The Autonomic Healing Podcast - Conversations with Tom Pals

Personal and Professional Healing with Guest Brittney Blanchard

April 05, 2022 Thomas Pals and Ruth Lorensson Season 1 Episode 6
The Autonomic Healing Podcast - Conversations with Tom Pals
Personal and Professional Healing with Guest Brittney Blanchard
Show Notes Transcript

Mental Health Counselor Brittney Blanchard joins the conversation. She shares her healing journey with AHA. And now, as someone who is training to offer AHA, how she sees the beneficial impact on her clients. 

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Tom Pals:

Welcome to the Autonomic Healing Podcast. I'm Tom Pals,

Ruth Lorensson:

And I'm Ruth Lorensso. We'll be unpacking what it looks like to activate your brain to holistically manage stress and trauma that bring healing to the mind, body and spirit,

Tom Pals:

being free to live authentically as humans.

Ruth Lorensson:

Thank you for joining us. Let's get this conversation started. Joining us in this conversation today is our friend and therapist Brittney Blanchard. Brittany, you're our first ever guest on the Autonomic Healing Podcasts. How does that make you feel?

Brittney Blanchard:

I'm so excited to be here today. Thank you. And I'm feeling really honored.

Tom Pals:

Thanks, Britt. And a huge welcome. We are so glad you're here. So 2022 is a big year for you. You've just graduated with a master's degree in counseling and have started as a professional. You're also nearing completion of your training and certification as a AHA therapist, can you share a little bit about your life now?

Brittney Blanchard:

My life now. It's like a whole new world. I'm graduated. And my healing journey with a AHA has helped me live in the present moment and continue to heal along the way. And then outside of work, I'm just enjoying being with my little Mellie girl, my dog and my friends and family.

Tom Pals:

So the future is probably a bit unknown at this point.

Brittney Blanchard:

Yes. So 2022 looks like a year of transformation for me, of continuing to follow my dreams and make them come true. And my work as a therapist and who I am as a person.

Ruth Lorensson:

I love hearing that, Britt, that you're in this process of being certified as an as an AHA therapist, but I want us to kind of rewind a little bit and kind of go back. We're in 2022 now, but you shared a bit with me about how you first came across Tom, and AHA in 2018. And that really changed your life, personally and professionally. So I'm just curious, I want to hear the story, guys. Like how did you meet Tom?

Brittney Blanchard:

Okay, well, wow, that was a long time ago already. And 2018 I traumatically lost a loved one in my life, and I

Tom Pals:

And that impacts our lives. And it can impact us in a really detrimental way, or it can be something that is a place where we get to grow and heal. And it matters to us, but not in a detrimental way. So my sense is that AHA was something that helped you to allow something like that to matter to you in a really beneficial way rather than just a detrimental way care to share about that.

Brittney Blanchard:

Right? So in 2018, I was searching for new ways to heal. And I went through looking for medicine, looking for therapy, looking for different healing methods of EMDR. And then I reached out to a family friend telling her I wasn't feeling any better. And she heard of Tom through a holistic healer that she was working with in the past. And then I called Tom to ask him questions, because I had no idea what AHA was.

Tom Pals:

Yeah. And having been diagnosed with PTSD, and then you're in the middle of a counseling program, and you're in the thick of it. And what do I do from here? And what will help me from here? So you thought, probably, there has to be more to life than us. And how can there be more to life than this? So we met.

Ruth Lorensson:

I'm curious as well Britt, when you heard about AHA, we've talked about this in different podcast episodes, but so many people have been referred by a friend. Because like you said, you didn't have a clue what AHA was, I didn't when I first found out about it. I found out about it from a friend, but you wanted to give it a try because nothing else was working. Right?

Brittney Blanchard:

Right.

Ruth Lorensson:

Okay. And so tell us a little bit about that first encounter with Tom when you came into the session. What was that the impact of that first AHA session?

Brittney Blanchard:

Well, I walked in and I didn't know if anything else could help me. I really didn't believe in it.

Tom Pals:

Most people are pretty skeptical.

Brittney Blanchard:

Yeah, so I was thinking, well, I can't feel any worse. So why not try something new. And just the tone of voice, in your voice Tom, was so helpful. It was like, oh, he must believe in something. So I might as well try it. And then after my first session, I was like, renewed I can't even describe that I I like came alive again,

Tom Pals:

And the AHA session, reset things somatically for you. And that was transformational.

