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Post traumatic stress (PTS) is best described as an unprocessed traumatic memory.  PTS is not something that comes from the outside, it comes from the way people react to a situation. You can see this because there is no situation that will always create PTS in a person. With any given situation one person may end up with PTS and another person, experiencing the same situation, may not.

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Something else that needs to be said is that PTS does not come about randomly. PTS comes about because the patient is overwhelmed by a situation and can not process that event. The event that happened to them is, from the moment it happened and for the rest of the person's life, a memory and it is the unprocessed memory that is the problem. The unprocessed memory is a problem because it contains an overwhelming sequence. And, just like the physical body is always healing a cut or graze, the mind wants to heal or process the traumatic memory by replaying it.

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This is why I describe PTS as an unprocessed traumatic memory.

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The mind processes a memory by replaying it and at the same time maintaining a connection to peace, so that the next time it is replayed the sense of peace goes with it. If, when the mind replays the memory, it can't maintain a connection to peace then the memory is still unprocessed. An unprocessed memory can cause minor problems like a shiver, or a feeling of embarrassment, or a major problem as in a panic attack and all the other symptoms that go along with PTS.

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Every memory that is not completely processed has a feeling or feelings attached to it. Conversely, every processed memory is clear of feelings. All processed memories of even highly charged traumatic events can be related without emotion.

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I  have said all this without explaining how I know and the answer will probably not satisfy many people but the answer is that I  have found a way to process any traumatic memory without the use of language but instead with a 'feeling' sense very difficult to describe and easier to experience. The processing is remarkably fast and takes on average about twenty minutes although when all the other human interaction activity is added an hour has usually passed, this is one session. When processed the person can relate the previous highly charged traumatic event easily without emotion. Sometimes two or three sessions are needed. It is rare to need more.

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I do not wish to upset any practitioners but leaving a person with PTSD longer than a couple of weeks is unnecessary.

I have often heard it said that PTS is like a bug, something that is out there ready to attack. In my opinion, this is as far from the truth as is possible to get. It is not fashionable to state that illness is the responsibility of the patient but that is the case here. I also don't believe that anyone consciously makes themselves ill or even deliberately keeps themselves ill. People are ALWAYS trying to make themselves better or perhaps feel less pain. Very often, they do not look at a big enough picture but there is always a logical reason they appear to make themselves ill. What is usually the case with people who hurt themselves is that they don't know how to deal with the situation they find themselves in.

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Each Boulderstone Technique therapy session takes the same format: it starts by asking people questions they can easily answer, like their name and address, and slowly move into talking about their story, chatting for an average of fifteen minutes, to establish what is going to be written on their trauma ticket and that is followed by a practical session that lasts for a maximum of 45 minutes.

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In my opinion, there are four things that you have to know for a trauma therapy to work. The first is to know how to get the patient into their trauma when they are outside of it. The second is to know how to get them out of their trauma when they are in it. The third thing is to know what to do when they start to get agitated. And the fourth thing underlies all the other things and is knowledge of a sense of peace.

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For me this sense of peace is not a religious space but I am sure if I was religious I would call it that. This peace and stability comes from knowing where you are in the world and who you are.  There is a sense of peace in every person and even though it may be covered over by something else, it is usually easily accessible. What I have come to realise is that the peace I am talking about is recognised by animals and humans alike. It is something that we all have in common. The closer you get to a person, physically, the more easily they can feel what is going on in you, and if you have a strong connection to peace then that is what they will feel. This is not a psychic feeling, this is an animal feeling. It allows you to know if the person standing next to you is about to attack you or is in a state of peace. This sense of peace is held by the practitioner throughout the active session.

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The active session begins with the patient lying on a couch and the practitioner usually holding their head. Once peace has been established (and this takes 1 or 2 seconds, sometimes a bit more), I get them to focus on what has been written on their trauma ticket. The trauma ticket has written on it a single word or two that represents the trauma that is to be processed. Occasionally, a symbol is used if the trauma occurred before the patient had language, birth trauma is a typical example. What this does is provide a way into connecting with trauma without having to talk about it. Now, all we need to say to the patient is 'ON', and they place the trauma ticket on themselves and when it is on them they connect with their trauma and they feel what they feel. This is how to get them into their trauma when they are outside of it.

