When we are in the grips of an anxious pattern, it dominates our brain and nervous system, and we lose our normal body-mind regulation. In the extreme, this can result in panic attacks and fight-flight-freeze reactions.
At these times we lose touch with other parts of ourselves that have more wisdom and have been successful in navigating similar challenges. We get lost in a sea of reactive emotional and instinctive patterns designed to help us maintain control. We can say that the “anxious part of ourselves” gets isolated in its own view of reality and disconnected from the unifying influence of what I call "heartmind" wisdom (shen).
In this and subsequent articles, I present effective mindfulness-based methods* via case study, that we can add to our acupuncture treatments to help clients consciously stop the dysregulating cascade of events and bring “distressed parts” into coherent body-mind-spirit integration.
These methods include:
- Directing attention to present felt somatic experience (jing)
- Mindfully exploring spontaneous gestures that may allow the ground of wholeness to emerge more fully into consciousness and reveal wiser parts of the self (shen / heart-mind wisdom)
- Connecting the anxious part somatically with the wise part through gestures and breath to create inner transformation (qi)
Panic Attack
My client is a woman in her 40s. She came in saying that she had an unexpected panic attack when she was a participant at a social justice workshop. In the workshop, the presenter was talking about profound loss. This was the trigger for her panic attack and subsequent anxiety, although she didn’t realize it until later. She was able to calm herself enough to get through the day, but the issue felt unresolved, and she wanted to explore it.
I asked her if we could find out more about the part of her that panicked and notice how it resonates in her body so we could both see the physical effects. She agreed. I encouraged her to slowly and gently notice how her body responded as she remembered the panic she felt in the workshop.
The intent here was to see what parts of her body and meridian routes are involved, but in a controlled and safe way that avoids retraumatization. She described a tightening along the left side of her torso through her chest, and above and below it.
I encouraged her to stay with the experience of tightening in a gentle way and be aware of anything else she may not have noticed before.
“There is grief there,” she said. “It feels like I am tightening and at the same time feeling more isolated and alone.”
“What kind of grief does this feel like?” I asked. She described it as a feeling of loss and spontaneously placed her right hand over her heart area with a slight rubbing motion. Spontaneous gestures often represent a more resourceful part of us that tries to soothe the discomfort, so it can be important to make that gesture and its message more conscious and embodied. This is done by directing the person to notice somatic details and stay with the felt sense long enough for other information to become available.
I asked her to focus her attention on her hand without changing anything and notice the way it was touching her chest. “Let yourself notice things like what amount of pressure comes from your hand and how it is moving,” I suggested. I waited for her to feel her experience and tell me what she noticed. Then I asked her to notice how her chest was responding to the touch. She described a softening, and her breathing eased.
Exploring each part in this way helps the person get out of the head and into the embodied experience, so the meaning of the experience emerges in a felt way. When it seemed she was fully in her felt experience, I had her notice any communication that was happening between her chest and hand. She said her hand was trying to comfort the tightness.
As the brain is asked to notice more sensory information, a part of it is released from the physical and emotional freeze pattern induced by fear, and mindful self-awareness and movement returns. This unblocking of qi is an important step when we work with fear and trauma, as it leads to deeper relaxation and unwinding of the nervous system.
I used the same method to deepen her felt sense of comfort by suggesting she enjoy the sensations of softening and easy breathing, and notice how other parts of her body responded. Her shoulders, jaw and low back began to soften and relax.
Then she said she realized her hand gesture flowed from the part of her that is wise and has worked through this before. To strengthen the emergence of the wise part (heartmind wisdom) I simply rephrased what she said and summarized what we knew so far.
“So, your hand is the part of you that is wise and has worked through this before and is offering comfort to the scared part of you.” Her head movement said yes, and she relaxed even further.
To facilitate transformation, and link the scared and wise parts somatically, I asked her to let her chest be more conscious of the comfort and wisdom that her hand was offering. I suggested she allow the comforting hand and the scared part of her to breathe together without any agenda; just let them breathe and feel each other. I encouraged her to feel the pressure of the hand as it met the pressure that came from the inside out with her breath. This keeps the sensory information strong to influence her brain.
As she did this, she took a deep breath, opened her eyes and looked at me with a smile. I could see the inner transformation and the light of shen brightened in her eyes. This part of the session took 15-20 minutes.
Acupuncture Point Protocol
I suggested we could go to the table and do some acupuncture that would support the work she just did, and she was happy to do that.
Every practitioner will choose points according to their training and inspiration. There are many effective options. I needled K 24 (Spirit Ruins) and 25 (Spirit Storehouse), as well as St 16 (Breast Window) on the left, which is where the isolated, scared part of herself manifested. I also added St 36 and 43 on the left, and K3, Sp 3 and 9 on the right, to support earth to calm and balance water.
To address the Ren and Du channels, I placed needles at CV 17 and 12, Lu 7 on the left, and Si 3 on the right, along with GV 20.
As she relaxed with the needles, she cried about the loss of her mother, who died several years ago. But as the grief subsided, she became more aware of how the panic was trying to help her stay composed in a social setting and not feel and express the grief that was triggered during the workshop.
Each part is working in the service of the whole, even if it seems negative or the person doesn’t like that part. When we reframe and accept all parts of ourselves, we help the underlying meaning become clear.
After I took out the needles, I asked her to put her hand back on her heart and feel the comfort in her chest physically again to anchor it in her brain and nervous system. The gesture then becomes a physical affirmation she can consciously use when panic arises in the future.
She was comforted to know her inner wisdom was so close at hand. This session helped her feel more confident and in control of her experience, knowing that when she feels triggered, she has the inner strength to breathe and move through the feelings without going into panic.
Note: I find this method to be very effective, but some clients may not be able to stay with the experience of comfort for long before their mind goes back to the anxious pattern. In this case they may need to do more internal work with the anxious parts for deeper understanding. A referral to a counselor may be in order.
*This case illustrates an approach to communication between parts that integrate soma and psyche with mindful self-awareness in a style that comes from the Hakomi Method of Somatic Psychology. I have specialized in using this approach with the metaphor and methods of classical Chinese medicine to deepen healing transformation. Learn more here.