Brittney Blanchard:

Right. Yes, I didn't have the flashbacks anymore, or the fight or flight responses of wanting to run away. I could sleep at night again, and enjoy being around people.

Tom Pals:

Yeah, I remember that. And then after the AHA, and you've done that a bit. And you were incorporating that into your personal life and using it to manage stress going forward, because as I like to say, there is no such thing is no stress. If you're alive, you've experienced stress, but being able to manage it, that was hugely different. But AHA isn't just for the body, but it's for the mind and the spirit. And after you've done the AHA with me, then we did some problem solving together and you did that cognitive homeostasis experience, can you reflect on what a AHA PS has been like, for you?

Unknown:

AHA PS, really helped manage my anxiety and fears and intrusive thoughts that I used to have. And it just helped push me even further, like connecting the mind and body together,

Tom Pals:

A huge source of stress is the stress we cause ourselves because of the way we think about ourselves, others and situations. And self, others and situations, if you take the first letter of each of those, it's SOS. And that's where we find ourselves, save our souls. And it just is like help, because we're the way we think, gets distorted because of the stress and trauma. And we start believing things about ourselves, others in situations that are simply not the truth. But there's elements of it that are true enough, that we think of it as a truth, but it's not the truth. And then we just escalate and that tsunami of stress because of our perceptions. Yeah. And that's what fuels it.

Ruth Lorensson:

Yeah. The perceptions, I think are really key, aren't they? That's what you start unpacking in the problem solving session. And then obviously, in the spiritual formation session, too, but I think it's when you can manage those perceptions make them healthy, and real. That's when it's not that the stress and trauma goes away, or the or the things that we're dealing with, but actually, suddenly, we've got some like, handles on how we can live life well, right? Did you experience that?

Brittney Blanchard:

Yes, yeah, I could live my life for who I really am not from a level of pain.

Ruth Lorensson:

That's so great.

Tom Pals:

And I have quoted so many times when a client said it to me, he said the problem solving makes sense of the nonsense in my mind. Because it is nonsense. It's nonsense when we're experiencing stress that we're not managing or we're perceive it as not manageable and that's what the problem solving makes it possible. So then though, there was also the spiritual formation you went that far, into this spiritual homeostasis

Brittney Blanchard:

Yeah, I don't know how to describe that.

Tom Pals:

Many people don't. Ruth I think you might be challenged to say what that was like for you?

Ruth Lorensson:

Oh, I love the spiritual formation. You know I'm from a background working with people all the time in developing their their spiritual walk with God and so I think that for me the spiritual formation was so fascinating it was like almost allowing people to really, or for me, it was allowing me to connect with Gods in quite a remarkable way actually. We're gonna have a we're gonna have like multiple episodes on the spiritual formation as we go on. But I'm curious about you Britt as well how your spiritual formation went. So you did the problem solving.

Brittney Blanchard:

Yeah. So after the problem solving, I was still feeling the out of body experiences, here and there. And then I connected to my mind, body and spirit through a spiritual session that helped me embrace who I really am. And I was able to feel joy and love again. And I rarely had those waves of anxiety come over me anymore. And if they did, it was in a different way. And I was able to manage anxiety or any stress level that came my way.

Tom Pals:

I love the way that you put it. Most importantly, I was able to live with love and joy in my life again. And before I couldn't feel that joy or love for anyone in my life. But now I could feel human again, was alive again. And that's homeostasis. So the episode we did on homeostasis. That's homeostasis. And the interoception is your awareness of your own humanity, not as a threat. But as you're being.

Ruth Lorensson:

I love that journey Britt. I know it was an incredibly difficult time for you to 2018 and, and how you've kind of found your own personal healing through mind, body and spirit in AHA. And I love actually that all three of us here in this space, as we're talking about AHA, we've all been deeply impacted by it personally. We're not doing this as a theory or something like that, it's actually coming from our own spaces of healing. For you, Tom, and it for me, too, for you, Brittney. But I'm curious because not only did he bring you this personal transformation and healing in your life, but then we have this other side to things where it's also instrumental in your pursuit as a career as a therapist, and I'd love you to share a little bit of how that started.

