Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time.

The topic will be: Finding Your Authentic Voice, Manifesting Your Highest Purpose

In this episode, Dr. John Deri will help you to discover your own authentic voice. He will provide you with techniques for liberating yourself from the constraints of childhood “contracts” and compromises. Dr. Deri will show you how to define and to manifest your unique highest purpose.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time.

The topic will be: Dissociation

Dissociation refers to the splitting off of painful experiences from awareness. Dissociation is the hallmark of trauma.

In this episode, Dr. John Deri will discuss dissociation as a psychic defense of last resort. He will describe the effects of dissociation on the emotional lives of affected people. Finally, Dr. Deri will share his thoughts regarding the treatment of dissociation, including conditions for healing and paths to integration.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

I was a blue baby.  I was born with the umbilical cord tightly wrapped around my neck.  I required resuscitation with supplemental oxygen, immediately upon delivery.  I recovered completely, without any apparent deficits.

This event, as it was narrated for me repeatedly by my mother, had three principal effects on me:

1.    I believed that I had been meant to die.
2.    I believed that I needed to be rescued.
3.    My capacity for communication was inhibited (perhaps due to the image of the constriction around my throat).

My healing, correspondingly, has had three major components:

1.    Embracing life.
2.    Developing self reliance.
3.    Finding my voice, through speaking and writing.

I offer my experience to you for your own reflection:

What events have constricted your life?  In what ways?  What steps can you take to liberate yourself from this constricting influence?

In the I Ching, an ancient Chinese book of wisdom, it is written:

“A man is oppressed by bonds that can easily be broken.  The distress is drawing to an end.  But he is still irresolute; he is still influenced by the previous condition and fears that he may have cause for regret if he makes a move.  But as soon as he grasps the situation, changes this mental attitude, and makes a firm decision, he masters the oppression.”

The I Ching, Wilhelm/Baynes edition, pp. 184-185.

From this passage, we can distill four steps to healing from trauma:

1.    Grasping the situation
This step involves both identifying the key traumatic events in your life, and clarifying their effects on you.  I found psychotherapy to be of immense value to me towards this end.

2.    Changing your mental attitude
I had to change my mental attitude from one of a dependent victim to a belief in my own innate capacity to thrive.  What mental attitudes to you need to change?

3.    Making a firm decision
I made a firm decision to say “yes” to life, at every opportunity.  What decisions do you need to make?

4.    Taking positive action
I have taken a vow to do my best to relieve suffering and to inspire others to achieve their highest potential.  I am taking all actions within my reach that are in alignment with this aspiration.

Aligning yourself and your every action with your highest purpose is the most potent force for healing.

The topic of the episode will be:   Psychotherapy and Dependent Origination

The Buddhist theory of dependent origination will be discussed as a perspective on transference and countertransference in psychotherapy. These psychological phenomena will be explored as a medium for the healing of early childhood trauma in psychotherapy.

During the  Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body, Dr. John Deri will present a clinical case as an example of the work.

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time.

The topic will be: Dissociation

Dissociation refers to the splitting off of painful experiences from awareness. Dissociation is the hallmark of trauma.

In this episode, Dr. John Deri will discuss dissociation as a psychic defense of last resort. He will describe the effects of dissociation on the emotional lives of affected people. Finally, Dr. Deri will share his thoughts regarding the treatment of dissociation, including conditions for healing and paths to integration.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 from 8-9:00 Pacific Time.

The topic of the episode will be:  How Does Psychotherapy Heal Part?

Psychotherapy is a wellspring for new beginnings. At the beginning of a lifetime, the infant forms its first relationship with its mother. The quality of this first human bond will profoundly influence the nature of the child’s subsequent relationships.  This assertion is a central tenet of the school of psychology known as attachment theory.

During the Blog Talk Radio Show Dr. Deri will discuss:

(1) The four distinct patterns of attachment:  secure, anxious, avoidant and disorganized.

(2) The effect of an infant’s mode of attachment to its mother on the quality of that individual’s subsequent relationships.

(3) How trauma and neglect lead to disturbances in attachment.

(4) How the mother’s own early life attachment history serves as a medium for the transgenerational transmission of trauma.

(5) How does psychotherapy heal?

