“The feeling of safety is the treatment.”
Transforming the Experience-Based Brain®(TEB) | Transforming Touch® or Transforming Presence
What is Transforming the Experience-Based Brain® (TEB)?
Transforming the Experience-Based Brain (TEB) is a regulation focused model integrating learnings from Polyvagal, somatic and sensorimotor, attachment, and neurophysiological models. Through hands-on or intentional presence in healing you are able to access pre-verbal and early childhood developmental trauma stored in the body. As a non-pathologizing judgement-free method of care, this embodied approach is a different way of healing as it targets the nervous system rather than specific symptoms and supports integration of primitive reflexes.
How might this help me?
You may look at mental health care as a specialized treatment targeting the nervous system. Talk therapy alone is not enough to access healing within the body where our nervous system is interwoven and controlling every aspect of our functional capacity. Feeling safe in your body is foundational to all healing regardless of the approach. Many of us have little experience with a sense of safety due to early adverse experiences which is perhaps the root of your seeking professional help. In the very essence of this reality, you may also have yet to recognize that this is the deep root of chronic suffering and emotional pain.
When early childhood developmental or relational trauma (in utero to 18 years old) is experienced, it causes a rupture in our nervous system that may later show itself through betrayal or abandonment issues and other dysfunctional patterns in adult relationships to self and others. When not adequately repaired, these early ruptures can create a heightened stress response in the body that over time becomes a cycle of chronic toxic stress due to the demands of our everyday environment resulting in a higher ‘cost of business’ or allostatic load.
What does this look like in session?
In session, the TEB model does not ask that you identify the rupture or trauma experience nor to activate the memory network, rather it supports the creation of a safe haven through trusting presence, safety, and relationship. This opens the potential for a transition from insecure attachment to earned secure attachment welcoming deeper vulnerability and a greater potential for healing effects.
Most commonly, an individual is guided through a series of touch points in the body either in a seated or lying position for Transforming Presence or lying on a regulation table for Transforming Touch®. You will never be touched without permission, you will be informed of all touch points prior to beginning a TEB session, and you can stop session at any time with no explanation.
Want to to learn if TEB might work for you?
You can find out more by following the links shared and you can also feel welcome to connect with me directly to talk about your current experience to see if we may be well paired to begin care.
Austin Attachment and Counseling Center
Research on the Effects of Touch
Nurturing Resilience by Kathy Kain and Stephen Terrell
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You will never be touched without permission. Consent is imperative to healing.
TEB can be facilitated through Transforming Presence which is a guided experience cultivating inner awareness through the therapeutic protocols. This is also the experience for virtual sessions.
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Yes, TEB can be facilitated for virtual practice through Intentional Transforming Touch®.
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Nervous system regulation refers to the mechanisms and processes by which the nervous system maintains stability in the body's internal environment. The nervous system is responsible for controlling and coordinating all of the body's functions, including sensory perception, movement, and physiological processes. The regulation of the nervous system involves a complex interplay between various structures and functions, such as the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the endocrine system, and the immune system. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for controlling involuntary processes such as heart rate, breathing, and digestion through the parasympathetic and sympathetic branches, while the endocrine system regulates hormone secretion and the immune system controls the body's response to infection and disease. Comprehensively, these systems work to maintain homeostasis and ensure the body's internal environment remains stable and functional.
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All parts of you are welcome in session. Those that want to speak and those that want to be silent. Talking is not a requirement of this intervention.
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Your nervous system and regulation will be our north star. The concerns that bring you into therapy and your defensive accommodations or dysfunctional patterns will be our benchmarks or indicators of how increased regulation is occurring as treatment goes along. These will naturally shift over time.
We will also check in during every session to notice what is different, what occurred between sessions, and what you noticed in the day or two following the last session.
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Allostatic load is a term used to describe the physiological consequences of chronic exposure to stress. It is our “cost of doing business”. Essentially, it refers to the wear and tear that stress puts on our bodies over time. When we experience stress, our body undergoes a series of changes in order to help us cope. These changes include the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, and a redirection of blood flow to the muscles and brain.
While these changes can be helpful in the short term (survival physiology), if they are activated repeatedly over time they can take a toll on our bodies. This is because they involve the activation of our "fight or flight" response (sympathetic nervous system), which is designed to be a short-term response to acute stressors, not a chronic one. Over time, the repeated activation of this response can lead to a range of health problems, including cardiovascular disease, depression, and immune dysfunction.
Allostatic load is a useful concept because it helps to explain why chronic stress is so harmful to our health. By understanding the physiological processes that underlie stress, we can begin to develop strategies for managing stress and protecting our long-term health.
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No, I am not a bodyworker.
I am a licensed mental health practitioner (psychotherapist) with advanced training in Transforming the Experience-Based Brain (TEB) to provide somatic Transforming Touch® therapy as an intervention. I am a certified Transforming Touch® Practitioner (TTP) trained with Dr. Stephen Terrell and his lead assistant, Ellen Keating.
About my certification and specialization:
I am a Transforming Touch® Practitioner (TTP) trained and certified with Dr. Stephen Terrell, PsyD, SEP, creator of Transforming the Experience-Based Brain (TEB), founder of Austin Attachment and Counseling Center, and co-author of Nurturing Resilience along with his lead assistant, Ellen Keating, PsyD, SEP. I am in regular consultation with Dr. Terrell and Ellen to continue learning and deepening somatic healing and skill development.