Brittney Blanchard:

Yeah, so ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to make sure people around me were healing and smiling and enjoying life. And I would always check on my family and friends. So I grew up wondering what will I do with the rest of my life, and I thought I would go into education, being a teacher. And then I realized in my bachelor's degree in psychology, I did not want to be a teacher, I really wanted to be a therapist, then I worked as a nanny, and then I worked in social work, and I worked in residential, different clinics throughout Denver. And then I found some courage to apply to grad school as a marriage and family therapist, and that's where I really followed my knowing of my soul's purpose through my career. And, you know, the first day of grad school I really felt at home like I found my belonging in life, and during the middle of grad school is when I went through a traumatic loss that injured me to a level that I wasn't able to continue learning at that time. So I took a break, and then healed through AHA some more. And then after I felt ready to return, I went back to grad school, and you know, life never stopped and stress didn't stop. Never stops. So I just kept persevering through other loved ones dying and learning through COVID the past couple years. You know, really working with you Tom has taught me every step of the way to remember my body and brain and soul can heal me.

Tom Pals:

Yeah, that's been so satisfying. And such a privilege and an honor for me to get to do that with you, to get that, to do that with you, Ruth, and to get that to do that with so many hundreds of other people. I just appreciate the opportunities and derive so much satisfaction from that. And pursuing how to learn and heal has made a difference in your life, as it's made in so many other people's lives. Would you share some of the experiences with AHA from your own experience of it? In other words, what was it like? What is it like when you're doing AHA and using that, in managing stress?

Brittney Blanchard:

What is it like? It's just a whole new way of living and facing fears and stress in a way that I can persevere through challenges, to learn how to be competent, and continue to be loving and have patience, and learn and grow in all areas of life.

Tom Pals:

And now, as part of your practitioner training, you have had the opportunity to sit on sessions with me, as clients have been open to that. And you've had some clients that you've worked with who were on your own caseload, and you've experienced that with them. And you've been seeing the results, would you share a little bit about that?

Brittney Blanchard:

Yeah, I'm really honored to pass on AHA to my clients. And I've seen them change in ways that I can't really describe. It's like the brain went to places I couldn't reach to heal through what I knew of so far. And now that I have, you know, my degree in marriage and family therapy, and integrating AHA training, with that degree has continued to support clients to soar through places that they were stuck in before. I had a client to came in with many different traumatic experiences from childhood to adulthood of toxic or abusive relationships to, low self esteem, and lack of intimacy, to believing and now she is believing that she is worthy of change. And she has learned how, and so she comes in, and we now go through different scenarios of what she may not have brought up before AHA. And now she brings up a lot more areas to work through without holding back.

Tom Pals:

Yeah, I've noticed that very same thing. Often I find, I've found with clients before, that even processing, or bringing up trauma, to try to reprocess it to rethink it, to have a different perspective on it, was simply compounding the trauma. And what I found is that with clients, their ability to use AHA to activate homeostasis, to normalize the stress, even of talking about it allows them to converse about it in a way that they weren't able to before. So I'm able as a, because I'm often asked, well, how do you do psychotherapy now? And I do it by activating homeostasis, because then we can actually talk about it. And it isn't traumatically impactful to have the conversation. You've experienced that Ruth.

Ruth Lorensson:

Yeah, yeah, I have. Yeah, I mean, you know, I've seen you as a therapist, not just in, but we've used the he practices to talk about other things. So and just being able to work through it. Without that sense of trauma being alive and instead kind of, in a space of homeostasis, it's, it really is a game changer, I think in terms of getting to the root of some of those issues.

Tom Pals:

And so even in those moments during sessions, and I think you've experienced this with clients as well, Brittney, when we encounter something that does trigger, because it isn't a place that the person has cognitively gone, remembering that it will trigger fight fight, but then to be able to activate it in that moment, to normalize it allows the conversation of them to continue,

Brittney Blanchard:

Right. Yeah. So my clients have experienced healing and change in a new way, that it's not, they're not leaving, triggered, and that's not being able to finish their day or their responsibilities or sleeping at night, that it actually helps them with the triggers, and sleeping and living again,

Tom Pals:

Which goes back to why I even pursued this in the first place professionally was to try to figure out a way that I could help clients with things I couldn't help them with before no matter what I did, and no matter what treatment protocol or paradigm I use, because it was neurobiological. It was just a reactivity that talking wasn't and couldn't really get at, to a degree, and at a level that I was really wanting to be able to do.

