Types of Counseling: A Bottom Up Approach
Orlando Therapist Providing Bottom Up Processing
You’re revved, anxious, and feeling out of sorts. You know you need to get some help, but the thought of starting therapy again just seems to add to the stress level. You’ve talked about these problems in therapy already. You told the deep dark secrets, but you’re still flooded with anxiety and panic. So now what?
Limits of Talk Therapy
First let’s talk about “talk therapy.” Traditional talk therapy can be very helpful in many cases. It can only take you so far, however. There comes a time when insight is not enough to heal anxiety or trauma. If you’re struggling with anxiety or trauma, it is likely you need root level healing work. In fact, traditional talk therapy can be even be triggering for folks struggling in these area.
As an Orlando counselor providing anxiety and trauma therapy, I know how important “root work” is to helping the client heal old wounds that are contributing to the feeling stuck in life today. There is a technical term for root work healing, it’s called “bottom-up processing”.
When Difficult Things Happen
Sometimes when difficult things happen and our system gets overwhelmed, our brain and bodies get too flooded to process and organize the sensations, emotions, and thoughts that occurred at the time of the event. When this happens, some aspect of the difficult event can get “stuck.” Symptoms of this stuckness include being emotionally overwhelmed, fits of anger, being impulsive, feeling completely shut down, racing thoughts, being on guard and unable to relax, inability to concentrate. The list goes on.
Bottom Up Processing
Bottom up processing accesses the body and the emotions to help dislodge this frozen material and to nudge the brain and body’s natural processing system along. While traditional talk therapy is conversational, bottom up processing uses mindfulness to explore what is happening in the emotions and the body as the client is exploring the problem. Bringing the body and the emotions into the therapy session provides the client and therapist with a whole new world of information about how the client is holding on to the past event or events. Not only does this give us information about the problem, but mindfully accessing the emotions and the body also gives us a road map to healing.
Bottom Up Therapies
I have spent the last decade exploring alternative treatment modalities that help to heal anxiety and trauma. Through my research I’ve learned that effective therapies use a bottom up approach. I don’t claim to be an expert in all of the modalities, but I have training in quiet a few modalities, which include: EFT-Couples, EFT-Tapping, Psychodrama, and Internal Family Systems, with extensive training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and EMDR.
A talk on bottom up processing would be incomplete if it did not include information about the three part brain system. In my next blog post, I will walk you through a simplistic tour of the human brain and explain how this three part brain is important when doing healing work of the mind, body, and emotions.
Orlando Counseling for Trauma
If you’re interested in learning more about EMDR counseling in Orlando, feel free to check out this blog post. Is EMDR Therapy Right for You? You can also reach me through my contact page.
More on Alternative Therapy Orlando
Types of Counseling: Trauma Counseling
Types of Counseling: What is EMDR?
Types of Counseling: Mind, Body, and Emotion
Types of Counseling: What The Brain Says About Therapy
Types of Counseling: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Trauma Therapists Orlando FL
Sometimes you need a little more than self-help blogs. We get that. If you’re looking for some additional support, we are here to help. We’re offering in person and virtual appointments. Click here to find out more about counseling at Mindful Living Counseling Orlando.
Mindful Living Counseling Orlando is a trauma healing center. Our Orlando Therapy Services include anxiety therapy, trauma counseling, eating disorder recovery, teen counseling, and healing from toxic relationships. At Mindful Living Counseling Orlando, we use a down-to-earth approach infused with cutting-edge therapies that go beyond traditional talk therapy so clients can heal at the root level and experience lasting change. Feel free to access one of our Guided Meditations to help you feel settled and calm now.
