Trauma is a type of psychopathology that is especially harmful due to its ability to “infiltrate” our memory ; This means that the symptoms can be activated in a wide variety of situations, since there are many types of experiences that remind us of a traumatic experience.
Thus, psychological trauma remains in a latent state for a period that can last for years or decades if it is not treated, and the moments in which acute discomfort caused by it appears are partly predictable, and partly unpredictable. For this reason, the scientific community whose work focuses on developing psychotherapeutic resources has set itself the goal of creating psychological intervention strategies capable of directly affecting the root of the problem, the way in which certain networks of neurons in the brain process the memory of trauma. and the information associated with it.
From these efforts there have appeared what is known as brain reprocessing techniques, very useful to help people suffering from post-traumatic stress or complex trauma. Let’s see what they consist of.
What are brain reprocessing techniques and why do they help with trauma?
Psychological trauma is a concept that encompasses a series of psychopathologies caused by a traumatic event, normally an experience that is perceived as violent (having gone through humiliation, having been a victim of sexual abuse, having suffered a car accident…) and that It leaves consequences in the way in which the person integrates those memories into their memory (that is, in the parts of their brain in charge of “filing” and evoking memories by activating certain neurons when touched).
That is trauma makes certain memories, those of the traumatic experience, mentally destabilizing and generate too much discomfort when they are evoked, to the point that they harm the person’s quality of life and make them fall into a spiral of anxiety and fear of reliving the trauma at any moment.
In this sense, brain reprocessing techniques are forms of psychological intervention designed to influence the way in which the person’s brain processes the information on which that memory that has been “saved” in the neural networks of a person is based. defective manner.
The purpose is not to completely erase the most painful memories , but to modify the way in which the person experiences them, eliminating the emotional reaction based on anguish and anxiety and promoting a more distanced perspective based on acceptance. Nor is a totally objective interpretation of what happened sought (that would be impossible, given that they are events that touch very personally), but rather one that is richer in nuances and that is not limited to a narrative of self-victimization and self-sabotage.
Now, although the focus is on modifying specific neuronal connections, these techniques are non-invasive and do not involve any kind of surgery or taking psychotropic drugs; Thus, they are part of psychotherapy, and not so much of psychiatry or neuropsychology.
Main types of brain reprocessing techniques for trauma
There are two main variants of brain reprocessing techniques useful in trauma patients: EMDR therapy and Brainspotting, which share common characteristics.
1. EMDR
EMDR (“eye movement desensitization and reprocessing”) therapy, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, uses bilateral stimulation of the brain lobes through coordinated eye movement or the application of small taps to the right or left parts of the body (“tapping”) while giving a series of instructions to the patient to remember or imagine mental images linked to the trauma.
In this way, an effect similar to that sought in systematic desensitization in cases of phobias is achieved: the person stops thinking about the traumatic experience always in the same terms and begins to mentally represent it in ways unrelated to the activation of anxious symptoms.
2. Brainspotting
Brainspotting is also based on the idea that gaze direction is a way of intervening on the neurons that represent the traumatic memory; However, among other differences, here the gaze remains fixed, instead of making constant eye movements ; Following the therapist’s instructions, the emotional elements associated with the memory of the trauma are overwritten and that had remained inaccessible to the deliberate attempts to mitigate the symptoms and discomfort.
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