Category: Mental Health

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Mental Health Spirituality

Understanding the Mind-Body Connection in Addiction Recovery

Understanding the intricacies of our mind-body connection is so incredibly important to the goal of treating and healing women from the destruction of substance abuse in all aspects of their lives, mind, body and soul. Although we often think of the mind and body to be separate, they are actually deeply connected, and it is essential to address both in addiction treatment. Attention to each system in the body is necessary for true, holistic healing and recovery.

Again, to overcome any addiction, the mind and body have to both be addressed. However, in order to achieve lasting, sustainable recovery, there also requires specific attention to the processes of the soul. In order for true recovery to take place, we must understand and heal this triadic connection, which can be done through several different techniques that can be called upon to access and draw focus to these varied parts of us and bring them into alignment.

What Is the Mind-Body Connection?

Everything you think in your mind, your beliefs, values, emotions, memories, and habits influence both your mental and physical health. We know from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), that what we think affects what we feel, which in turn affects how we act. We also know that the opposite is true, that how we act – and in essence, our physical being – affects how we feel and think. We can easily feel this connection when we focus on specific thoughts and pay attention to our experience of them in the body.

When we think about being worried, stressed, or scared we can feel unease in the stomach, tension throughout the body, a racing heart, and shallow breathing. These thought patterns and emotions have a corresponding biological function and can contribute to imbalances within the body. Because our physical and mental health is so connected, to heal any disease or discomfort we need to approach both to re-establish balance and health.

Addiction and the Mind-Body Connection

Addiction finds a foothold in that it impacts the reward areas of the mind and body, allowing us to feel good or euphoric for a short period of time. Whether it is used as a way to numb the uncomfortable sensations that connect to past pain and trauma or simply as a way to relax, through the process of our increasing tolerance and our desire to avoid withdrawal symptoms, our body soon becomes physically addicted.

Psychologically, we become addicted when we turn to substances each time we feel stressed or overwhelmed with life circumstances. Thus, addiction is neither a solely biological or psychological construct, it is both.

Trying to Escape the Mind and Body

Our emotions and experiences of trauma are not just stored in the mind but also the body. This is why many people feel their body has betrayed them as it holds onto the left-over pain from the past. Our addiction often functions as a way to escape the uncomfortable mental and bodily experience of emotional pain and discomfort.

Our natural instinct is to try to escape it as we do not understand how to heal this split. To heal emotional pain, we have to find safety and learn how to connect with others and soothe ourselves in a safe and healthy way. This is where having body-focused techniques that help us to stay present as well as a supportive environment and someone to guide us becomes invaluable.

Healing the Mind-Body Connection

Since these two systems are interconnected, when we focus on one it influences the other. If we focus on nourishing the body through exercise, healthy food, and healing mindful breath, it impacts our mind, making it clearer and more focused. Many holistic approaches help to heal these systems and release our dependence on our addictive behaviors and thus make it easier to move through recovery successfully. When our mind and body come back into balance, we reconnect to our true self and often to our spirituality as well.

This part of us is often buried when we are being controlled by our addiction and a desire to self-medicate. Bringing balance back to the mind and body allows us to once again take control of our life from a loving and caring heart-centered space. For centuries, traditional forms of medicine have looked to address the whole person, not just a part. Many treatment programs only address the mind and miss out on the healing potential of the body. Fewer still capitalize on the healing potential of the soul.

At Villa Kali Ma, our holistic approaches don’t just address the disease or addiction, but include avenues to access the mind, body, and soul and heal all the parts of us that have become separated in order to restore the whole system. In addition to clinical approaches, we pull from ancient healing modalities such as Ayurveda, Yoga, and Shamanic practices that are built on this philosophy. Check out our blog on holistic healing techniques to learn more!

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Mental Health

How Effective Are Holistic Addiction Treatment Techniques?

When you find yourself ready to leave a life of addiction, fed up with “life so far”, and desperate for another way, what you need is more than simply time “away” from what has kept you stuck. What you need is something new. Something different. Something that’s more than a vacation from your current life situation. What you need is something that takes you to a place where deep, holistic transformation and healing can take place.

Many treatment centers will call their programs ‘holistic’ because they work a yoga session or two into their weekly programming, offer massages, or have exercise equipment available.  At Villa Kali Ma, “holistic” has a much broader meaning than just yoga and meditation. “Holistic” focuses on the whole being or whole life of a person and looks at the bigger picture of how to create lasting lifestyle changes that will provide sustainable recovery for each individual person.