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time

The topic of the episode will be:  Depression: A Holistic Approach

During this episode, Dr. John Deri will discuss depression from multiple perspectives: biological, psychological, social and spiritual.  Within each of these contexts, Dr. Deri will describe causes and propose paths to healing of the depressive state.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

In the context of the original traumatic situation, this defense preserves the child’s sanity.  Unfortunately, dissociation tends to persist as the primary mode of psychic functioning throughout the lifetime of the individual.  Such people have great difficulty in knowing or communicating what they are feeling.  These deficits lead to an impoverishment of the person’s emotional life.  Such people tend to experience themselves as ephemeral, or insubstantial.  They usually have great difficulty in achieving or sustaining intimacy in their relationships.

Causes

There has been speculation regarding both biological and psychological causes of dissociation.  From a neurologic standpoint, studies have shown a decreased corpus callosum in traumatized people.  The corpus callosum connects the two hemispheres of the brain.  The right hemisphere processes emotional experience.  The left hemisphere includes the language region of the brain, in most people.  A constricted connection between the two hemispheres could result in a limited capacity for recognizing and articulating emotional states.

From a psychological point of view, Joyce McDougall, a French psychoanalyst, believes that dissociation is the effect of exposure to overwhelming emotion that threatens to attack an individual’s sense of integrity and identity.

Within a developmental context, a child acquires the capacity for emotional experience, regulation and expression, through the parent’s capacity for attunement to the child’s emotional state.  If the adult is incapable of recognizing and distinguishing emotional expressions in the child, it can impair the child’s capacity to experience his own emotional states.

Treatment

Psychotherapy offers a reparative experience for a person suffering from dissociation.  Suffering is actually a misleading term.  Many dissociated people are unaware of their own dissociation.  Often, such a person seeks psychotherapy due to a spouse’s frustration with them.

Working with a profoundly dissociated person in psychotherapy is challenging.  The engine for psyche change is psychic distress.  If the distress itself is dissociated, there may be minimal motivation to engage in psychological work.  Moreover, it is difficult to establish an emotional connection of any depth with a dissociated person.

Often a starting point involves gradually drawing the person’s attention to her state of dissociation.  The therapeutic process is one of symbolically reparenting the child.  The therapist, unlike the actual parent, is able to register and to articulate her patient’s emotional states.  Through repeated interactions in which the therapist is able to service this function accurately, the patient gradually internalizes the process.  As she incrementally acquires the capacity to recognize what she is feeling, the therapy gains traction.

As a person develops increasing awareness of his own emotional states, both present and past experiences come to life.  It becomes possible to narrate, to process and to release the previously frozen residue of early trauma.  As parts of the self that had been dissociated become available for integration, the personality becomes richer, more complex, more textured and more vibrant.

Dissociation makes people feel like ghosts or robots.  Experience has an “as if” quality.  Integration of a full range of feelings gives rise to a robust, embodied passion for life.

As Walt Whitman wrote in “Song of Myself”:

“Urge and urge and urge, 

Always the procreant urge of the world.”

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time.

The topic will be: Dissociation

Dissociation refers to the splitting off of painful experiences from awareness. Dissociation is the hallmark of trauma.

In this episode, Dr. John Deri will discuss dissociation as a psychic defense of last resort. He will describe the effects of dissociation on the emotional lives of affected people. Finally, Dr. Deri will share his thoughts regarding the treatment of dissociation, including conditions for healing and paths to integration.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM PDT.

The topic will be: How Does Psychotherapy Heal, Part III  – Psyche, Soma and Spirit

Psychological growth and spiritual development are mutually contingent on one another.

This week, Dr. Deri would like to share with you a case that illustrates the interdependence of psyche, soma and spirit in the healing process.  Sophia is a 70 year old member of a religious order.  She and Dr. Deri have been meeting in twice a week psychotherapy for the past four years. Sophia decided to authorize the dissemination of her life story.  She prays that doing so might illuminate the path of healing for others.

During the show Dr. Deri will discuss:

Psyche: Healing Early Trauma
How Sophia reached an experience of genuine compassion.

Psyche and Soma
How psychotherapy helped Sophia to maintain her physical and emotional homeostasis.

Psyche and Spirit
Sophia felt abandoned by God, the Father.  She underwent a protracted “dark night of the soul” (St. John of the Cross). As she healed her psychological wounds, Sophia’s spiritual life, has blossomed.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body