Note: Belleruth Naparstek has been talking for over a decade about post-traumatic stress as a physiological issue requiring regulation. In fact, she has dropped the "D" off of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, using PTS instead, because she does not agree with many therapists who believe PTS is a permanent diagnosis. See the following quote from an article she wrote.
She wrote that in 2011. Her focus has been on helping people find soothing, feel better and restore or discover well-being after traumatic stress. She believes this is possible. She has long been a voice of hope for many.
I've never met her but I feel like I know her well. Not just because I read her book, Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal, but because I used guided imagery, a tool she helped popularize, especially for those with PTS. Listening to her in the privacy of my own home, I was able to sink down into my skin and self long enough to practice breathing, staying still and crying. All which required time and practice. Long before I understand what it meant to "feel safe," "center" or "ground," she helped me be less afraid, less numb and less hateful of the world.
I'll be forever grateful. While Belleruth Naparstek, talks and writes about guided imagery and trauma and healing and hope, I've not heard or read much about her. Until today when I saw the following profile piece.
Belleruth Naparstek uses guided imagery to help relieve anxieties for vets and others
(This article appears in the Winter 2017 issue of SSA Magazine.)
When waves of military personnel scarred by trauma started returning from overseas, Belleruth Krepon Naparstek AB '64, AM '67, believed she could help them find relief by learning how to use the mind to heal.
The psychotherapist and author is a pioneer in the field of guided imagery, a practice that combines body awareness, breathing exercises, and imagination to bring about a state of calm and manage emotional or physical pain. "Think of it like directed day-dreaming," she says.
"Guided imagery turned out to be absolutely the perfect technique to reach this audience because of how post-traumatic stress affects certain parts of the brain that traditional therapy—talking, thinking, and analyzing—won’t touch," says the author of the award-winning book on posttraumatic stress, Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal.
Research has shown that people who practice guided imagery have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which floods the body whenever a threat or perceived threat is imminent. "Additionally, findings have shown that the practice can decrease depression, anxiety, and pain, ease medical procedures, heighten immune function, and helps people lose weight or quit smoking," she explains.
Naparstek has produced guided imagery audio recordings that are used at numerous medical institutions, including the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and Memorial Sloan Kettering. But it is at the nation's veteran's hospitals where some of the most exciting work is being done, she says. Read more.
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