Cuddle Therapy -

 trauma, grief & depression

Workshops

It has already been proven that ‘cuddling increases one of the body’s hormones…Oxytocin.

When I work with the therapy dolls, giving people the doll to hold and cuddle sets many hormones racing around the body, including endorphins, giving the body its natural 'feel good' hormones. So how can this help with conditions such as depression, trauma, grief, etc.?

Maia Szalavitz in the ‘New Scientist wrote:

IT has been called the love hormone, the cuddle chemical and liquid trust. It peaks with orgasm, makes a loving touch magically melt away stress and increases generosity when given as a drug. Oxytocin is the essence of affection itself, the brain chemical that warmly bonds parent to child, lover to lover, friend to friend, and it could soon be unleashing its loved-up powers far and wide.

Oxytocin has long been used to induce labour and assist the let-down of milk in breastfeeding. Now there is growing interest in its potential as a therapy for mental illnesses characterised by "people problems" - autism, personality disorders, depression, social phobia, psychosis and even impotence. Some tout it as an elixir that makes you more likeable, trustworthy and attractive. Decoding its mysteries could even lead to the development of a powerful new recreational drug that makes ecstasy look like a mild dose of cheerfulness.

Oxytocin was discovered in 1909, when British pharmacologist Henry Dale found that a substance extracted from the human brain could cause contractions in pregnant cats. He named it using the Greek for "quick birth", and for decades it was known only for its role as a pregnancy hormone, promoting contractions and aiding breastfeeding.

In the 1970s it started to become clear that oxytocin was more than just a hormone - it was also a neurotransmitter. Released from a brain region called the hypothalamus during social interactions and sex, oxytocin is detected by receptors throughout the brain's emotional centre, the limbic system. This discovery prompted scientific interest that has mushroomed ever since, with oxytocin now one of the hottest topics in neuroscience.

The groundbreaking work on oxytocin's role in the brain was done by C. Sue Carter, then at the University of Maryland in College Park. She studied two closely related species of vole - prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) and montane voles (Microtus montanus) - which differ primarily in their reproductive behaviour. Prairie voles form long-lasting pair bonds to rear young whereas montane voles mate promiscuously and fathers do not contribute to parenting.

Carter discovered that the key to the different behaviours was oxytocin. Female prairie voles have many oxytocin receptors in their brains' pleasure centres, while the males have lots of receptors for both oxytocin and a closely related hormone, vasopressin. In montane voles, however, there are far fewer receptors for oxytocin and vasopressin. When these receptors are blocked in prairie voles the animals do not form the usual pair bonds. Carter concluded that oxytocin released in the brain during mating bonds prairie voles to one other, making further contact with that partner pleasurable and separation stressful (Psychoneuroendocrinology, vol 23, p 779). ‘

So, how would I use these dolls as therapy?

Using these dolls with a grieving mother who’s baby/child has died. When asked, she will often say ‘she misses cuddling/holding them’. It does not seem to matter that the child she lost could have been much older, it just seems to matter that she is unable to ‘cuddle’ the child that has died.

If I give the doll to her she will pull it close to her and often rock backwards and forwards with it, nursing it as one would with a real baby. It appears to be the ‘comfort factor’. Some will just sit nursing the doll showing very little emotion, whereas others will show extreme emotion fairly quickly, with crying and talking of the loved one they have lost.

This is the time to use therapy such as EFT. Work with the words that are coming from the woman, all the time tapping. Tapping can be done on the woman herself, or you can ask if she would prefer you to tap as a surrogate. As you work with the issues coming up, check to see that nothing is left behind, trying your best to work with her to get to a suds level that is acceptable for her.

It seems to me that the doll can sometimes help in another way. It becomes a kind of ‘barrier’ between her emotions and the world. Something she can hide behind, making her feel less vunerable. This of course is my interpretation, there is as yet, no scientific evidence to prove this.

Maia Szalavitz also says:

The list of potential applications for oxytocin doesn't stop there. Heinrichs is studying oxytocin as a therapy for social phobia, an anxiety disorder characterised by crippling self-consciousness. Ziad Nahas at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston is looking at oxytocin as a treatment for depression, which is also marked by social withdrawal. A team at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, is even investigating its use in treating psychosis, which can be seen as an extreme fear of others.

If oxytocin can help treat borderline personality disorder, then it could help rescue abused and neglected children from a lifetime of mental health problems. These children are at higher risk of developing virtually every psychiatric illness, from post-traumatic stress disorder to addiction, depression, anxiety disorders, antisocial personality disorder and schizophrenia.

If this is the case, then just think what can be achieved in the future simply by cuddling one of these amazing dolls, bringing the issues to the surface, and using therapy such as EFT to deal with the emotions?

Home

EFT

 Cuddle Therapy

 Cuddle Therapy - trauma, grief & depression