1st Edition
When the Past Is Always Present Emotional Traumatization, Causes, and Cures
When the Past Is Always Present: Emotional Traumatization, Causes, and Cures introduces several new ideas about trauma and trauma treatment. The first of these is that another way to treat disorders arising from the mind/brain may be to use the senses. This idea, which is at the core of psychosensory therapy, forms what the author considers the "third pillar" of trauma treatment (the first and second pillars being psychotherapy and psychopharmacology). Psychosensory therapy postulates that sensory input—for example, touch—creates extrasensory activity that alters brain function and the way we respond to stimuli.
The second idea presented in this book is that traumatization is encoded in the amygdala only under special circumstances. Thus, by understanding what makes an individual resistant to traumatization we can offer a way of preventing it.
The third idea is that traumatization occurs because we cannot find a haven during the event. This is the cornerstone of havening, the particular form of psychosensory therapy described in the book. Using evolutionary biological principles and recently published neuroscientific studies, this book outlines in detail how havening touch de-links the emotional experience from a trauma, essentially making it just an ordinary memory. Once done, the event no longer causes distress.
Feinstein, Foreword. A Third Pillar. The Role Emotions Play. Ancient Emotions and Survival. Memory and Emotion. Encoding a Traumatic Memory. Causes and Consequences of Traumatization. Disrupting a Traumatization. Havening. A Brief Introduction to Psychosensory Therapies. Trauma Stories and Trauma Cures. Appendices. Appendix A: Non-touch Havening. Appendix B: Cultivating Resilience. Appendix C: An Analysis of Fear of Flying. Appendix D: Nightmares, Night Terrors, Just Bad Dreams and Havening. Appendix E: Classical Fear Conditioning and Traumatization. Appendix F: Transduction, Depotentiation and the Electrochemical Brain. Appendix G: Suggestions for Treatment. Appendix H: Havening Touch: Clinical Guidelines. Appendix I: The Downside of Removing a Traumatic Memory. Notes and Additional References. Glossary.
Biography
Since 1983, Ronald A. Ruden has run an internal medicine practice in Manhattan and dedicated part of the proceeds to follow research interests. His first efforts were described in his book, The Craving Brain, a neurobiological discussion of addictive behaviors. In 2003 he began a new research project involving the understanding of traumatization that has led to three publications in Traumatology, edited by Charles Figley, and to this book. He continues his research on traumatization.
"Pioneering author Ron Ruden wrote the first paper to describe the physiological mechanisms of action of EP therapies. In a fruitful dialog between psychology and biology, Ruden provides precise maps of the brain science behind EP, in particular the neurochemical pathways by which traumatic memories are encoded in the brain's limbic system. The author's vast understanding of these complex processes is evident from the beginning of the text. Yet he manages to describe them with a clear and logical progression of ideas, using lucid language that is a pleasure to read, in ways that are clear to a non-technical reader…Ruden's history of showing how firmly grounded these "energy" therapies are in the science of neurophysiology is a great service to the EP field. This book is highly recommended for both professional and lay readers."
– Dawson Church, Energy Psychology Journal
"In When the Past Is Always Present, Dr. Ruden has done no less than to redraw the Eastern healing maps—written in the elusive ink of energy fields, energy centers, and energy pathways—with the neurologist’s precise concepts and language for understanding therapeutic change. This monumental accomplishment will stand as the pioneering reference on the relevant neurochemical mechanisms as we move into a future where the techniques presented here become mainstays of psychotherapy and healing."
—From the foreword by David Feinstein, PhD, coauthor of The Promise of Energy Psychology: Revolutionary Tools for Dramatic Personal Change
"When the Past Is Always Present presents an important new paradigm, one that will ultimately allow us to make the distress of traumatic memories a thing of the past."
—Adapted from the foreword by Charles R. Figley, PhD, Henry Paul Kurtzweg, MD Chair in Disaster Mental Health at Tulane University and author of Combat Stress Injury: Theory, Research, and Management
"Dr. Ruden’s method, havening, is succinct and amazingly simple. Havening reintroduces the trauma to the part of the nervous system that stores it and then disrupts the pathway that produces it, freeing the individual from its immutable bonds. This book lays out revolutionary techniques with intellectual humility and is refreshingly open-minded. Essential reading."
—David Lake, MD, medical practitioner and psychotherapist in private practice in Sydney, Australia, and coauthor of Enjoy Emotional Freedom
"This landmark book is the first to describe the therapeutic neurobiology of psychological disorder, and the unique technique it discusses produces wonderful and fast clinical results. Dr. Ruden’s havening therapy is truly a third pillar, along with talk therapy and drug therapy, for the treatment of psychogenic disorders, and the hypothesis he proposes is very realistic in addition to being both neurophysiologic and clinically based."
—Joaquin Andrade, MD, cofounder of BMSA International