Here at Villa Kali Ma, “holistic” can be used to describe our entire program, not just a small part of it, because we are treating the whole person, not just a small part of her. We employ a team of holistic healers and clinical therapists who infuse our treatment program with a variety of proven modalities, techniques, education and experiences that expand and inspire each woman’s view of herself and the possibilities for her life.

The combination of all of this new information as well as the practices and psychological processing has proven to be effective in profoundly changing the mindset, beliefs and attitudes of the clients who embark on this journey at Villa Kali Ma. The holistic approach brings about positive change that is sustainable and facilitates the awakening of the mind-body-spirit connection.

Why Holistic Treatment?

Why do we use so many mind-body focused treatment modalities? The way we see it, the truly holistic addiction treatment model provides two very important and fundamental pieces of the recovery process.

One of the main reasons women fail (and probably men as well) in most recovery programs is that they do not address the untreated trauma that is at the root of the addiction. So, in order to facilitate the processing of trauma, holistic mind-body techniques help those who come to us for treatment to “stay grounded in their bodies” and avoid becoming stuck in “flight or fight” mode which in turn,  enables them to safely process emotions and do the hard work of recovery.

Second, we believe that our role is to serve as a training ground, where clients learn and develop the skills and tools necessary to continue on the path of recovery after treatment. Without holistic practices delivering healing on the level of the body and soul, permanent change is not possible, and the pattern of self-medication will continue.

Holistic Addiction Treatment Techniques We Use

Through the following holistic addiction treatment techniques, we are effectively treating the nervous system, the largest hurdle in effecting and sustaining change in holistic treatment. In teaching clients how to manage their own sense of hyper- or hypo- arousal, they are instead able to remain present to do the work – to keep on processing; to keep on letting go.

1. Pranayama and Breathwork for Transformation

Originating in India over 2000 years ago, the Pranayama practice is the perfect antidote for our busy western schedules and minds. Pranayama is basically a series of breathing exercises that bring more oxygen to the blood and to the brain. Pranayama allows the mind to relax and focus on one thing, the pattern of breathing. Through this practice, one is able to train the mind and nervous system to relax.

Studies confirm that these exercises that cultivate specific attention on the breath are successful in overriding our sympathetic nervous system, i.e. our fight or flight response that is often heightened in individuals who have experienced trauma or are under chronic stress (as is often the case with individuals in treatment for addiction). In addition to this, Pranayama is also known to improve cardiovascular and respiratory functions, decrease the effects of stress and strain on the body, and improve overall physical and mental health.

Transformational Breathwork practice is done using a specific rhythmic breath sequence which is repeated over an extended period of time while lying on your back in a relaxed comfortable position. Participants are covered in blankets for warmth and use an eye pillow over the eyes to assist in total relaxation and letting go of the outside world. This is an hour-long practice that creates states of consciousness and deep meditation that are not available in a normal state.

The practice creates an altered state of awareness and reinvigorates stuck energy – be it mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual – allowing it to be released. This release is extremely powerful and often causes intense emotion to come up and tears to flow as sadness, grief, and pain are finally released from the mind-body energetic system. This practice is an amazing holistic treatment for healing trauma.

2. Mindfulness

The practice of mindfulness finds its roots in Buddhism among other eastern traditions. In more recent decades, it has been adapted by many psychologists, most notably Jon Kabat Zinn, into programs like “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction” and used in various treatment modalities to promote healing and improve overall well-being.

In addition to training us to accept, understand, and become at ease with our own experiences, rather than resisting them, mindfulness as a practice has also been demonstrated to help reduce cravings and decrease your experience of stress. Through mindfulness, you will work to widen the gap between what happens to you, and your response to it, over time gaining better control over your impulses and making smart, educated choices that are congruent with your values and beliefs.

There are now programs such as Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) for treating Addiction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for treating Depression that offer specific approaches allowing us to offer tools that address each individual’s specific needs and circumstances.

3. Daily Yoga and Meditation Practices

In general, yoga practices that involve maintaining postures mindfully and with breath awareness can reduce stress levels, improve immunity, decrease blood pressure and heart rate, improve sleep, and reduce body aches and pains.

