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Our nervous system is designed to self-regulate but it is now understood that one of the significant consequences of needs not being met in the early stages of life can result in a lack of capacity for emotional (affect) and autonomic self-regulation.
Put very simply, self-regulations means that when we’re tired, we sleep, when we’re stressed, we have healthy ways of releasing that stress.
Affect regulation refers to how we manage our emotions: how we handle sadness, joy, anger, excitement, fear – the whole gamut of human emotions. Symptoms of emotional dysregulation develop when we are unable to feel our emotions, when they overwhelm us, or when they remain unresolved.
It is essential to our well being to be able to manage the intensity of both our positive and our negative emotions because if we are unable to manage powerful or difficult emotions, or when we are anxious or depressed, we are in state of dysregulation. And a dysregulated system is out of balance.
What does dysregulation look and feel like?
Disrupted sleep or eating patterns, anxiety, panic attacks, compulsive behaviours, depression and addiction are some of the more common expressions of dysregulation.
How Emotion Mind Body Integration (EMBI) can improve self-regulation
This unique whole body mind approach works not with the symptom or expression of dysregulation but teaches you how to improve self-regulation and rebalance the system. Using her combined skills as a hypnotherapist, counsellor and TRE (Tension Stress and Trauma Release) practitioner, Lee can support you to bring more calm and balance into your life.
Talk therapy, in conjunction, with a somatic approach such as TRE can bring clarity and insights to the problem. Hypnotherapy gives us access to under-utilized resources and teaches the brain new behaviours, and TRE can reset the nervous system to a calmer more balanced state.
What difference will EMBI make to my life?
Whatever the issue or challenge you’re dealing with, when you increase your capacity to self-regulate, you increase your capacity to have control and make conscious choices. This has obvious benefits for personal relationships, job performance, breaking habits like smoking or over-eating, anger management and so many areas of life.
The famous Serenity Prayer sums up the essence of self-regulation, “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference”.