What is the role of the intellect in the therapeutic equation?
Humankind is different from other mammals in that we have a cerebral cortex – or thinking brain – which can perform amazing and mind-boggling feats which, in turn, is a great advantage for the survival of the species.
Intelligence, however, can be a disadvantage when you perceive and interpret life experiences and then psychologically react adversely to such events.
The role of perception
Your perception of events can trigger emotive reactions which are highly unpleasant and can cause havoc in the primitive limbic system known as the unconscious mind. Your limbic system will processes emotional malaise via the fight-flight-freeze phenomenon according to the way in which you perceive stress, pressure or danger in your immediate environment.
Your perception can sometimes interpret events in an over-the-top manner but you will also need to perceive real danger or threat to your existence in order to be able to survive.
The fight reaction
Your perception can engender indignation, rage, cynicism and/or aggression when anger is triggered.
The flight response
Your perception can make you feel uncomfortable, inadequate, insignificant and/or terrorised if fear creeps into the equation.
The freeze response
Your perception can create numbness, immobility, depression and/or pessimism when grief takes hold.
How can your emotive responses be resolved?
When you react adversely to a situation according to your perception or your existence is under threat or endangered by your life experiences then you will be able to find a remedy. Many people find that certain experiences in life and particularly in childhood are damaging and hence will retain a lasting legacy of suffering.
The answer, of course, is not to analyse your intellectual reactions via cognitive-behavioural therapeutic approaches but to pacify your emotive distress held in the limbic system via root-cause analysis and resolution methodology.
Once the limbic system has had a chance to release emotive distress in a relaxed state your mind’s next step will be to pacify the memory of your unpleasant experiences and to dispel any misconceptions by applying a soupçon of intellectual understanding. By this means your cerebral cortex will then do its job effectively without any misguided perception.
Everyone has the capacity to access the limbic system in order to resolve emotive distress and, subsequently, to make enlightening intellectual realisations naturally as part of our survival abilities.
Why not contact one of the JMHT practitioners for assistance and relief from perhaps a lifetime of emotive and unresolved distress by visiting the “Find a Practitioner” page at www.jmhypnotraining.co.uk? Your own rescue-operation is in your own hands?