Studies have found that integrative yoga practice – which includes gentle poses that focus on quieting the mind and body – is highly successful in decreasing cortisol, which is the stress hormone that is released into the body during the fight or flight response. High levels of cortisol in the body can affect blood pressure, sleep cycles, inflammation, weight gain, and lead to irritability and mood disorders.

    • Hatha yoga is what we typically imagine when we think about Yoga. The focus is on coming into balance in all areas of your life; Body, Mind, and Soul. The result is mental clarity, inner peace, and deep contentment like you have never felt before.
    • Restorative yoga is an amazing way to let go and totally relax. In this practice, gentle breathing techniques are paired with postures that lead to a state of deep meditation. This practice is done using props such as bolsters, pillows, and blankets in order to find deeply relaxing positions where the body feels held and supported. This practice is about completely relaxing and letting go; mind, body, and spirit.
    • Similarly, Yoga Nidra begins with gentle postures intended to release physical tension from the body, and once settled into a resting posture, you’ll be guided through a meditation focusing on sensory awareness, a full-body scan, and then into various visualizations. Yoga Nidra practiced over time will train the brain for better focus and concentration, and help to balance strong emotions.
    • Kundalini yoga is an incredibly powerful practice that encompasses elements from nearly all lineages of yoga, yet what makes Kundalini truly unique is its emphasis on Kriyas. Kriyas are repetitive movements incorporated with specific chanting and/or breathing techniques that create mental and physical resistance and allow observation of mechanisms of the mind. For this reason, it is often referred to as the “Yoga of Awareness”.

4. Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese method of treating the body as a whole. It looks at how each organ system functions with each other and how much qi (life energy) and blood are flowing through each of those systems. In essence, acupuncture sees the body as an ecosystem – a complex network or interconnected system – where every single thing has an effect on another.

Acupuncture is able to assist with many of the immediate effects of substance withdrawal such as detoxing the body, alleviating physical pain without medication and regulating digestive issues caused by abuse of drugs. Acupuncture also helps with the symptoms of withdrawal such as insomnia, depression, anxiety, while also helping with alertness, relaxation, and focus.

5. Craniosacral Therapy

The craniosacral system is comprised of the skull, brain, spinal cord, sacrum, and the membranes, tissues, and fluid that hold it all together.  The cerebrospinal fluid has been described as being one of the most potent and vibrant elements contained in the body. It is constantly cushioning, nourishing, healing, and removing toxins from the central nervous system.

When there is stagnancy in this system, our brain and body do not function optimally. While this form of treatment is still young in the clinical trials that support its effectiveness in addiction treatment, craniosacral therapy has shown immense promise in the field of holistic trauma recovery.

6. Shamanic Healing and Journeying

Individual and group sessions combine the power of energy medicine, chakra clearing and rebalancing, guided visualizations and inner guidance in order to bring healing, clarity, and grounding to the client. As clients are guided into a deep state of relaxation, the subconscious mind surfaces, and through the various methods listed below, we are able to rewire and reprogram the brain.

    • Chakra Clearing with Crystals
    • Connecting with Inner Guidance System Guided Meditation
    • Soul Retrieval Guided Meditation
    • Meeting Your Highest Self Guided Meditation

7. Reiki and Massage Therapy

Where massage is therapeutic touch that helps to detoxify and bring a sense of calm to the body, Reiki is the transmission, with and without touch, of spiritually guided life force energy. Both mediums stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system to allow for healing to take place on the physical, mental and emotional levels. As trauma is often stored in the body, these approaches target and clear blockages in specific parts of the body. Reiki takes the practice one step further, aligning the chakras and creating an energetic harmony of being.

8. Ayurveda; Treatments, Cooking and Lifestyle Counseling

At Villa Kali Ma, our clients will be introduced to the ayurvedic lifestyle through individual consultations, cooking and lifestyle classes, as well as ayurvedic body treatments. Ayurveda is both a system of healing and a lifestyle that contains thousand-year-old wisdom and brings optimum health and wellbeing to the lives of persons who dedicate themselves to living by its principals.

Ayurveda offers suggestions for specific dietary changes, lifestyle changes, daily and seasonal regimens, as well as body treatments, herbal therapies, and practices for correcting imbalances in the body and achieving and maintaining optimal health and vitality. Ultimately it helps us to understand that all of our choices, from what we eat to how we think and behave, have a profound effect on our health and wellbeing.

How Effective Are Holistic Addiction Treatment Techniques?

