Healing Trauma with Tipi

This week, Cedric helps us to understand how trauma gets stuck in the limbic system and what we can do to release it.

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We have all seen how a single traumatic experience can lead to years, even decades, of depression or PTSD.

I know for a fact that no one has to live with the weight of past trauma or depression.

Through years of practice in emotional regulation I have had the privilege of helping many individuals overcome their depression, chronic anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

To be completely honest, I did practically nothing; these women and men placed their pain in front of them, felt it in their bodies, surrendered to it, and regulated it.

I would be lying if I were to claim that a single emotional regulation session can fully resolve a trauma. Most of the time one traumatic experience leads to several painful emotional repercussions. A trauma survivor needs to examine his daily life and identify the past's manifestations on life today. 

During an emotional regulation session we always work from within the present. The traumatic event does not need to be revisited--a huge relief for many survivors of trauma. In fact, when it comes to healing old emotional wounds, we consider that working on the inciting trauma is counterproductive because the memories are too charged, too old, or distorted.

How does trauma stay stuck in us? Neuroscientists and psychologists have begun to understand why the impact of a traumatic experience is so deeply rooted, despite a multitude of subsequent positive experiences.

Trauma elicits such an intense multifactorial physiological response, flooding the body with stress hormones, that the associated memories reside in the limbic system. As renowned neuroscientist Joseph Ledoux explains in his book "Anxious", from the moment the traumatic memory is created, every subsequent situation that contains elements which our limbic system associates with the trauma will provoke a danger signal with associated physiologic responses. This set of sensations cannot be overruled by our intellect because it isn't generated by the forebrain. That's why it is impossible to "logic our way out" of trauma and why talk therapy often fails.

How does Emotional Regulation integrate a Trauma?
In his book "Sensory Reliving " (Emotion Forte Edition, 2015), Luc Nicon outlined how the physical sensations felt during our emotional difficulties create a clear and direct path to the origin of our traumas. 

When we consciously experience the sensations present in our body during an emotion without trying to control or understand them, we allow the forebrain to reconnect to the data stored in the limbic system; data that was until then isolated. Once this reconnection happens, the result is spontaneous and permanent, meaning that the emotional pattern felt until then will end.
We will have to work, step by step, regulating one emotional pattern at the time.

Once a person is ready to let go of the suffering, to release the pain of past trauma, a healing process is available. 

Our body is waiting for our mind to be ready to heal.

If you would like more information about this work, or if you want to experience regulating difficult emotions, visit CedricBertelli.com.

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Cedric Bertelli, Director of Tipi USA, has been teaching the Tipi process for emotional regulation in the US since 2011. He was personally trained by Luc Nicon, the researcher who created the program in France. They continue to collaborate closely as this work gains worldwide momentum. Cedric is recognized as a CAMFT-approved Continuing Education Provider, he has been training therapists, Special Ed teachers and other healthcare professionals for 7 years.

cedricbertelli.com

http://cedricbertelli.com/sessions/

http://cedricbertelli.com/professional-tipi/

Healing Our Emotions, Healing Our Body

This week, Cedric tells us about how Tipi helped one mother resolve her anger, heal her relationship with her daughter, and heal her body.

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Consciously or subconsciously, we humans are constantly impacted by the moods and emotions of others. In fact, we go so far as to push each other’s buttons just because there is "juice" there! Did you ever notice that when we are triggered, the people around us can sense it and their mood or demeanor shifts? Often they do not even realize why they feel this inner shift. This phenomenon is common in adults and children alike.

I very clearly remember working with a 35 year old single mother, Jessica. Jessica contacted me last year seeking help with the intense anger she felt toward her 6-year-old daughter. Most of the time, the anger was triggered by little things, like her daughter not being able to choose between two pairs of shoes or taking too long to get dressed. It is common for parents to have occasional feelings of anger toward their children. Even when they intellectually understand that something is not worth getting upset about, they just CAN’T help it! The anger can be overwhelming. And after they’ve blown up and the child is crying, they feel guilty and terrible about themselves. They resolve to be more patient. Still, the pattern plays itself out time and time again. It is hard on the child, the parent, the co-parent—the whole family.

In Jessica’s case, she would get extremely frustrated and angry when her daughter was slow to get ready, couldn’t make a decision, or left her toys lying around. The frustration was so intense at times that Jessica, a sweet and charming woman, had to walk away from her daughter to scream and punch something—a door, a pillow, anything.

I want to take a second here to recognize that it takes a lot of courage for a parent to acknowledge this kind of behavior and to seek help. Many would be too ashamed, afraid of being judged, to take the steps toward change. But Jessica was committed to a close relationship with her daughter. She could see that her behavior was making the girl feel sad and afraid.

Jessica heard about my work with emotional regulation through a girlfriend who attended one of my monthly free trainings. We met in my office in San Francisco for the session. As I usually do, I asked her how long she will need to notice whether her anger has resolved. I explained that once a negative emotion has been regulated with Tipi, it will never return. Jessica chuckled and said: "I will know tonight or tomorrow morning! But let’s wait a couple of weeks, just to be sure." So we booked our follow up appointment in two weeks and, feeling confident that she had resolved her anger, I was eager for the follow-up.

