Integrative Therapy for Attachment Trauma
Pam Dillon, M.Ed., RMFT. | 579-539-0147
Integrative Mental Health (IMH) is a newly emerging discipline within the field of traditional mental health. Similar to functional medicine, IMH aims to uncover the root cause of suffering and to then offer a wide array of evidence-based, holistic and complementary interventions to assist patients on their journeys towards comprehensive health at the levels of mind, body, soul and spirit. IMH honors the fundamental complexity of the human organism as well as it’s inherent and intelligent capacity for re-balancing and healing. It is a fundamentally collaborative approach. With your permission, I work alongside your medical practitioners on your behalf.
In my own unique offering of IMH, I provide guidance on the fundamentals of anti-inflammatory nutrition and sleep hygiene for improving mental health. Additionally, I offer an array of evidence-based, energy healing modalities drawn from whole medical systems themselves such as Ayurveda which incorporates Yoga, and Traditional Chinese Medicine which incorporates Qi Gong and acupressure. These interventions are all intended to buttress and complement your attachment trauma psychotherapy work.
Research, for example, has demonstrated clinical reductions in symptoms of anxiety and depression when yoga and energy medicine practices based on the principles of TCM are adopted as lifestyle practices. Specifically, it is proposed that Yoga interventions down regulate the sympathetic nervous system while increasing brain alpha wave activity associated with an alert, relaxed state. Additionally, yoga is believed to increase vagal tone, heart rate variability and levels of certain important neurotransmitters while also reducing stress related cellular damage.
All of the interventions I offer you aim to re-establish greater balance in your autonomic nervous system and your sleep/wake cycles which will in turn stabilize your moods and provide you with greater skill and confidence in regulating your emotions on a moment-to-moment basis.
A 2014 health survey of chronic illness revealed that approximately three million Canadians over the age of 18 reported suffering from a mood or anxiety disorder. Prescription rates for anti-depressant and anxiolytic medication have continually increased over recent years and are now spiking with the emergence of the pandemic.
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
–Rainer Maria Rilke
Yet, a 2019 Harvard Medical School review points out that “most if not all of the benefits of antidepressants for the treatment of anxiety and depression are due to the placebo response.” While antidepressants may prove helpful for severe depression by providing emotional numbing, they often cause unpleasant side effects and pose long-term health risks. Similar difficulties arise with anti-anxiety medications. They disrupt sleep, dreaming, memory and other mental functions and carry the risk of drug dependence.
We might simply say that the human body expresses its own imbalance through symptoms or that symptoms of anxiety, depression and physiologic complaints tell the truth of childhood injuries long-forgotten but now biologically built-in! We might think of such symptoms as a mind/body distress signal letting us know that something is amiss in the psyche (soul) and in need of our acceptance, attention, care and love.
An Integrative approach to mental health (IMH) acknowledges, respects and supports the inherent human drive towards integrity, healing and wholeness. An integrative approach to mental health maintains a stance of curiosity regarding the root causes of individual presentations of anxiety, depression and/or psychophysiologic symptoms. It offers a panoply of evidence-based, mind/body practices intended to buttress and empower the courageous individual who is ready to commit to a life of healing and thriving beyond the suffering of his or her traumatic past.
IMH regards the patient as a complex and wise amalgam of body, mind, soul and spirit. It also recognizes the importance of the quality of the bond between patient and practitioner in service of the patient’s deep healing. Integrative mental health is a collaborative practice. With your permission and written consent, I will work in conjunction with your medical providers when necessary or appropriate to ensure you receive comprehensive care to support your journey towards greater health and well-being.
“We are pain and what cures pain, both.
We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.”
–Rumi
“Pam was a student in the Integrative Health and Lifestyle program at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona where I serve as a faculty member and mentor. Her insightful participation and dedication in her group and in the program made me think of her more as a colleague than a student. She gifted us all with her years of experience working with trauma and with supporting people in their journeys of healing and health. Pam is especially attuned to whole-person integrative perspectives and to the movement of spirit in people’s lives, both of which represent vital directions for the arenas of healthcare, mental health, and well-being.”