– Voltaire
The Rewind Technique Explained
So what are the main symptoms of PTSD ?
- Repeated nightmares that destroy normal sleep patterns
- Vivid flashbacks, feeling like its all happening right now
- Hypervigilance, always on guard and scanning for danger
- Irritability, anger or annoyance at simple things
- Feeling numb or not present
- Plus more……
Research shows that if left untreated these symptoms can cause physical issues such as; sweating and trembling, digestive problems, physical pain and more long term physical health issues.
Apart from which, the effects of psychological trauma can be totally overwhelming and have long lasting consequences, disrupting home and working life and disabling people’s lives.
What happens in PTSD ?
Very briefly; when a deeply traumatic event occurs the emotional reaction (terror, fear etc.) can be so strong that the brain cannot process the event into a normal memory. Instead the experience is held in the amygdala (the freeze/flight/fight centre) of the brain, encoded as a ‘life threatening template’. It is not passed to the hypocampus for further processing, it is not turned into a normal memory. In other words, because of the strong emotions attached to the traumatic event it gets stuck and is not processed fully. The traumatic event remains ‘live’ and that’s why it keeps coming back to you in different ways.
What is the best therapy for PTSD
The Rewind Technique is a very gentle, a non invasive, a one session method of detraumatisation. It is carried out in a state of deep relaxation, which detags the strong emotion from the memory, enabling the brain to recognise the event is over and is in the past. The memory is not taken away, but by taking the strong emotions off of it the experience can become a normal (non bothersome) memory.
The rewind technique has been used successfully in Trauma therapy for over 30 years. I have been using it for at least 20 years now, with really positive results.
The Rewind Technique is Totally Safe
- No harm can come to people by using this technique, unlike some other talking therapies where the trauma can be embedded even deeper.
- In addition, Rewind is non voyeuristic. For instance; a person who has been raped, can undergo the treatment without having to talk to the counsellor about any of the intimate details of the traumatic experience, if they find talking about it is too difficult.
- Thirdly, the technique is fast. A person traumatised by being in a road accident, for example, and who, as a consequence, couldn’t drive or even get back into a car, could get in the car and start driving again immediately after undergoing this process.
- No medication is involved so there are no harmful side affects.