When the day finally came, as I opened the door Jessica was standing there with a huge smile:

"I don’t know what you did, but it worked!" she said. I asked her to tell me about it, "Well …," she continued, "I did not get upset once in the morning, not once! That has never happened before."  

I said that it was wonderful and congratulated her on the work she accomplished during our session. "Wait, there is more to it!" she said. Since the session, her daughter was noticeably better about cleaning up after herself, getting ready in the morning, and choosing between her pink or white sneakers without anybody having to plead with or push or frighten her!

It made total sense: mom got rid of her button and, instead of feeling blocked or afraid, the child could make decisions peacefully, naturally, easily!

Jessica shared another effect of our session. The eczema she had on her neck for several months disappeared within a few days of our work together.

Sometimes this happens after a session—it is just the body saying "thank you!"

Let me wrap up by saying that the solution to our emotional problems is definitely inside of us. Often, the best way to change a difficult situation is to change our behavior. To do this reliably, we must heal our emotions.

And all of us can do that, our body has the natural capacity for it. The greatest challenge is recognizing and acknowledging our patterns. Once we have identified them, regulating the dysfunctional emotions is straightforward. And the impact is powerful, on our life and on the lives of people around us.

Read Part 4: Healing Trauma with Tipi

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Cedric Bertelli, Director of Tipi USA, has been teaching the Tipi process for emotional regulation in the US since 2011. He was personally trained by Luc Nicon, the researcher who created the program in France. They continue to collaborate closely as this work gains worldwide momentum. Cedric is recognized as a CAMFT-approved Continuing Education Provider, he has been training therapists, Special Ed teachers and other healthcare professionals for 7 years.

cedricbertelli.com

http://cedricbertelli.com/sessions/

http://cedricbertelli.com/professional-tipi/

Facing Negative Emotions

This week, Cedric Bertelli shares how being with emotions without trying to change them actually helps resolve them.

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I often get asked by professionals and clients alike:

"Cedric, is emotional regulation with Tipi truly different from other emotional healing modalities out there? What do your classes and program offer that we have not already tried?"

I can’t possibly answer that; after all, I don’t know what you have seen.

What I can share with you is the feedback we receive from professionals who have "seen it all"--psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioral therapy, somatic experiencing. EDMR, mindfulness, or EFT to name a few. Their statements speak to the unique approach and the groundbreaking results they have witnessed in their work with Tipi. But most rewarding are the testimonials of clients who have "tried it all" over the years, yearning to feel better...and finally they do.

In fact, emotional regulation with Tipi is not another "modality" or "approach". It is the very foundation--the essence--of all effective techniques that exist out there. It is the reason behind why those techniques work.

There are countless techniques aimed at healing trauma or disruptive emotional patterns through thinking, theorizing, intellectually analyzing. This is the root difference between them and Tipi. Luc Nicon, the creator of the Tipi Program in France, first noticed the body's natural capacity for healing during his work as an education consultant in major European companies, in the French school system, and in professional sports teams. 

He observed how people who keyed into and followed the physical sensations in their bodies when faced with a negative emotion experienced resolution of the emotion. This observation held true across cultural and demographic divides: as long as people observed the sensations which accompany the emotion without intellectual input, without trying to control them or ease them, the emotion resolved very quickly and did not resurface.

Intrigued by this realization, Nicon spent several years conducting hundreds of observational case studies to understand and define this natural physiologic capacity. You can learn more about the study in the book “Sensory Reliving” (Emotion Forte Editions).

So, in practical terms, how is regulating emotions through our program different?

Well, first of all, it is painless. You do not have to unearth and air out past trauma. The emotional aftermath of past experiences in the present day offer the perfect window of opportunity to heal old wound.

And there is no grueling reliving of past grief, terror, and pain. You will be in the emotional state for one second, after which you will be shifted quickly to the sensorial, where there is no fear or pain. Each session never exceeds thirty minutes, can be done by phone or Skype, and 80% of emotional difficulties are fully resolved after a single session. After each session we will always schedule a follow up, whenever you want, in order to ensure that the disruptive emotion is completely integrated.

Do you want to hear another practical difference? The payment is not per session, but rather per achievement of the desired results, thus completely aligning the goals of the client and the treating professional.

As I've said before, there is no "catch". I'm not looking for repeat customers or a prolonged treatment program. If you are a person struggling with difficult emotions, my goal will be to regulate each one of them in one session. And if you are a professional, over the course of eight non-consecutive days, I will teach you to permanently regulate the emotional difficulties of your clients or patients. So, you have almost nothing to lose and everything to gain....

Until next time!