Ruth Lorensson:

Yeah, I think I've, in the past, had therapy, and actually left more triggered. Because I've been talking about something and I've not known how to normalize it. And so I think I think one of the things that is really striking with AHA is how different it is. And one of, I love this Tom, you said it in a, I think it was the episode, 'the wisdom of the brain', you said, the brain is the therapist. And I really like that, because it's like, actually, we're just allowing the brain to do what it's designed to do. And then once it normalizes, and once it brings that level of homeostasis, I think, then we're able to enter into more of that therapy. I don't know if that's been your experience Britt? But, yeah, that's so cool. And one of the things as well, and I'm curious about how you've experienced this in your own life, but also with clients is just the, I think, for me, just the the ability to identify when I'm in the tsunami of stress. I mean, literally, it happened to me last week. I was like having a really bad week. And I was like, okay, I'm in the tsunami of stress, where am I? But I think that that just having those tools to think, okay, this is happening, it's normal, where am I? And how do, how do I use AHA? Have you experienced that?

Brittney Blanchard:

Yes. That's how I live my life now. I learn how to ride the wave of tsunami,

Tom Pals:

Rather than trying to breathe underwater.

Ruth Lorensson:

I was thinking just about you right now, like, obviously we just mentioned that you are in the process of, you're almost certified as anAHA therapist, and I'd love you to share if you have any hopes or dreams, like what do you dream of with being an AHA therapist ? Any hopes and dreams in that space?

Brittney Blanchard:

I think the truest and most beautiful dream I have with a AHA is to get it around the world to as many people as possible. And that's what I dream about every week, after I see another person heal.

Ruth Lorensson:

That's, that's amazing.I love that.

Tom Pals:

And it's a big world. And there's a lot of traumatized people in handling it.

Ruth Lorensson:

And Tom, I know that, you know, actually some of the exciting developments right now with AHA, are the plans to train other therapists, we still can't get it around the world if we don't do that. And I just love you to share a little bit as well on this topic, about the training of therapists how, you know, certain therapists can become certified and especially as I'm sure that some therapists listening in and they might be interested, would you share a bit about that?

Tom Pals:

That is very challenging growing area for me, how do I help people learn, professionals learn, how to do what I learned how to do over the course of years? And so I use AHA and PS and the SF to figure that one out. So for a number of years after developing AHA in 2014, I was facilitating it with clients or candidates like Brittany did, like you did and by way of others who had experienced it, and share their experience with family and friends. And I did a few presentations for organizations when other professionals would ask me to do that. Because I worked in forensic psychotherapy, word got around, and they saw examples of clients, probationers, parolees, who were changing, they were much healthier human beings, and managing. So word started getting around, and I was asked to do presentations to

Ruth Lorensson:

And Britt, what would you say to any therapists organizations, courts, probation departments, community organizations, as well as an annual conference for the stakeholders in criminal justice. And there was a therapist at that annual conference who later approached me wanting to know more about this treatment I developed. So having seen the data and the clinical results I shared at the conference, he encouraged me to consider training him, which had not been on my radar. This is helping me, I can work with clients, I can help them, training others? No, that really wasn't on my radar at all. But he seen the data and the clinical results, and he encouraged me to consider training him. So he added AHA to his counseling practice and has many referrals himself and he the other day when I was talking with him he held up a file folder, and he said, these are all referrals from agencies that are sending clients to me. So, in addition to Brittany, I'm starting the training process with another therapist soon, who saw the results of AHA with one of his own clients that this other therapist had done. And then he called me and said, Who are you in and what are you doing? And I think I want to learn how to do this and experience it myself. So that is how it's just sort of organically growing. And it really isn't anything I had pursued. And it helps in ways that other things just haven't. And I'm getting approached by professionals who want to do that. And there's only one of me, but there's all sorts of other professionals. And everybody has a brain that can do this. So it can spread. listening and intrigued by this?

