Published:12/19/2008

Feeling Frazzled?

Learn about two up-and-coming holistic therapies that you can use to calm your nervous system and alleviate insomnia associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Esogetic Colorpuncture
This therapy applies light, rather than needles, to acupuncture points on the body. German naturopath Peter Mandel discovered that cells communicate with each other by emitting very low frequencies of light. “When cells are disturbed, this information transfer breaks down and illness results,” says Manohar Croke, a colorpuncturist in Grass Valley, California.

What to expect: During a session, the colorpuncturist uses slender “pens” that contain a light-emitting glass rod (the color of light used varies according to the protocol). Applying light to the cells restores communication—like a tuning fork, it harmonizes the frequency of the light the cells emit.

How it helps: Just like different parts of the brain stop talking to each other during PTSD, colorpuncturists theorize that communication breaks down between cells as well. During a life-threatening event—particularly one in which you can neither fight nor flee and are trapped—the sympathetic nervous system gets overloaded. “The stress and fear can then get imprinted onto the nervous system, disrupting function,” Croke says. Applying light to acupuncture points not only restores the flow of qi, but it restores the flow of information as well by removing the imprints, she explains. Small, preliminary studies in Europe show colorpuncture can alleviate insomnia, ADD, learning disorders, and other conditions. “Clinically, I see over and over again that when I put light on people, healing starts to happen,” says Croke.
More info: Institute for Esogetic Colorpuncture (colorpuncture.org

Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique (BEST)
Closely related to craniosacral therapy, BEST involves harmonizing the energy fields in the body.

What do expect: You lie down and think of two things simultaneously: an emotion linked to the traumatic event (which activates the creative right side of the brain) and a number (which activates the analytical left side). The therapist meanwhile holds certain points on your head, which “acts like a conductor, facilitating the flow of energy through the nervous system,” says Jim Claussen, DC, founder of The Health Doctors chiropractic clinic in Warrenville, Illinois, and BEST practitioner.

How it helps: According to scientific theory, back at conception, when you were just one cell big, that one cell had an energy pulse. As you developed into a 70-trillion-cell adult, that pulse was duplicated into the other cells. “Trauma, stress, toxins, or negative thoughts can distort that pulse and cause interference, like static on a cell phone,” says Claussen. The interference manifests as health problems, physically and mentally. In a BEST session, you first activate both hemispheres of the brain (by thinking of an emotion and a number), and then the practitioner stimulates the flow of energy by touching two points on your head—in a sense, the practitioner completes the circuit. This removes the interference and returns energy flow to its natural state. Few controlled studies have been done on BEST so far, but Claussen has treated many PTSD sufferers, including soldiers, and he says that after 10 to 12 sessions, he “sees people’s symptoms disappear and their vitality return.”

More info: Morter Health System (morter.com); Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America (craniosacraltherapy.org); Chicago Healers (chicagohealers.com)

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