Read Part 3: Healing Our Emotions, Healing Our Body

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Cedric Bertelli, Director of Tipi USA, has been teaching the Tipi process for emotional regulation in the US since 2011. He was personally trained by Luc Nicon, the researcher who created the program in France. They continue to collaborate closely as this work gains worldwide momentum. Cedric is recognized as a CAMFT-approved Continuing Education Provider, he has been training therapists, Special Ed teachers and other healthcare professionals for 7 years.

cedricbertelli.com

http://cedricbertelli.com/sessions/

http://cedricbertelli.com/professional-tipi/

Seek And You Shall Find: A Pathway to Emotional Regulation

This week, I am happy to introduce you to Cedric Bertelli, Director of Tipi USA (a powerful technique for emotional regulation). In this post, Cedric shares what led him to leave his work in the corporate world and immerse himself in this healing modality.

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For as far back as I can remember--even when I was in kindergarten--I have been an anxious person. I was filled with a swirling collection of fears, anxiety, anger… you name it.

As a teenager and young adult, I learned to hide this side of myself inside of my work ethic, high performance in school, lighthearted humor. But my bottled emotions found ways of expressing themselves negatively in my body and in my life: I was dealing with eczema, asthma, and crises at home.

After culinary school, I pursued a career in the restaurant business. I wanted to bring joy to people through food. I quickly became very successful in the professional world. But while everything may have seemed easy and smooth for me from an outsider’s perspective, on the inside I continued to struggle with a great deal of anxiety and fear.

In my mid-twenties, I decided to go on a personal “quest”: I wanted to overcome my anxiety and to obtain the tools that would make me a better leader at work. Although many of the modalities I tried were powerful, most of them required ongoing effort, time, and money. What’s more, their effects were not permanent--I felt like I was in a lifelong uphill battle against myself. I was looking for something better…I believe in sustained work, but I also believe in definitive results!

By my late twenties, I was ready to quit my job and leave the corporate world. But first I needed a purpose and a plan. Throughout my career in hospitality and through my own introspections, I became fascinated by how emotions rule our lives: the way we work, learn, relate, how we bond, whom we hate seemed to be controlled by invisible and seemingly uncontrollable internal forces. So, I decided to learn more about these forces. I cast a wide net in my search, exploring programs, classes, and teachings in the US and in Europe to find something that would excite me. That is when I found the work of a fellow French man, Luc Nicon, creator of the Tipi Program for Emotional Regulation.

What caught my interest was that Luc Nicon was not a spiritual teacher or a therapist. He was a researcher working in the field of education, with athletes and major companies as his clients. Another aspect of his work that appealed to me was the fact that any individual could learn it for herself and practice autonomously. I got a copy of his book, in which he describes the technique he built based on 300 cases, and decided that I wanted to learn even more.

When I contacted Luc to ask him about the details of his research and his discoveries, his answer to me was simple: "You’ve got to try the process for yourself: you can do so when you are triggered, when you are in the midst of emotional difficulty. The process", he explained, "will last a maximum of one minute; in fact, most of the time it will take 30 seconds. After that, the emotion you struggled with will be resolved permanently. It just will not be a part of your life anymore."

Hmmm, it seemed way too simple, a bit disappointing actually… To be honest, I did not think the technique would do much of anything. But I have tried much crazier things in the past in the name of self-improvement, so what the hell...I decided to give it a shot. The next opportunity readily presented itself. Every week, during our weekly work meeting, I was extremely triggered by the annoying commentary of one of my co-workers. This Friday afternoon, as usual, when Alphonse started speaking, I felt the anger rising up. Perfect! I excused myself, stepped out into the hallway and applied the technique Luc described during our phone conversation:

• - I closed my eyes
• - I paid attention to my physical sensations: my throat was tight and dry, my stomach felt twisted, and I was feeling abnormally hot
• - I continued to observe these sensations without trying to change them or to understand what was happening. I just stayed present with them.
• - I noted that my sensations began to change: what felt tight became loose, my temperature rose even more, then went down, my stomach untwisted, and I felt as though all my blood left out of my belly, and then came back to me as a nice, warm feeling.
• - I allowed all this to happen without trying to do anything until I felt calm. Then I opened my eyes.

All this took less than 30 seconds. I went back to the meeting, feeling a little tired but calm. The fascinating part came in the following weeks when, at the same meeting, I was not at all triggered by Alphonse’s comments. Intrigued, I repeated the process for four other issues: road rage, a work-related anxiety, another trigger for anger, and jealousy. I gave myself six months to note whether the five emotions I had processed would return. During these six months I called several Tipi Practitioners in France to get a better idea about the program and the effects of their work.

After six months, I had to admit that the emotions I had regulated had never returned. I was baffled. Something powerful was happening. I didn’t understand it, but I knew that it worked. At this point, I decided to quit my job and return to France to study with Luc Nicon.

A new life was about to start… 

Read Part 2: Facing Negative Emotions

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Cedric Bertelli, Director of Tipi USA, has been teaching the Tipi process for emotional regulation in the US since 2011. He was personally trained by Luc Nicon, the researcher who created the program in France. They continue to collaborate closely as this work gains worldwide momentum. Cedric is recognized as a CAMFT-approved Continuing Education Provider, he has been training therapists, Special Ed teachers and other healthcare professionals for 7 years.

cedricbertelli.com

http://cedricbertelli.com/sessions/

http://cedricbertelli.com/professional-tipi/