I have practiced trauma therapy for almost two decades. Clients who have worked with me over the last 3 years have heard me talk about HBLU for trauma therapy and more. Many of my clients have tried it and experienced the positive results and lasting benefits. People have seen their lives improve. I realize that HBLU or “Healing from the body level up” is not yet a household name, but it should be. I became a therapist because therapy helped me as a child. I studied psychodynamic psychotherapy because that was the background of the therapists who helped me the most. Throughout my career, I have loved learning about human nature and I love the field of psychology. I have followed the paths of therapists who taught me, inspired me and piqued my interest. HBLU has been no different.
I found HBLU quite accidentally while attending a conference for comprehensive energy psychology. At that point, I was curious, but still skeptical about how the bodies energy system can be utilized to accelerate change and growth. I found myself mesmerized by the lecture and demonstration the founder of HBLU, Judith Swack, gave at the conference. She took a volunteer from the audience of seasoned professionals and facilitated a healing session in front of the whole room. Step by step, the client found her way back in time, to the origins of the problem and forward to the resolution of it. I ran into Judith later in the ladies room and began training with her immediately.
My personal experience with HBLU for trauma
About one year into my training, tragedy struck my family. The kind of tragedy that causes PTSD. My mother was affected the worst and I knew that if she didn’t get the right treatment, she would struggle with the effects of PTSD for a very long time. It would affect her mental health, in the form of flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, and physiologic symptoms that could eventually begin to erode her physical health. She began working with Judith one on one and cleared the trauma in a few sessions. Since I am in the field and I’ve worked with survivors of this kind of trauma before, I knew that the memories and PTSD symptoms could linger for a very long time. Some people express that they never fully recover.
I am happy to say that my mother has recovered. This is not to say that she has forgotten the memory or no longer feels the sense of loss. She accepts the situation and isn’t affected by the physiological stress and anxiety that accompanies the memory. She is healing and living a productive life and has no depression, anxiety or physical health issues.
The Structure of Trauma
Judith Swack Ph.D. is the Boston based immunologist turned mind-body healer that developed the cutting edge method, which earned the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology’s award for advances in the field of energy psychology in 2015.
Judith has identified the structure of trauma which is either loss based, or violence based. Loss traumas leave you feeling depleted while violence traumas leave a lingering sense of pollution or violation. Traumas are organized into 5 layers each with a sublayer and all serving their own purpose:
1. Major negative emotions
2. Limiting beliefs about yourself or others
3. Fear of further loss or feelings of pollution or contamination
4. Anticipatory phobias
5. Other possible thoughts, identities, and messages.
As far as your body is concerned, it makes no difference if the trauma is what we refer to as “small t trauma” or “big T trauma”. When you experience shock, your body goes into the fight, flight or freeze mode. The limbic and sympathetic nervous system jump into action. The body then codes the trauma. HBLU allows us to identify and treat the trauma while inducing your parasympathetic nervous system to calm you down and help you regain a sense of wellbeing.
HBLU is a methodical, step by step process. Once we have identified all the layers and talked about them a bit, we apply one or more of the energy psychology interventions and the trauma heals and stays healed. After that, the client can move forward in his or her life.
HBLU is a simple but effective therapy to treat trauma
It sounds simple and in some ways, it is. I love the freedom that HBLU brings because rather than wallowing in feelings or memories that you need to make sense of, the insight comes quickly and the resolution is painless and permanent. We still talk about the issues, but only enough to understand and heal them. We don’t talk about the same topics week after week. I consider it re-traumatizing and your attention remains fixed on things you would prefer to forget. HBLU gets you to a place of acceptance and allows you to move forward in your life.
