherapy can help you to learn how to accept positive healthy emotional support.

People who grew up in families where they had little to no emotional support or where they couldn't trust emotional support often have problems trusting anyone to give them emotional support because getting healthy support is unfamiliar to them (see my article: Can You Learn to Trust Your Therapist If You Couldn't Trust Your Family?).

Learning to Accept Healthy Support in Experiential Therapy

You and your therapist can develop a healthy therapeutic alliance over time so that you can develop trust in your therapist and the therapeutic process (see my article: 10 Tips on How to Open Up to Your Therapist).

After you have learned to accept healthy support in therapy, you can learn to choose healthy relationships where you can get and give emotional support.

Improve Your Mental and Physical Health

Due to the mind-body connection, there is a strong connection between mental health and physical health and therapy can help you to improve both. 

Improving Your Mental and Physical Health

For instance, by improving how you handle stress, it's possible for you to improve your sleep and possibly lower your blood pressure (see my article: Tips on How to Improve Your Sleep).

Getting Help in Therapy

If you have been struggling on your own to overcome problems, you could benefit from getting help from a skilled mental health professional.

Getting Help in Experiential Therapy

An experienced psychotherapist can help you to overcome your problems so you can live a more fulfilling life.

So, rather than struggling on your own, seek help from a licensed psychotherapist.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT, Somatic Experiencing and Sex Therapist.

With over 20 years of experience, I have helped many individual adults and couples to live more fulfilled lives.

One of my specialties is helping clients to overcome trauma.

I use an integrative approach to psychotherapy so that clients can have the best possible experience (see my article: The Benefits of Integrative Psychotherapy).

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Moving Beyond Blaming Your Parents in Therapy

Many people think that contemporary psychotherapy is all about blaming your mother or blaming both of your parents for your unresolved problems, but this is an outdated view of therapy that is part of the many myths about modern psychotherapy (see my articles debunking common myths about contemporary psychotherapy, including the myths that Going to Therapy Means You're Weak, Psychotherapy is "All Talk and No Action," and Psychotherapy Always Takes a Long Time).

Moving Beyond Blaming Your Parents in Therapy

While it's true that historically traditional psychoanalysis from a generation ago focused blame on parents, especially mothers, most contemporary psychotherapists have moved beyond that.

Most contemporary psychotherapists know that while it's important to understand how problems might have developed early on, they also know that if that's all therapy has to offer, clients will remain stuck in an angry, frustrated place and change will be difficult at best.

Developmentally, our perspective about our parents usually changes over time (see my article: How Your Perspective About Your Parents Changes Over Time).

While many young children see their parents as being wise and powerful, as these children get older they begin to see their parents in a more realistic way.  They recognize that their parents have their own problems, which might be intergenerational (see my article: Psychotherapy and Intergenerational Trauma).  

This isn't to say that some parents weren't emotionally and physically abusive to their children which created trauma. But, after recognizing the origin of their problems, which might also include genetics, temperament, and other important relationships, clients need to be assisted in therapy to move beyond blaming their parents so they can make progress in therapy.

How to Move Beyond Blaming Your Parents For Your Problems

Everyone's situation is different, and I don't know your particular situation or your personal history.  

While you might have good reason for being angry with your parents for things they did (or didn't do), at the same time, this can't be the where your development in therapy stops if you want to overcome your problems because, as previously mentioned, you'll get stuck blaming your parents and not taking steps to overcome your problems.

After you process your anger in therapy towards your parents (or someone else), you need to move beyond that stage to actually process your problems because your parents can't do it for you.

Processing the trauma is how you will heal. Depending upon your individual problems and what therapy might work best for. you, therapy could include the following forms of experiential therapy:

• Parts Work: This form of therapy, which has many different names, including Ego States work, Internal Family Systems (IFS), as well other names. It was developed by many different therapists over time, including Dr. Richard Schwartz.  It involves recognizing that we're all made up of a multiplicity of selves, which includes a child part as well as an adult part, and many other parts. So, to give just one example of how this type of therapy can be used, if you grew up in a home where you were emotionally neglected, a Parts Work therapist can help you to develop a more nurturing adult part so that you can nurture the child part of you that holds the trauma. With this type of therapy, there's a recognition that you mihjt not have gotten what you needed emotionally when you were a child, but you can always give it to yourself if you learn how to do it (see my article: Understanding the Many Aspects of Yourself).

