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Calendar of Training Events
May 7 - 8
Workshop in Zurich, Switzerland with Maggie
Learning What the Body Knows
May 15 - 16
Workshop in Helsinki, Finland with Maggie
Ego-State Therapy
May 20
Teleseminar with Maggie &
Kathy Kain
Somatic Resilience: Supporting Increased Capacity for Self-Regulation
June 3
Workshop in San Diego, California with Maggie
Maximizing Resiliency through Energy Psychology: Solving Health Adversity
June 10
E-Workshop with Maggie &
Peter Levine
How Somatic Experiencing® can Maximize Strength, Resiliency, and Triumph
September 25 - 26
Workshop in Heidelberg, Germany with Maggie
The Body as
Ultimate Healer of Trauma and Pain: Meeting Life with Your Whole Body
October 16 - 17
Workshop in Paris, France with Maggie
Expanding Heart Coherence: Connecting with the Heart of Healing
Maggie Phillips, Ph.D.
2768 Darnby Dr.
Oakland, CA 94611
USA
510-655-3843 |
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Greetings!
This month's edition of our newsletter brings you news of coming training events and features The Connections Between
Emotional Stress, Trauma and Physical Pain (scroll down to the bottom of this
newsletter to find this section).
To your continued good
health and well-being,
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Teleseminar & E-Workshop Calendar
 We
have two special teleseminar events coming up in May and June. On Thursday,
May 20, from 9 am - 10:30 am Pacific time, I am joined by Kathy
Kain, Director of Training for the Somatic Experiencing® foundation (FHE). We will present, Somatic
Resilience: Supporting Increased Capacity for Self-Regulation. Kathy has
developed an excellent program called "Touch for Therapists" which she is now
teaching worldwide, and she is a creative and dynamic teacher of trauma
recovery skills. For a free audio interview with Kathy, go to www.somaticperspectives.com/conversations/2008-12-kain.htm.
Please sign up now for this teleseminar at www.maggiephillipsphd.com/courses_teleseminars_kk.html Our
format is a 60-minute intensive presentation emphasizing our best thinking on
selected topics followed by a 30-minute live question and answer session. Some
of our talking points include: -
Specific methods for
successful containment of intense trauma-related affect,
sensory experience, and motor reactions related to hyperactivation and
interruption of fight, flight, and freeze survival responses;
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Ways to help clients develop mindful awareness of
their somatic symptoms
and sensorimotor patterns that also promote regulation and empowerment;
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Tools to facilitate shifts from collapse, shame,
and helplessness to expansion,
confidence, and integrity;
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How to use effective
self-touch and breathing methods to enhance capacities
for self-regulation;
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Other topics of your
interest (please submit them now at
www.maggiephillipsphd.com/courses_interactive_kk.html
Your $50 registration fee
includes: -
Unlimited access to the audio replay for a full 45 days so that you
won't miss
any part of the seminar if you cannot attend "live;" you will have plenty
of time to review the material at a time that works for you so you won't
miss a single minute of content;
- A content rich, intensive 60-minute presentation;
- A 30-minute live question and answer period with the presenters as
well as opportunity
to submit questions and topics in advance to us (go to www.maggiephillipsphd.com/courses_interactive_kk.html);
- A study guide to help you organize your learning.
Then on Thursday, June
10, from 9 am - 12 noon Pacific time, Peter Levine and I will be presenting a 3-hour
e-workshop on How Somatic Experiencing®
can Maximize Strength, Resiliency, and Triumph. Our format will include a
2-hour presentation, a video session of Peter's work with an Iraqi veteran and
our discussion of it, and a 30-minute live question and answer session. Please
remember that you do not have to attend live. The same registration fee of
$79.95 includes permanent access to the audio and other materials, whether or
not your schedule allows you to participate live. Go now to register at www.maggiephillipsphd.com/courses_teleseminars_pl.htmlIf you have questions you would like to submit in advance, please go to www.maggiephillipsphd.com/courses_interactive_pl.html
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Other Training Events
 There are still
spaces available in my workshop on Ego-Sate Therapy in Helsinki,
Finland, 15-16
May. For
information and registration, please contact Maarit Virta at maarit.virta@psykke.fi. I do hope some of you will join me at the Energy Psychology conference
in San Diego, California, one of my favorite cities, from June 3-6. If
you sign
up for my pre-conference workshop Maximizing
Resiliency through Energy Psychology:
Solving Health Adversity scheduled on Wednesday, June 3rd,
you will receive several signup bonuses including an in-depth interview
with me
on "How to Reverse Chronic Pain." For more
information and registration, visit https://m360.energypsych.org/event.aspx?eventID=10991 Looking ahead to the fall, I will be presenting The Body as
Ultimate Healer of Trauma and Pain: Meeting Life with Your Whole Bodyin
Heidelberg, Germany at the Milton Erickson Institute, from 25-26
September. For
more information about this workshop and about the Energy Pychology
conference
from 8-10 October and my presentations there, please contact
ursula.haerle@meihei.de. I will also be visiting Paris from 16-17 October to
teach a workshop
on Expanding Heart Coherence: Connecting with the Heart of Healing.
