Posted by Anemone on July 11, 2011, at 18:50:06
Today my T announced that she was going to try something new to help with my anxiety.
She gave me her ipod with headphones to listen to nature music.
Then she sat closer to me, face to face, and took out a pointer and asked me to follow its tip with my eyes. She moved the pointer slowly left to right, asked me to choose which position felt "most anxious", and where in my body I felt the anxious sensations.
I chose the centre position because the pointer was right in front of her face, and I felt nervous about looking right at her behind the pointer's tip.
She was trying to get me to answer based on body sensations, but I couldn't help feeling affected by what I saw behind the pointer.
She did this with me for a whole hour, made me stare at the pointer's tip and tell her about any sensations and feelings that came up.
The whole time I felt worried about whether I was "doing it right", (I wasn't sure what I was supposed to feel), and about her feeling bored.
Later, she told me this was called "Brainspotting" and it helps create neural-whatever pathways in my brain. The music was alternated from left to right, for a "bilateral effect" on the brain, which means to help both sides of the brain do something blah,...(forgot what she said....).
What I loved about this exercise was sitting with her, I had never sat so closely to her before. I feel skeptical, but want to believe in it, and to do a good job and cooperate with her.
Anemone
poster:Anemone
thread:990770
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20110706/msgs/990770.html