• EMDR Therapy: EMDR therapy, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro.  It helps you to reprocess unresolved trauma, including unresolved childhood trauma, also known as developmental trauma, through a process called memory reconsolidation (see my article: Experiential Therapy, like EMDR, Helps You to Achieve Breakthroughs to Overcome Trauma).

• Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (also known as AEDP): AEDP, which was developed by Dr. Diana Fosha, to help clients overcome trauma. It's based on many different disciplines, including:

• attachment theory
• affective neuroscience
• trauma research
• developmental research 
• mind-body/somatic therapy
• emotion theory
• phenomonology 
• transformational studies

• Somatic Experiencing (also known as SE): SE, which was developed by Dr. Peter Levine, takes into account that trauma is stored in the body.  This often leads to emotional numbing also known as dissociation. SE can help clients to release the trauma and help them to feel more integrated emotionally and physically.

• Clinical Hypnosis (also known as hypnotherapy): Clinical hypnosis helps clients to achieve a relaxed state where they can have access to deeper, unconscious material and that can help clients to become more open to change.

• Integrative Psychotherapy: Many experiential therapists work in a way that integrates the different types of therapies mentioned above, which is often beneficial for clients (see my articles: The Therapeutic Benefits of Integrative Psychotherapy and Why Experiential Therapy is More Effective Than Regular Talk Therapy to Overcome Trauma).

It's not unusual for experiential therapists to use the different modalities mentioned above during different stages of therapy, depending upon what the client needs.  

For instance, in my prior article, where I discussed that clients aren't defined by their psychological trauma, I gave an example in the clinical scenario where the therapist started with Parts Work and then used EMDR therapy.

Conclusion

Unlike outmoded forms of psychotherapy from a century ago, contemporary psychotherapy recognizes that if clients don't move beyond the stage of blaming their parents, they will remain stuck with their problems.  

Experiential therapy, including EMDR, Parts Work AEDP, Somatic Experiencing and clinical hypnosis provide clients with an opportunity to work through unresolved problems so they can move on with their life (see my article: What is a Trauma Therapist?).

Rather than remaining stuck in a blame trap, contact an experiential psychotherapist who can help you to overcome the obstacles that are blocking your growth.

About Me

I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT, Parts Work and Somatic Experiencing therapist.

As an experiential therapist, helping clients to overcome trauma is my specialty.

I work with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 or email me.    

Why Experiential Psychotherapy is More Effective Than Talk Therapy Alone to Overcome Trauma: A Clinical Vignette

In my prior article, Why Experiential Psychotherapy is More Effective to Overcome Trauma Than Talk Therapy Alone, I began a discussion about experiential therapies like EMDR therapy, Somatic Experiencing and clinical hypnosis and why experiential therapy is more effective than talk therapy (psychodynamic or cognitive behavioral therapy) alone.  As I mentioned in my last article, I'm providing a clinical vignette to illustrate these points in this article.

Why Experiential Psychotherapy is More Effective Than Talk Therapy Alone to Overcome Trauma

Fictional Clinical Vignette: Why Experiential Psychotherapy is More Effective Than Talk Therapy Alone to Overcome Trauma:

Tia
Tia began psychotherapy with an experiential psychotherapist after having been with prior psychotherapists who practiced psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Although she felt she gained valuable insights in her therapy with a psychodynamic psychotherapist and she learned some helpful tools with her CBT therapist, she felt that her core problem, which was a fear of being sexual with her current boyfriend as well as, in the past, with her previous boyfriends.

In her prior psychodynamic psychotherapy, she learned that her fears stemmed from early sexual molestation by her maternal uncle.  Prior to attending this therapy, she had always known about the sexual molestation, but she never connected it to her fear of being sexual.

Although this insight was valuable to her, Tia still got emotionally triggered in her relationship with her boyfriend, John, especially when they made love.  She loved John and she had no doubt that he loved her.  She felt close to him most of the time, but when they had sex, she felt numb and there were times when she had to ask John to stop making love to her because she felt overwhelmed with fear.

Even though she understood the origin of her fear of making love with John, it didn't help her to overcome the emotional and physical numbing that she experienced when he touched her sexually.

After being with her psychodynamic psychotherapist for several years, she went to a therapist who practiced CBT.  Her CBT therapist provided her with tools for anxiety and tried to use desensitization  techniques to help Tia overcome her fear of being sexual with John.

