What to expect in Natural Processing Therapy.

Natural processing is a form of EMDR therapy developed by Craig Penner who is both a Somatic and EMDR therapist. What makes it different that traditional EMDR therapy is the enhanced focus on the body sensations. Bessel Van Der Kolk writes in The Body Keeps the Score, “Trauma results in the fundamental reorganization of the way the mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think. We have discovered that helping victims of trauma find the words to describe what has happened to them is profoundly meaningful, but usually it is not enough. The act of telling the story does not necessarily alter the automatic physical and hormonal responses of bodies that remain hypervigilant, prepared to be assaulted or violated at any time. For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present.”

While traditional EMDR brings a client to the present as well, because Natural Processing keeps the client in the moment more effectively through real time awareness of body sensations it detects disassociation by the client more immediately. A human mind has the tendency to dissociate, or split off somewhere other than the present moment, when it is faced with disturbing thoughts, uncomfortable body sensations, or difficult emotions. It does this in order to protect, so a person can function on a day to day basis and not deal with the trauma. However, this protective reflex also keeps the trauma from being processed. Processing of memories is sort of like a stomach digesting food. The stomach keeps the good nutrients from the food and sends them to the rest of our body for nourishment, but it eliminates waste. So the mental waste piles up in an a life of unprocessed trauma. Natural Processing more readily overcomes the brains protective mechanism by the increased awareness of body sensations.

In the first session the therapist will most likely discuss the Window of Tolerance with you. The Window of Tolerance is the state in which the client is fully present and grounded, not hyper-aroused (agitated) or hypo-aroused (shut down). Both hyper-arousal and hypo-arousal are states of dissociation during which the client is separated from his or her own immediate experience. The client will be educated on how the therapist will monitor the client’s state of arousal and skills for grounding.

The therapist will ask the client to think about the target for the session and notice the body’s reaction. Initially, the therapist may help with descriptive words for the sensations elicited until the client develops the necessary vocabulary. The client requires descriptive accuracy to heighten awareness of his or her body sensations. Acute awareness gives enough energy to the “stuck” trauma memory for it to begin to process and move through and out of the body. I compare it to scientist’s experience when they tried to look at an electron through an electron microscope for the first time. They discovered that they could not look at the electron without it becoming overexcited and jumping to a higher energy level. When we become aware of how we hold trauma in our body, noticing alone energizes the stored memory to move and change, thus process.

While the client maintains awareness of somatic sensations, the therapist uses some sort of bilateral stimulation (BLS), usually tapping, to help the processing. Client’s report emotions, thoughts, images, sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile sensations as they arise during the BLS. If at any time the client becomes disconnected from his or her body sensations and can no longer feel them, the tapping is stopped and the client utilizes the grounding techniques previously taught. Processing is continued until the client’s body relaxes even when thinking about the previously disturbing target memory.