Sounds like a bit of a mouthful, doesn't it - so I wanted to blog and explain a little more about this incredible tool
Being in the Doula and Birthworker world, I see a lot about debriefing birth experiences; more recently I have seen people discussing the importance of being able to help unpick and move forwards from past experiences which were having unwanted emotional reactions along with their memory, leaving them with the wisdom of the experience but without the emotional 'trigger'.
Childbirth should be an amazing and happy experience, shouldn't it? Then why do almost one-third of parents describe their experience as traumatic? This seems so sad - we all want to be able to remember the births of our children as a positive one don't we, even if there were difficult moments.
Now I'll just pause a moment and state that this is NOT a treatment for things like PTSD - I am not suggesting that this replaces necessary mental health interventions, more that the Rewind technique can arm you with tools to move away from negative emotional responses.
What does that mean? Possibly flashbacks, possibly reliving the emotions when you recall the memory, possibly finding that when you're in a similar circumstance it can send you on that spiral - if you're in doubt then give me a call and we chat to see if it may help you.
The concept behind the process is that in any situation which is deemed 'dangerous' the amygdala in our primal brain determines that this is an imminent threat - and an emotional response, often fear, is elicited. Once that stimulus has been removed, our brains can rationalise that experience and file away in the logical part of our brain - the neocortex. When we experience an event which gives us these negative emotions, we usually can move past it and at a later date can remember that part of our history without triggering an emotional and physical reaction. What we think happens, is that sometimes these memories can get 'stuck' looping around the amygdala, so instead of recalling the facts/figures logically, we suddenly have that same emotion as we did at the time.
With the Birthing Awareness Three- Step Technique, we take three sessions (ideally) and use a combination of deep hypnotic relaxation and neurolinguistic programming techniques, to help unpick that memory from the amygdala, where it is looping around and giving you those unwanted feelings, and help move it along to the neocortex where you can essentially file it away. Keeping all of the memory but not having the physical and emotional negative reaction which you had at the time.
This means that you will be able to recall the memory but NOT find it triggering and hopefully moving forwards, if you are faced with a similar set of circumstances then you won't have the unwanted response from previously because essentially you will have rationalised that event and recalling it or something similar, wont trigger the emotional cascade from before.
So far, I have seen amazing results: truly incredible. I am so honoured to be able to offer this and to facilitate such an incredible shift for people. And it doesn't need to be restricted to birth - breastfeeding grief is a bit one that we are seeing but it can be effective for pretty much anything. I was keen to learn this to help fully support families who felt they needed to work through events in their lives but birth especially: having had my own experiences which left me very acutely triggered, I recognised the importance of being able to move past that.
As I mentioned in my last blog post here, my second baby was a double rainbow baby - that means that prior to that pregnancy, I had two miscarriages. I began bleeding heavily in this pregnancy and quite quickly I had spiralled back down to 'that place', recalling the sights, sounds and feelings of the previous two miscarriages. I had panic attacks in hospitals and frequently would burst into tears as soon as I got in the door. In fact I found it almost impossible to even be near a hospital and certainly not the same one I had been at for the two previous miscarriages. For pretty much the entire pregnancy, every scan and appointment (of which there were many) I panicked. I didn't enjoy lots of the pregnancy because I was terrified and I realised that it was a very sad state to be in - as I really did want to enjoy it and connect with my baby, but I was so scared of miscarrying again.
Knowing that something like the Birthing Awareness Rewind Technique is out there, helping people in similar situations to me compelled me to learn it - if I could help one person who felt like me, then I'd be a happy woman. To have been able to enjoy my pregnancy would have been amazing and if I can help bring that to others then that truly is a gift worth giving.
So don't carry all that negativity around with you like I did - drop me a line and we can talk about how we can help lift some of those clouds and help lighten the load for you to move forwards.