Brittney Blanchard:

Yeah, to all therapists out there, there is a level of stress and caring for people who are stressed and traumatized. And their trauma can become our own trauma, which is known as vicarious trauma. And as therapists, we aren't just talking about caring for others, but for caring for people. And that means caring for ourselves and our well being. We don't have to sacrifice our own wellbeing for others through AHA. So what I have found is that I can manage the vicarious trauma symptoms I've experienced, while helping other people so that I can help myself and others. We can't go with clients further than we have healed ourselves. So what I would say to therapists is try AHA for yourself to experience what I have experienced, and then be able to pass that healing on to your clients systemically

Ruth Lorensson:

So good. Thank you, Britt. Before we close this episode out, I just want to hear you guys, I've got two therapists in the room here. I'm not a therapist. But I would love to hear your thoughts just on the mental health landscape right now. You know, I'm curious what you're seeing, especially among your peers, and the clients that you'll see seeing, especially in terms of this tsunami of stress, you know, we are living in in incredibly challenging times, we've just had two years of a global pandemic, and now we're seeing this war in Europe. I mean, what do you think some of the main challenges are here in terms of therapy and the tsunami of stress?

Brittney Blanchard:

The main challenges I have seen, from kids to adults, to families, families or clients, at really everyone is looking for their sense of belonging, and how to survive.

Tom Pals:

Yeah, I was on a flight number of months ago, sitting on an isle seat midway in the cabin. And to my left was a gentleman, there was a seat between us and he was sitting in the window seat. And a mom of the toddler was sitting behind him and the toddler inadvertently, she was doing everything she could, oh boy, but he inadvertently hit the back of the seat and this guy was out of his seat glaring, just staring in reverse. And it was, it was horrible to see. And mom was very apologetic, and I cleared my throat. And he looked over at me and I kind of gave him like, a look of you want to really think about what you're doing right now. Because, and that was the look I gave. And he sits down, he turns and faces forward. And I could tell he's embarrassed, and he's just lost it. But that's the level of stress that has been normalized throughout our society these days. And so by the end of the flight, he gotten some composure, and we are nearing the time to de plane. And we were all kind of standing up and that sort of thing. And getting our carry ons and whatnot. And he turned around and apologized and she explained she was a school teacher, and it was a real stressful. And then he made an interesting observation. Maybe it was a question. He said, So what do you do? And I said, well, I'm a therapist, so I get the stress and all of that that everybody's experiencing. So he said, then what have you noticed the effects of COVID? Because I think he was sharing out of his own intuitive sense of himself and the stress is a COVID was playing a role in that. And then the teacher said, yeah, what have you noticed as a therapist? And I said, the way I would characterize it, is that people who didn't have mental health issues, because of COVID, many of them do now. And people who had mental health issues are not coping well, now. And people who had severe mental health issues, they're not coping at all. And all the more reason to allow the brain as the therapist to do the work that we so, we are so inventive and creative as human beings trying to find something that will help. And I jokingly like to put it I when I'm doing AHA sessions, or the problem solving, or the spiritual formation, I'm a co therapist, and I'm operating way above my paygrade. Because the brain is the therapist, and it can accomplish if we just let it what we're trying to do anyway, we're just operating above our pay grade. So why don't we just let the brain do it?

Ruth Lorensson:

Yeah, thanks, Tom.

Brittney Blanchard:

The brain is the therapist.

Ruth Lorensson:

Hashtag,

Tom Pals:

Hashtag#thebrainisthetherapist.

Ruth Lorensson:

I love what you said Britt, actually, as well, about belonging. And I think some of the things that I've witnessed, you know, just the challenges around COVID was isolation, there was huge levels of isolation that we've never experienced before. And then I think there's a questions around identity that are coming up that possibly haven't come up before, even with the the response, the war in Europe, there's this sense of global identity that, that a lot of people have now, that maybe we've not even acknowledged. So I think there's a longing to belong, and not knowing how to belong, but knowing that we need to belong somewhere, I think is is huge as well for us. So I love what we're discussing here with AHA. You know, I think that what we've seen with each other's stories and client stories is this way in which the brain becomes therapists, where we're allowed to normalize, heal from this, the cycle of fight and flight, stress and trauma. So anyway, I just want to say, Britt, that it's been such a pleasure to get to know a bit of your journey with AHA, thank you so much for coming. And we've just loved hanging out together, haven't we? And I'm sure this won't be the last time we'll have you on this podcast, sharing your insights and experiences as you practice autonomic healing activation.

Brittney Blanchard:

Thank you.

Tom Pals:

You've been listening to the Autonomic Healing Podcast.

Ruth Lorensson:

Join us next time as we continue in our conversations with Tom. If you're interested in pursuing your own autonomic healing journey and want to find a practitioner, visit our website innerworkings.org See you at the next episode.