T-Ride Exercise # 1!

Making contact with our affect regulation systems & Learning how we transition from Threat/Drive onto Soothing!

Dr. Yotam Heineberg Psy.D. Clinical supervisor and lecturer Palo Alto University Applied Psychological Interventions CCARE, Center for Compassion & Altruism Research & Education Stanford University Medical School

The three circles of affect regulation

Drive, Excite, Vitality
Incentive/resourcefocused Wanting, pursuing, achieving, consuming Dopamine?

Content, Safe, Soothed

Non-wanting/ Affiliative focused

Safeness-kindness
Opiates/Oxytocin?

Threat-focused
Protection and Safety-seeking (Behaviours, Emotions, Thoughts)

HPA/Serotonin?

Anger, Anxiety, Disgust

Experiential awareness to the process of our three affect regulation systems

Dyadic exercise - Success Story! How did you transition from drive/threat onto Soothing?
Phase I: Describe a past experience (you feel comfortable sharing) where you felt stuck either in your threat or drive system (or both). - What has been the impact of this experience, what has it made you feel, think and do? - What ideas/messages/habits/ feelings/people have been supporting your being stuck in that place? Phase II: Describe a time when you were able to resist the pressures of threat and drive, and successfully transition into your safeness and soothing system (this entails experiencing feelings of safeness and contentment, as well as becoming connected with kindness towards others, receiving it from others, giving it to yourself, or any combination of those). - How were you able to make this transition work? Where did you get the strength to do this? - What coping resources did you draw upon in order to arrive at your safeness/soothing space?

Share on the ways in which you coped, and write them down, receive feedback and suggestions for additional coping methods from your listener, and write them down as well, to create a personally useful resource list that you will take away with you, and could potentially draw upon in the future.
You could connect with your coping resources in words, somatically, emotionally, visually, interpersonally, artistically or any other form of expression that best fits your particular style.

RESOURCING - THE MULTI-MODAL MODEL FOR COPING & RESILIENCEY

(Rony Berger, 2002, based on the work of Arnold Lazarus, 1981 )

MOST - BASIC
MO: Motor
Doing (activities) Exercises Playing Work

ST: Sensation
Mindfulness Breathing Relaxation Focusing on compassion

B: Belief
Attitudes Beliefs Values Meaning

A: Affect
Emotions Expression Empathy Ventilation

S: Social
Support Helping Social skills Groups

I: Imagination
Creativity 3 way compassion Futuristic outlook Symbols & metaphors

C: Cognition
Knowledge Positive thinking Rationalism Problem-solving

Processing what was it like for you?

Teller what was it like to share? Listener what was it like to listen? & what was it like to offer additional coping resources?

What would it feel like if all the walls of this entire space were covered with artwork, with each artistic piece repressing a visual of a different coping skill?
Our goal is awareness via Collective/supportive good vibe & a spirit of having each others backs!

References What did we do here?

Meditation Affective, Somatic and Cognitive awareness to CFTs three affect regulation systems, via Paul Gilberts 3 circles model (Compassionate Mind, 2010) We used dyadic processing (interpersonal sharing, empathic listening, support and problem solving) in order to facilitate the application of the following interventions: Externalizing The Problem building awareness to the oppressive impact drive/threat may had on you, and building capacity to emancipate yourself from oppression, and safely arrive at your soothing space! (Michael White, based on Michel Foucaults work, see Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends, 1990). Coping skills This strategy has been globally implemented by Rony Berger: Over 60,000 at risk children worldwide have benefitted from it and have sat in classrooms surrounded by visually stimulating illustrations of various coping resources, in order to generate supportive/collective good vibe, and a spirit of having each others backs!
(Lazarus, A. (1981). The practice of multimodal therapy. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company. ERASE-Stress; Berger, Gelkopf & Heineberg, 2012; Berger et al., 2003; Berger et al., 2005; Gelkopf, Cotton & Berger, 2008; Berger et al., 2007; Gelkepf & Berger, 2009)