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Old Apr 21, 2010, 11:34 AM
SpottedOwl SpottedOwl is offline
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Member Since: Jun 2008
Posts: 566
((((pachy))))

Quote:
It is really very simple. Not mysterious, not something incomprehensible to the mind of man (or other human). A therapy can succeed if the therapist is truly and completely mindful of his or her own feelings. If a therapist can recognize without hindrance, without internal censorship, what those feelings or emotions are. Only then can a person distinguish between things that are and feelings about those things. That is all there is to it.
Excellent description, and very interesting post.

I just wanted to add that now we have neurological basis for what you describe with mirror neurons. It wasn't until very recently that we discovered these neurons in our brain that are there to 'mirror' the responses of others. This is very useful for learning in the pre-verbal world, but the trick is *what* we are mirroring/learning.

If we have a caregiver who gets scared or anxious when we cry, then our brains learn that crying = scary/wrong. As a young child, we depend on the caregiver, so we adapt to their emotional responses as a survival technique. Rather than letting ourselves cry, we learn to stuff those feelings...because *our caregiver* cannot handle them. NOT because we are broken. The way out is (as you described) to either find a T who mirrors the proper responses, and/or to gain awareness through mindfulness of how our brains are wired.

When therapy works, I think it is because out T's mirror the response we need to heal. If our T's get triggered, or are uncomfortable with anxiety -- then it likely just re-enforces the loop of past dysfunction.

Thanks for posting!