Cellular Release Therapy® (CRT) – Understanding more about this powerful therapy.
Cellular Release Therapy® or CRT, is a powerful and highly efficient and effective technique that uses hypnosis (a deeply relaxed state) to release and clear trauma. Trauma can include any and all unresolved events, feelings, beliefs, habits and patterns of thinking. Through CRT, it’s residual reactivity or charge can be released from the mind and body. Whether or not you can consciously remember an event is actually not important because CRT enables you to access and work with the subconscious mind, where all of the memories from all life events are held.
Our mind, particularly our subconscious mind, is like a computer, able to receive, process, record and store huge amounts of information. Everything we experience in our lives is recorded and stored in the subconscious as memory. When we have an experience, it is filtered through a very complex series of events, in several different regions of the brain and will eventually end up triggering the autonomic nervous system, either the sympathetic part (our fight or flight response) or the parasympathetic part (our rest and digest response). When these systems are triggered, they release unique and powerful neurotransmitters and hormones, which travel throughout our bodies on a cellular level and affect change to respond to the experience. This can include, turning the immune system on or off, setting off inflammatory responses, changing the rate and quality of breathing, our heart rate and our blood pressure, etc. These responses create either the conditions for resting and digesting (growth) or fight or flight (protection).
Unprocessed trauma gets “stored” not just in your subconscious mind and memory, but throughout your physical being.
As traumatic experiences, internal conclusions and beliefs about the self that result from these experiences accumulate over the years, at some point, it can make perfect sense to the subconscious mind to create an illness or imbalance of some sort in the body, mind or emotions. This is called somatization. The chronic stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system eventually leads to more noticeable signs that the system is not functioning optimally.
If we liken our bodies to a car, we can imagine that if that car is not operating within the parameters that allow for optimal function, eventually something somewhere in the system is going to malfunction.
How does Cellular Release Therapy® work?
For the purposes of Cellular Release Therapy®, our memory has three components:
- The facts i.e. what actually happened
- The feelings i.e. how a person felt during the experience
- The learned response i.e. to the trauma
These three components of a memory continue to cross-trigger throughout life. The subconscious knows how to clear the emotional charge and trauma from this memory but it has no volition of it’s own, per se, to do so until intervention takes place and it is directed to accomplish this.
Cellular Release Therapy® is a powerful technique that gives that direction to the subconscious mind to clear (not erase, but take the charge out of) all memories and experiences that have been hard or traumatic, as well as any fears, beliefs, blame or punishment of ourselves or others that have resulted from these. The subconscious mind holds all memories and all of the details of these events, and thus all the charge from these experiences can be cleared, even if you have no conscious memory of them. Clearing and releasing always occurs with permission from the subconscious with access to the subconscious mind being achieved through hypnosis.
What is hypnosis?
The hypnosis that you experience in a CRT session is achieved through a progressive relaxation script, which brings your mind and body into a relaxed state. Your conscious mind does not get turned off, in fact, for most people, especially in the first session, the conscious mind is quite alert and vigilant – paying attention to what is going on. This is very normal. In CRT sessions, the work is done through the subconscious mind by asking questions to which it responds with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ through ideomotor signals (a “yes” finger and a “no” finger). The conscious mind may want to get involved and think about finding the answer but instead it is gently directed to feel which finger is lighter or easier to lift. Eventually, the conscious mind will become less alert and less vigilant and most often will just drift off and relax as well.
It is very common for people to report that after doing CRT they feel lighter, calmer and less reactive. The reason for this is that the subconscious has been able to neutralize the events and experiences through the clearing and therefore allow the sympathetic nervous system to stand down. This allows us to move away from a constant feedback loop of being triggered by past experiences, to be in a reactive state and to feel the need to protect ourselves from the world around us every second. Simply put, the energy savings to the body are enormous when it no longer has to be on mental high alert at all times.
If you would like to read more about hypnosis, click on this link to go to our most recent blog on this powerful therapeutic tool.
What is involved in a session?
The first CRT session is always an assessment of life events, life issues, relationships, and what you, the client, specifically identifies as topics that you would like to resolve. Some clearing may begin in this first session, if appropriate. The clearing part of sessions involves going into hypnosis (a deeply relaxed state) through a guided progressive relaxation.
During the clearing process, the facilitator asks permission from your subconscious to release and clear all residual charge. This is done by establishing a “Yes” and a “No” finger at the start of the session. Once permission has been received, the facilitator directs the subconscious mind to clear the charge from the event. This process is not used for memory recall and allows you to clear residual charge from even the most difficult experiences without having to re-live the experience. This makes it an especially powerful technique for clients with PTSD.
Subsequent sessions begin with giving updates as to what you have noticed between sessions and what new things you might like to address, followed by more clearing, as appropriate. This process is a bit like peeling an onion – as you clear trauma and issues you may notice that another layer presents itself to the surface and is ready to be addressed. It is important to note that Cellular Release Therapy® is very gentle, there is no need to re-experience traumatic events and the subconscious will move at the pace that makes the most sense for you.
What can Cellular Release Therapy® be used for?