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Now they start to go through their trauma in their way: In their order, without the restrictions of language or having to explain something to another person or put it in a chronological order, sometimes it just doesn't have a chronological order. Explanations about any aspect of the trauma or what happened are unnecessary.

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While this is going on, the practitioner is holding the patient's head and feeling a version of what the patient is feeling. You can feel when it starts to get challenging. And, before it gets overwhelming, and that could be just half a second, we say 'OFF' they take the trauma ticket off themselves and do not think about the trauma, Instead, I get them to help me with the movement (I'll talk about this later.) They are good at not thinking about the trauma because that is what they have commonly been doing for years. Instead they follow the movement. This is how to get them out of their trauma when they are in it. They do not get overwhelmed, instead they get a small piece of their trauma, isolated and available for processing. And that is what we do, we process it.

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This is where it gets interesting. We have got this small piece of their trauma, isolated and separated from language. The only way it can express itself is through movement and that is what happens. The head starts moving around slowly but strongly to start with but as time goes by it speeds up and moves as if agitated until it runs out of steam and into peace. You can see this in my Complex Trauma Institute March 2022 conference video presentation. This is how we deal with the agitation.

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When they are at peace again we repeat the cycle. We say "ON" again and start the processing over again. We keep going until nothing is left. Sometimes this takes five cycles sometimes twenty five but after each cycle the patient is better off than they were before. And when it is finished that is the end of the trauma and all that is left is what the person actually started with: PEACE

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Processing trauma becomes easy, without talking and completed in a very short time, usually a single session and rarely over three.

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Where is the science or proof to back up what I am saying?

First of all I am an individual trying to make his way in the world. I say this because I do not have the resources needed to do a large double blind trial. But I want to make some points. The first is that virtually every patient that comes to see me gets better and from their first session. That is in excess of 95% of people and a sample size of thousands. Of course there are special cases and exceptions; there are things that slow down recovery and can even stop it, including addiction, prescribed drugs, CBT and prejudice.

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When something happens to approximately 100% of people I am not sure that testing is needed.

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Currently, scientists are making errors with regard to medical matters and are bringing down scientific credibility. First of all scientists claimed animals and humans were just a collection of chemicals and that they were about to create life in a laboratory. That time has gone and they haven't managed to artificially create life. The fact that scientists have not created life is proof that there is an incomplete understanding of life, that life is not just composed of a collection of chemicals, there is something more. Or, put another way, there is more to life than scientists know.

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Also, and this is connected to the previous point, scientists do not know how to measure health. Nowadays, health is probably defined as the absence of illness making doctors the arbiters of what is health since they are the only people who are allowed to diagnose illness. If you can't measure the health of a person before and after any medical procedure how can you scientifically state that the medical procedure is of benefit? Just because it removes symptoms does not mean the health of the patient has improved. But that is exactly what is happening: if the symptoms are removed the procedure or medication is considered successful. The best way of measuring PTS is by asking the person who has it but doctors want measurable symptoms - those people have lost their way.

 

The thing is, the subconscious mind is always trying to heal and resolve unprocessed memories by replaying them: similar to the physical body always trying to heal.

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This trying to heal is what causes panic attacks. Panic attacks are a conflict between one part of the mind trying to process a memory by replaying it and another part resisting the re-experiencing of a trauma. Difficult memories don't get processed because people do not like replaying difficult memories. In fact, they try to stop them, thinking that something is wrong with their mind. This is due to not understanding that the mind is trying to replay the traumatic memories in order to process them. Stopping them from re-playing through will power, drugs, avoidance therapies, self-harm and a host of other ways actually keeps the problem in place. The truth is that, done the right way, these difficult memories can be processed within minutes. Done the wrong way they can stay with a person for years. How do I know this? Because I can demonstrate the processing of memories and clearing of trauma.

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If you have questions or comments you can email me at jboulderstone@gmail.com. I am happy to explain, show or demonstrate the technique to anyone as long as I have the time. I look forward to talking to you.

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Video of patient having a session skip forward to 13:33