From the Influence of Traumas to Therapeutic Letting Go: The Contribution of Hypnosis and EMDR

Abstract

The development of new psychotherapies such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EDMR) has led to numerous fresh approaches to both the treatment of trauma and to the understanding of underlying psychopathology. A unified view appears to be slowly emerging in an attempt to corroborate clinical practice with neurobiological data. This article attempts to demonstrate links between alternate psychotherapies by highlighting what appears to be an invariant among these approaches, namely "letting go." This concept refers to a psycho-physical dynamic that combines psychological dissociation and reassociation, as well as the body's vagotonic mechanisms. Following an explanation of this process, it is demonstrated how letting go can manifest itself physiologically and why this may be significant in the study of trauma.

Brainspotting Therapy: About a Bataclan Victim

“…In effect, focused mindfulness constitutes a lever mechanism essential to this approach, while localization of the "Brainspot" with constant concentration on it favors a hypnotic state and "letting-go". (Masson, Bernoussi, & Regourd-Laiseau, 2016) This is not unlike what is proposed in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), which considers psychological suffering associated with weak detachment as internal experiences lived out as the reflection of reality. The patient remains focused on a painful past or/and an anxiety-provoking future and continuously seeks to avoid the suffering, which in turn helps to maintain it.…”

Functional Neurologic Disorders, disorders to be managed by neurologists, or are neurologists wandering in a dangerous field with inadequate resources?

“…Several earlier studies on Hysteria, Conversion, Somatoform and Factitious disorders did not find any significant prevalence of trauma in early life (18). In psychotherapy, a technique recently emerged, the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which seemed to be specifically suited for the treatment of trauma (88), but no studies of its effect on FND/SSD have been attempted. 6.…”