CRT can be used to address the following:
- Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – These are stressful or traumatic events, including abuse and neglect. They may also include witnessing domestic violence or growing up with family members who have substance use disorders. When we are children we rely on adults to protect us, give us guidance and provide a loving and nurturing environment. We are also conditioned in childhood via many sources to hide our real feelings, to suppress them, and sometimes to medicate them with food, alcohol, self-mutilation, and other compulsive behaviors. ACEs are strongly related to the development and prevalence of a wide range of health problems throughout a person’s lifespan, including those associated with substance misuse. Researchers have found strong relationships between childhood traumas and many disease processes, including heart disease, cancer, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, autoimmune diseases, and more.
- Chronic pain – is often a clear signal that our sympathetic nervous system is overly activated. When our sympathetic nervous systems are in an ‘on’ mode most of the time, we are releasing adrenaline, norepinephrine and catecholamines – all neurotransmitters that heavily influence and increase our perception of pain. By clearing the trauma or triggers that keep us in the fight or flight mode, the body and mind are able to shift back into a more balanced state.
- Relationship issues and healing difficult relationships – our relationships with people, whether a source of love or of conflict, are reflections of our own inner dynamics. In other words, how we are reacting and relating to the world is a mirror of our relationship with ourselves and will always be the energetic template on which every outer relationship is based. This means that the experiences we have interacting with family, friends, significant others, colleagues, and even complete strangers provide valuable clues as to what needs to be healed within our own subconscious.
- Weight Loss and Eating Issues – There are many people who struggle with their body image and finding a healthy relationship with food. So many have tried numerous diets, fitness plans, programs, surgeries, mental strategies, and behavioral strategies in order to lose weight and have the body that we think is acceptable, will be loved, or looks good naked. Eating issues and weight issues usually are the outward symptoms of deep issues that require a lot of trauma clearing, as people tend to accumulate extra weight on their bodies or starve themselves as protection, and often as a part of a pattern of sabotaging or punishing oneself for perceived misdeeds. For many, losing weight is doable but once the weight goal is reached the weight is quickly put back on because the underlying beliefs about our bodies have not been addressed. All of our failed attempts to lose weight and keep it off create more and more feelings of discouragement, self-hatred, shame, fear, and despair. Often when people have longstanding weight and eating issues, there are many experiences of eating too much or too little, shaming themselves in some way, talking negatively to themselves, thinking that they are bad or not good enough, and other experiences like this. Feelings of shame, guilt, anxiety, grief, and self-hatred are very helpful to clear. Eating too much is suppressive and comforting, very much like an addiction. The habits and patterns of doing this can be cleared, as well as the trauma that is causing the need for this habit and pattern. When all of this has been addressed, it becomes much easier for people to adopt healthier lifestyles that result in a healthy weight.
- Addictions – Addictions of any kind are always an attempt to fill a hole, fill the emptiness, and manage deeply painful feelings. The question to be asked with any addiction is “Where is the pain”? Drugs and alcohol, like food, are very suppressive or numbing, and this suppression is a temporary relief from the pain. People with addictions have not learned other ways to manage anxiety, stress, grief, fear, or anger – basically how to feel and deal with painful feelings – and its critical to their recovery to learn how to meet their needs and feel their feelings without the use of the substance or behavior. Commonly the causes of addiction are childhood trauma, abuse, or neglect, and these experiences and all resultant feelings, beliefs, and blame and punishment of oneself and others can be cleared. Once all of the trauma is cleared, habits and patterns and all need to use the substance or behavior to manage the feelings can be cleared as well. It is important to understand that addictions are not a moral issue they are an energy issue. Addictions are a coping mechanism used to relieve pain.
- CRT is also beneficial for the people who have been supporting the person with the addiction, as the caregivers of addicts have their own painful experiences and patterns of behavior, such as co-dependency, that can be resolved.
- Life Issues – Many people have a sense that a common theme is playing out through their lives. Whether it is a pattern of thinking or a belief system. For example, these can be trust issues, abandonment issues, loneliness, control issues, anxiety, shame or feeling unsafe. This theme, these issues or these feelings seem to follow them and continuously crop up in their lives. These themes are the result of experiences we have had that have led to patterns of thinking and belief systems that now form the basis of our operating platform – how we interface with the world. Often these issues/belief systems/patterns of thinking are what gives rise to further similar experiences and we eventually feel stuck in a rut or an endless loop, unable to move forward. Cellular Release Therapy® is a powerful technique to address this because these patterns of thinking and belief systems have been formed in the subconscious and that is the easiest place to address and clear them.
- PTSD – Cellular Release Therapy® is not used for memory recall and allows you to clear residual charge from even the most difficult experiences without having to re-live the experience. This makes CRT an especially powerful technique for clients with PTSD.
- Sleep Issues – Very often, sleep issues result from underlying anxiety about ourselves and the world. Clearing and releasing the causes of the anxiety, beliefs or patterns of thinking, generally clears up difficulties sleeping.
- Physical Conditions – Cellular Release Therapy® can be described or characterized very simply as “stress reduction and relaxation techniques,” and this allows the body a much better internal environment and opportunity to heal. When we are able to shift ourselves out of the constant need to react and protect (the sympathetic response) and into the parasympathetic response, our bodies and minds are able to attend to bringing our internal environment back into balance.
If you would like to book an appointment for Cellular Release Therapy® please click on the ‘Book Appointment’ button in the top right corner of the screen or call 778-640-1119 to speak to one of our front desk staff.