1 minute read
Mental Health Matters - Jo Loach
How to self sooth..
As a therapist, I have to commit to Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in order to maintain my professional body membership with BACP. This is because there is new research being undertaken all the time, which assists us to expand upon our existing understanding of human distress and the many ways in which we can understand and thus support our clients to manage and grow through it.
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As recent times have reminded us, life is full of personal and collective distress and thus the ability to self sooth is pretty important!
Recently, I was fascinated to learn about the vagus nerve which was bought to my attention on a CPD course. In simple terms, Scientific research shows that certain stimulation of this vagus nerve can evoke a sense of calm. This in turn has various other bodily benefits like reducing inflammation and increasing immunity.
As it is more powerful to experience this phenomenon rather than merely discuss it, this course played a video showing several different clips of interactions between humans and animals.
The act of watching this evoked spontaneous laughter and ‘wow that is cute’ sounds. I experienced it as soothing and uplifting. It was a great reminder of what us animal lovers already know about the therapeutic benefits of the connection between ourselves and our pets. By the same token, I know others for whom animals, such as dogs, can cause great anxiety.
As we are all different, the ability to self sooth is not a one size fits all matter. The good news is that there are many ways in which we can stimulate the vagus nerve to restore a sense of calm and ability to think clearly.
I’ll be writing more about that next time.
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Jo Loach is a Psychodynamic Counsellor & Integrative Supervisor You can contact her at jo.loach@gmail.com
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