Sunday, October 11, 2020

            I didn't write up anything in a timely way for today, but some outstanding moments have stuck with me.

            I had a short Zoom session with Eb., a fifth-grade girl whose mother wants her to work with me.  She was resistant when I started working with her. She changed her attitude when I explained how my reading speed improved using this method when I already had straight As in college. At the end of the session, she wrote, "Yay!" across the screen.

            Today, I asked her if she had seen any difference in her reading yet. "Yeah . . . "That was after one session. We analyzed a few more words, and I introduced the procedure for decoding unfamiliar words.  I think a few minutes with her here and there will be sufficient. Introducing the approach triggers automatic processing. Practicing the procedure makes it more efficient.

            I also spoke to Et. 's mother. I asked her if her husband had talked to her about fear. She said it helped. What helps is acknowledging that the fear triggered is a fear that the child's life is in danger because of a disability, even though that is not realistic.  Once the feeling is acknowledged and seen against the reality of the current situation, the fear softens.  The seeing reality part is the easy part. The hard part is admitting that we are controlled by old neurological systems.  We like to think we have total control over ourselves.

            I think our hindbrains are still functioning the same as they did 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Those brains were designed to communicate the importance of conforming to tribal expectations.  Back then, out on the savanna, it wasn't possible to bear the burden of anyone who couldn't be a fully functioning member of the group. Survival was at stake. Either the individual who couldn't conform had to be abandoned, including children, or the lives of everyone in the tribe were at stake.

            My theory as to why we think our lives are in danger in contradiction to the reality of our current lives may be questioned. The response I have seen to the procedure I use to help people see what the hindbrain is really thinking is clear. I have tried it with well over a hundred children and several adults. Each person reports feeling more relaxed after completing the exercise and experiencing a subsequent reduction in fear.

            Most of the therapists I worked with over the years would denounce the unconscious voice's truth as a form of insanity. They could not deal with there being two voices in our heads. It's not crazy. Guess what!  It is the reality of the human condition.