We have been employing our holistic addiction treatment model in our residential treatment setting for the past four years with outstanding results. Our clinical team, which is made up of very well trained and experienced practitioners, say they have never seen such amazing outcomes as they see with our model. Our clients give us rave reviews and often post their gratitude on sites like Yelp and Google My Business.

When considering treatment for yourself or someone you love, it’s important that you make a choice that reflects your goal of long-term, sustainable recovery. At Villa Kali Ma, we offer our clients a new way of life, to use the holistic techniques we teach them in order to do the immensely powerful work of healing body, mind, and soul.

Categories
Mental Health

Overcoming Systemic Trauma: Healing the Hurting Among Us

“At times or most times, I find being black means being forced into a small
tight space and being told that I cannot come out until I conform to
a way that makes a predominately white society feel comfortable.”

—  Rachel James-Terry
–

To begin, this article is not a first-hand account of what it’s like to be an African American or any other minority in America. This article cannot describe or even touch on the felt experiences of those who were born with a skin tone other than white in this country with its long history of racism and white supremacy. Instead, this article is meant to be an account of the odds stacked against generationally traumatized people, especially people of color, and an attempt to bring light to the systemic trauma that is so prevalent in minority communities, and the oppressive system in place that prevents forward progress.

For those who once considered racism to be dead in America, recent events in the news have surely begun to convince them otherwise. We are not beyond the effects of slavery, segregation, the Jim Crow laws, white supremacy, redlining, gerrymandering (among other means of keeping black people from voting), mass incarceration of people of color, racially-targeted drug wars, and clearly, of police brutality.

Each of the above issues represents key threads that make up the very fabric of those in the African American and other racially marginalized communities’ lives. Together, they weave into a narrative of Historical Trauma that mental health professionals and researchers describe as the lingering effect caused by the traumas inflicted on groups of people because of their race, creed, and ethnicity. The persistent cycle of systemic trauma can destroy families and communities as it passes down to the souls of their descendants and often disrupts the vitality of entire cultures.
–

“The sign of ultimate oppression working is when the oppressor can take away
his hands, stand back and say ‘look at what they’re doing to themselves.”

—  Jessica Gourneau, Ph.D.
–

Systemic Trauma Can Lead to Addiction in Adulthood

While there are many different types of traumatic events that cause extreme stress and difficulty for those who endure it, there is a particular burden that stems from growing up black or brown in a predominately white society. In such a case, you will come to understand and the phrase “white privilege”.  While obviously not all people born with white skin have “white privilege”, a disproportionate number of whites do have a significant advantage over minority races in America. Namely, whites in America are exposed to significantly less systemic trauma growing up than Black or Hispanic children and most systemic trauma or PTSD that affects these children goes untreated.

So often, what this means is that as a person of color, you cannot expect to have the same opportunities that the majority of white people are born with and take for granted. Black, Hispanic and other minority races not only experience underrepresentation in nearly all sectors of today’s society, they can also expect to earn less than a white person would for the same job title. The majority of people of color will be challenged to overcome numerous environmental stressors that stem from growing up in families, homes and community environments that were not able to provide consistent safety, comfort or protection.

Black and Hispanic households have an extreme disadvantage compared to white families in America when it comes to ability to create wealth, own homes, buy health insurance or save money for retirement. Due to a long history of employment discrimination and lack of stable jobs, good wages, retirement benefits, and ongoing mortgage discrimination, these disenfranchised families are subjected to a damaging cycle of wealth inequality. In the year 2016, white families in America had a median wealth of around $171,000 compared to approximately $18,000 for African American households and $21,000 for Hispanic households.

If you were born black in America, you are almost 3 times more likely to grow up in a broken home being raised by only one parent then if you were born white. African American children are also more likely to grow up in impoverished neighborhoods, are more likely to witness domestic and physical violence, and thus are forced to develop the “survival skills” necessary to adapt and keep going. What we know about these survival skills is that while they may be helpful to us initially, down the road they hinder our ability to experience healthy attachment with others.

