After dealing with a severe concussion, Elisa suggested a process that could help expedite the healing process. I was reluctant at first, but realized immediate improvement through her methods. Highly recommended.
Case Report:
Tom (name changed for confidentiality), age 26yrs, suffered a severe concussion diagnosed by his medical doctor. The prognosis was that he would experience pronounced symptoms for six to eight weeks, and he was required to remain home from work, refraining from all physical activity as well as cell phone, computer and television use. His symptoms included severe headaches, dizziness, inability to focus, and “fuzzy” vision.
Treatment History Using The Comprehensive Resource Model®:
Tom was a self-referred client, originally reporting problems related to significant life transitions and performance in graduate school. At the time, he was not sleeping more than four hours a night, had gained thirty pounds, was loosing focus during class presentations, and was experiencing shifts in moods, from feeling like he didn’t want to leave his bed, to rage.
Despite his comprehension of the neurobiology of trauma/stress and resourcing following his first session, Tom exhibited significant fear of being embodied exhibited through his preference to remain cognitive in his work. By experiencing a performance simulation in which Tom noticed body distress, and then was shown how to utilize CRM® resources, he was able to experience a significant change in his physiology. He then continued to use the resources and in his next class presentation reported to have improved flow in his thought processes as well as an ability to connect and respond with confidence to his audience, which he reported to enjoy whereas before all he felt was self conscious. Tom was then willing to process this fear fully and move on to his targeted work.
His role within his family and in significant relationships, was impacted by generational trauma manifesting in his family, including multiple moves and conflicting messages concerning individual roles and identity. These issues were processed using resource grids and attachment (to power animal, spiritual being, and eventually to adult self) with what Tom described as satisfactory results: He improved his GPA and graduated with high honors, ended a complicated engagement with maturity and compassion, and he changed his role in his Family from one that held co-dependent qualities and caused him significant stress to one where he felt more freedom and flexibility within his communication, and experienced more balance and ease within his family relationships.
Concussion Session (post graduation):
The target for the session was his concussion symptoms, which had been diagnosed as “moderate” on the Glasgow Scale. He described his pain and sense of dread with a SUDs of “12.” He ‘entered’ his brain through breathing and self attunement (Dolls 1 and 2), and was able to identify the site of the damage, which he described as a “dead zone” by the way it looked to him. Within the resource ‘healthy blood flow’ grid (Doll 4) (this was identified by Tom asking himself the Magical Question for what his body needed for healing this particular issue), the hurt ‘part’ of his brain was brought inside the grid of healthy tissue.
He began to process the pain and through this came feelings of anger and a desire to disavow the damage in his brain referring to it as an “other” – not part of him, thereby loosing his desire to attune to this part of this brain. An attachment figure of a spiritual being (Doll 5) came in for the “hurt part” and his power animal came in for his adult self. On the attachment eye position he processed the feelings of being betrayed by his body throughout his life, the root of which turned out to be generational, and was reinforced by incidents in early childhood that caused the locus of control shift, “I’m responsible.” The pain and “dead zone” in his brain significantly diminished when the feelings of anger and self hatred were processed to a SUDs of zero.
It is important to note that his previous work with stepping into (some of) his survival fears and Truth of his Life Issues created the opening for the remaining self directed anger to be processed to a SUDS of zero in one session. Tom then processed the accident that caused the current concussion on the grid eye position, until his feelings of agitation was at SUDs, zero. Lastly, he focused on the part that was damaged and no longer saw a “dead zone;” rather he described it as “hurt.” He was then able to focus on the brain as a whole, ‘seeing’ the remaining wound with colors and increased blood flow around the entire brain.
Tom reported to feeling ”surprisingly better,” with very little pain – an overall SUDS of 3, as well as feeling fatigued at the end of the session. He was given practice to use his increased blood flow grid eye and his adult self to the wounded area attachment eye position with heart breathing to the hurt tissue.
Follow up:
Tom reported that he slept through the night for the first time since the accident following his session. He practiced his resource work every day and continued to feel noticeably better over the next three days. At the next appointment, Tom reported that his doctor was “surprised” at his progress and healing. He was approved to return to work and physical activity four weeks earlier than originally thought possible by his doctor.