Re: Brief MultiSensory Activation

Greg Alexander wrote:
> Wilba quoted someone saying:
>> There is no such thing as an emotional or mental state which does
>> not have a conditioned component.
>
> Doesn't conditioning just build a 'connection' between 2 things (eg
> stimulus-response)? I mean, I'm sure every state involves a connection
> of neurons.... but this comment seems quite weak.
>
>> By disrupting the conditioned activity
>> between the amygdala and hypothalamus, the conditioned response is
>> modulated, and even extinguished.
>
> Break up whatever neural response is going on and you'd get some
> change. The question is how do you break up _specifically_ a certain
> response.

My correspondent's technique involves a conscious connection with the
stimulus and the response (e.g. "I'm sh*t-scared of cockroaches"), an
unrelated positive statement or affirmation (e.g. "I love Turkish delight"),
and out-of-phase tapping across the body. For example, you help the client
to come up with a sentence ("Even though I'm sh*t-scared of cockroaches, I
love Turkish delight."), and get them to repeat it while they alternately
tap the left upper arm with the right hand and the right upper arm with the
left hand. Definitely sounds like hocus-pocus, but definitely can work with
things like phobias.

> Wilba wrote:
>> Are you saying that it's not sufficient for a treatment to be shown to be
>> effective, that it must also be acceptibly explained for it to be
>> credible?
>> If so, how far can you take that idea?
>
> I think most psychotherapies start with what seems to work "in the
> field", then these get tested, some are found dubious, some work great,
> and some are REALLY difficult to effectively test. Personally I think
> there's great value in both sides.
>
>> At what point do we shrug and say, it is what it is, let's keep looking
>> for an answer, but let's not let the absence of an answer stop us from
>> using
>> what we do know.
>
> Absolutely.
>
> With regards to EMDR, I haven't used it (or similar) in practice
> myself. I've been taught similar, and I know people who have done it,
> and I've watched it done. More than anything, the subject was really
> imagining the scene (in an associated manner that normally provoked an
> emotional reaction), and the eye movements did something to remove that
> reaction. I wonder if it is similar to desensitization of phobias. I'd
> like to learn more, I know the research is against it.

Research references? Links?



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