Black and Hispanic Americans are also more likely to be incarcerated than white Americans. In 2017 there were about 476,000 incarcerated adult African Americans compared to 436,000 adult white Americans however, black Americans only made up 12% of the entire adult population in the United States but made up more than 50% of the incarcerated population. All of these “layers” of traumatic events, being invasive and interpersonal in nature, have long-lasting effects.  Most notably this includes a greater chance of struggling with mental health issues, substance abuse, chronic physical illness, depression and anxiety, domestic violence, divorce, financial difficulties and low self-esteem.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study

In 1995, a joint effort from the CDC and Kaiser Permanente resulted in the creation of a large-scale ACE study which is a simple 10-item questionnaire that completely changed the way the medical community viewed the impact of these early childhood experiences. The study looks at three sets of questions highlighting abuse, neglect, and household challenges that an individual faced, and compared them to health outcomes later in life. What they found was groundbreaking: (source)

    1. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults surveyed have at least one ACE.
    2. ACEs have a significantly significant correlation with chronic disease (cancer, diabetes), infectious disease (HIV, STDs), injury and maternal health as well as mental illness (depression, anxiety, suicide), problems with addiction, and lost education or career opportunities.
    3. If you have one ACE, you are 87% more likely to have two or more.
    4. The more ACEs you have, the greater your risk for the abovementioned negative outcomes.
    5. It doesn’t matter which four ACEs a person has; the harmful consequences are the same:
      Those with an ACE score of 4 are two times more likely to smoke and seven times more likely to abuse alcohol. This same score increases the risk of attempted suicide by 1200 percent and indicates that these individuals are more likely to be violent, to have more marriages, more broken bones, more drug prescriptions, experience more depression, and more autoimmune diseases.
    6. Those with an ACE score of 6 or higher are at risk of their lifespan being shortened by 20 years.

The fundamental understanding of the ACE study lies in the simple truth that greater exposure to negative events in childhood increases the risk of negative outcomes later in life. This data cuts across disparities in wealth, age, and race in producing the same negative outcomes. However, unsurprisingly, in America, one in three black children have experienced two to eight ACEs in their lifetime, compared to only one in five white non-Hispanic children. For all children, the most common ACE is the divorce or separation of a parent or guardian, however, unique to the black experience is the second most-likely ACE: parental incarceration.

A Closer Look at the Criminal Justice System

Let’s look at one small piece of the puzzle. While it’s documented that both white and black individuals engage in drug offenses at roughly the same rate (whites perhaps even more than blacks) black individuals are incarcerated 10 times more often. The American Civil Liberties Union reports that due to this, “there are more black people under the control of prison and corrections departments today than were ever enslaved by this country”.

In addition to this practice of selective enforcement on drug laws, and favorable sentencing for white people, our criminal justice population in general is made up of people with histories of childhood systemic trauma, abuse, and neglect. Children who were physically abused are more likely to turn around and do the same, as those who were neglected are also more likely to be later arrested for a violent offense. Thus creating a cycle that continues to repeat itself.

Whether the reason for parental incarceration is petty drug crimes or serious offenses, children left without available caregivers add to the growing number of ACEs they will experience in their lifetime. Imagine the widespread impacts of this alone. These children may grow up, become offenders themselves, and pass on this pattern to the next generation. This is a chronic system that keeps churning out the same results, year after year. Thousands of traumatized people, forced to live in a broken system, it’s no wonder we have again begun to shout, “no more!”.

What Can We Do About It?

One approach that might be helpful is to focus on healing.  Rather than taking up resources in state and federal prisons for people who are incarcerated on non-violent or drug offenses, maybe what these individuals need is to be treated for trauma. Maybe what these children need are safe caregivers with whom they can develop a secure attachment. Maybe what our country needs is to heal from the horrors our silence has brought upon our black brothers and sisters.

We’re all contributing to the problem. However, with the courage to do some self-assessment, to avoid the pull to numb and to pretend that it has nothing to do with us, we may realize that we can actually be a part of the solution. If you are not already familiar, consider this your call to action to get to know the history of what has led to the recent riots against police violence and current #BlackLivesMatter protests in America and around the world. Take time to educate yourself and understand how this problem is affecting all lives in America and how important it is that we all play our part to change it.

We can learn the truth of our country’s history and what is going on today. Here are some recommended documentaries to get you up to date on the systemic trauma being caused by racism, a biased judicial system and police brutality which steep through the lives of families and communities and perpetuate continued suffering for generations.

We can use our voice and our vote to join those seeking justice. We can look beyond what’s happening on the streets and on social media and seek to understand the hurt beneath. Ultimately, we can see these protests for what they really are: the cries of a hurt and traumatized community, demanding their pain be recognized and acted upon.

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