For
information and registration, please visit www.ietsp.fr or contact Bernard Mayer mayer@ietsp.fr.
Please watch later editions of this newsletter, as well as special
emails, for more details of these and other events.
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News From the Mindbody Health
Frontier
This month's article is a modified version of "The Connections Between
Emotional Stress, Trauma and Physical Pain," written
by Dr. Susanne Babbel (http://tinyurl.com/29m4bpn).
Recent studies have shown that chronic pain might not only be caused by physical injury but also by stress and emotional issues. In particular, people who have experienced trauma predating their pain conditions, and who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), are often at a higher risk to develop chronic pain.
Chronic pain is defined as
prolonged physical pain that lasts for longer than the natural healing process
should allow. This pain might stem from
injuries, inflammation, or neuralgias and neuropathies (disorders of the
nerves), but some people suffer in the absence of any of these conditions.
Chronic pain can debilitate one's ability to move with ease, may hinder their
normal functioning, and the search for relief can lead to pain medication addictions, which compound the problem. Chronic pain is also often
accompanied by feelings of hopelessness, depression and anxiety.
Many people are already familiar with the fact that emotional
stress can lead to stomachaches, irritable bowel syndrome, and headaches, but
might not know that it can also cause other physical complaints including
chronic pain. One logical reason for this is that studies have found that the
more anxious and stressed people are, the more tense and constricted their
muscles are, over time causing the muscles to become fatigued and inefficient.
Individuals might
also develop psychosomatic symptoms or stress-related pain symptoms because of
unresolved emotional issues. These are
not new discoveries; researchers have studied the mind/body interrelationship
for several decades, including the nature of this link, and have contributed
more support for this idea with recent research findings.
Experts have noticed that
experiencing a traumatic event can have an impact on the development of pain.
In fact, approximately 15-30% of patients with chronic pain also have PTSD.
Peter Levine, an expert on trauma, explains that trauma happens "when our
ability to respond to a perceived threat is in some way overwhelmed."
During a traumatic event, the nervous system goes into survival mode (the
sympathetic nervous system) and sometimes has difficulty reverting back into
its normal, relaxed mode again (the parasympathetic nervous system). If the
nervous system stays in survival mode, stress hormones such as
cortisol are constantly released, causing an increase in blood pressure and
blood sugar, which can in turn reduce the immune
system's ability to heal. Physical symptoms start to manifest when the body is
in constant distress.
If someone has experienced a
trauma prior to their current injury or trauma, old memories can potentially be triggered, exacerbating the effects of the newer
trauma. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a well-known trauma researcher, explains: "Research has shown that, under ordinary conditions, many traumatized
people, including rape victims, battered women and abused children, have a
fairly good psychosocial adjustment. However, they do not respond to stress the
way other people do. Under pressure, they may feel (or act) as if they were
traumatized all over again."
Often, physical pain functions to warn a person that
there is still emotional work to be done, and it can also be a sign of
unresolved trauma in the nervous system. Even if an
individual has grieved and processed the emotional impact of a trauma, the
nervous system might still unwittingly be in survival mode.
Dr. Maggie Phillips, author of Reversing Chronic Pain, writes: "Whether or not trauma was connected to the event or condition that
originated their pain, having a chronic pain condition is traumatizing in and of itself."
Since trauma has been found to have a strong
correlation to chronic pain, a combination of psychotherapy and physical or
somatic therapy would be the most logical pain management option for stress
and chronic pain relief. To tackle the physical aspect of chronic pain, Mindy Marantz,
director of the Healthwell clinic in San Francisco, suggests focusing on
alignment in the body, as well as posture that supports organized alignment.
Additionally, she advises pain patients to address potential inflammation, and
provides strategies to help calm the nervous system such as Craniosacral
therapy or Feldenkrais Movement Re-education. "These both will help
'stoke' the lymphatic system, which in turn helps diminish the effects of
fluids that pool as a result of injury. Lymphatic massage as well as
compression wraps and education help bring
this often overlooked pathway to recovery to patients' attention."
Beginning a daily program of
walking can help to mobilize the muscles and is the best way to stimulate the
lymph system to do its job and oxygenate injured muscles. The International
Association for the Study of Pain has concluded that acupuncture is also
effective in long-term chronic pain reductions related to musculoskeletal pain.
Although one might not be aware
of the lingering effects of the trauma, or even believe that the traumatic
event has been laid to rest, the body may be clinging to unresolved issues in
the case of chronic pain problems. Relevant psychotherapy can help to resolve
the physical problems by working with the physical sensations of pain as well
as with unresolved emotional stress that can be contributing to the problem and
blocking the effects of healing.
For more information on this
topic, please see chapter 9 in my book, Reversing
Chronic Pain, "Love: Embrace the Heart of Your Pain." To order this book,
visit www.amazon.com.
With my best wishes for your
success in reversing the effects of physical and emotional pain,
Maggie
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