The pockets are deep, and I only want to stay surface with this topic, and allow those who want to go see, go deep. I listened to this podcast because when people say "sensory-processing issues" I don't really know what they are talking about.
In listening to this episode I learned that OT is more about the body, and neursequential is about understanding that the brain builds and functions inside out, so when someone is behaving from their stem brain, it doesn't make sense to tell them to "use your words" "how are you feeling", they have no access to the verbal parts of their brain.
Another part I found interesting is when they talk about matching behavior makes a person feel seen. My mom often did this to me, and I felt mocked. When I yawned, she would mimic my yawn with added sound, and it would make me mad, like she is pointing out a flaw of mine. My mom can not recognize faces, so maybe her mimic was poor as a result, or maybe yawning is supposed to be naturally contagious, so her deliberate copy ruined it for me, or maybe the added sound agitated my sensory system, catching me what I was vulnerable. What I do know is that it feels like my ability to see my child as not bad, and everyone else's inability to do so, is why she can not enter mainstream school. She knows the difference between being seen and not, why would she settle for less?
The point of this article though, is to share that Esogetics has a similar approach, but with flexibility to go bottom up, outward in, inward out, top down, or some combination. With kids they say "stop trying to address the physical first, because when you address the psychospiritual their kirlian photo shifts so much better than when you just keep trying to address the physical".
One of the comments in this episode was about how OT sessions are 45min because you can work with a muscle for 45min and then let it integrate for 24-48hrs after the session. Sensory and neuro connections can only be worked with for a couple of minutes, then the system has to dissociate to integrate. So a 45min session only allows for a few repetition, when 1000 are needed. It blows my mind that this is why they advocate for parents to be in the room, why were they ever locking parents out to begin with? I think we seek professionals for what they can see and what they can teach us, but not to do for us as if we are incapable, the healing is always intended to be between parent and child, not some practitioner who wedges themself in place because the parent can't. Yes of course, some parents need a break, parenting kids with vulnerable nervous systems is very hard on our physiology too. But that's another thing.
In the class I just finished, my teacher kept reinforcing that the reason Esogetics leverages the prefrontal cortex, is to try to get people to recognize their pattern. It's beautiful to me, how Esogetics is leveraging brain science (in terms of what area of the brain gets us stuck in loops, or throws off rhythms or perceptions), as well as how the body gets sludgy and doesn't pass on information, creating symptoms or episodes.
Esogetic treatments are generally short, with the bulk of the time spent trying to understand what to do, and then seeing if what we did worked. Once the client finds tools that work for them, to keep them on their path, they can invest in these tools to continue the treatment at home, as needed. We just want to help people realign to their life path, know when they are going off track, and how to self-correct, or when to come in for more understanding and help.
To be continued, as the learning never stops.
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