But when Tia was with John and they attempted to be sexual, she continued to feel fearful and then numb, even though she tried using the tools that she developed in CBT.  The CBT desensitization also didn't help her outside the therapy room.

Since Tia wanted to overcome her fear of being sexual, she decided to try experiential psychotherapy after hearing from a friend that it was helpful to her.

After several sessions of providing the history of her problem, family history, and preparation to do trauma work, Tia's experiential psychotherapist recommended that they use EMDR therapy (see my articles: EMDR Therapy - When Talk Therapy Isn't Enough, How EMDR Therapy Works: EMDR and the Brain, and EMDR Therapy For Big T and Smaller T Trauma).

As they worked on Tia's problem using EMDR therapy, Tia's therapist did a "float back" (similar to the affect bridge in clinical hypnosis) to see if there were any earlier memories (also called "feeder memories") that were affecting Tia.  

As Tia focused on whether there were any earlier memories where she had the same emotions and negative beliefs about herself that she had related to her memory of her uncle sexually molesting her, she remembered that when she was a few years younger, an older cousin sexually molested her and threatened to hurt her if she told anyone about the sexual abuse.

Tia's psychotherapist explained to her that, based on feedback from Tia, her earlier psychodynamic therapy provided Tia with insight and helped her to understand the unconscious emotions that were affecting her.  And CBT provided her with some tools, but that therapy remained superficial.

As a result of both therapies, Tia could talk about her problem, but her understanding remained intellectual.  Neither therapy helped her when she froze in fear physically and emotionally when she and her boyfriend tried to have sex.

In addition, and this was important--neither therapy got to the earlier memory of the sexual molestation and threats by her cousin.

After they discovered that there was an earlier memory of sexual molestation when she was younger, Tia's psychotherapist focused on that memory first and when they completed the work on that memory, they focused on the later sexual molestation involving the uncle.  This took several months.

Since EMDR therapy focuses on the past, present and future, after they worked through both memories, they focused on Tia's fear and numbing in the present with her boyfriend.

Why Experiential Psychotherapy is More Effective Than Talk Therapy Alone to Overcome Trauma 

Having worked though the earlier memories of abuse, the present and future/anticipated situations were easier.  And Tia reported to her therapist that she was no longer feeling fearful and numb when she had sex with her boyfriend, and they were enjoying an active sex life.

Conclusion
In this particular scenario, I used an example of EMDR therapy, but the same could apply to clinical hypnosis, Somatic Experiencing, Coherence therapy, and Ego States therapy (also known as Parts Work).

Some people respond better to one type of experiential therapy than another.  For the sake of brevity, I used a scenario where the client responded well to EMDR, but I could have also given a scenario where the therapist either switched to one of the other types of experiential therapies or used these experiential therapies in combination as many integrative psychotherapists do.

As I mentioned in my prior article, there are many reasons why experiential psychotherapy is more effective than talk therapy alone, including the fact that talk therapy tends to remain on a cognitive level whereas experiential therapy gets to the root of the problem on a deeper (limbic brain) level where the problem exists.

Also, both EMDR therapy and clinical hypnosis have particular methods to discover whether there are "feeder memories," which are earlier memories that are affecting the trauma.  In clinical hypnosis, the method is called the affect bridge and in EMDR the method is called the float back technique.

Unless the earlier feeder memories are worked on, the problem will only be partially solved and the client is still likely to get triggered.

In the scenario above, if the psychotherapist had not looked for feeder memories, Tia and her therapist would only have worked on memory that Tia came in with, but that earlier feeder memory would have continued to affect her when she was sexual with her boyfriend.

Although experiential psychotherapy tends to be more effective and work faster in helping clients to overcome trauma as compared to talk therapy alone, experiential therapy isn't a quick fix, and everyone processes their problems differently with experiential psychotherapy.

Getting Help in Therapy
If you have been suffering with unresolved trauma, you could benefit from getting help from a licensed mental health professional who practices experiential psychotherapy.

To overcome trauma, you need more than just insight.  You need psychotherapy that will get to the root of the trauma in the limbic brain, which is what experiential therapy does (see my articles: The Benefits of Psychotherapy and How to Choose a Psychotherapist).

After you have overcome your traumatic experiences, you can be free from the emotional burdens of your history and live a more fulfilling life.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist (see my article: The Therapeutic Benefits of Integrative Psychotherapy).

I am a trauma-informed experiential psychotherapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.