TU120: Finding Security During Coronavirus Isolation with Dr. David Elliott

Is this pandemic making your nervous system crunchy? Find out how to use one of the Elliott and Brown's 3 pillars of healing attachment to cope during this society-wide emotional hotbox. Using the first pillar of the three pillars of healing attachment, using the imaginings of your mind to leverage security, David explains how this practice can be beneficial during a time where we're looking for connection to regulate and heal. Why Dr. David ElliottWe are pleased to bring Dr. Elliott back for a second interview. We were so enamored with his co-authored book Attachment Disturbances in Adults: Treatment for Comprehensive Repair, that we stayed connected and are now working together on an exciting new project to bring this empirically-validated work with trauma to more of you. His full bio is below. Using imagery to help find security during COVID 19 – today’s episodeOur attachment system is designed to seek proximity especially during threat, danger, and distress. So in this time of needed distance from one another our nervous system is being especially challenged. For some of us, sheltering in place with others allows us to turn to one another for emotional and physical comfort. However there are millions of people across the globe who are sheltering in isolation or in unsafe or unsupportive environments. They are missing another persons comforting support and touch. David speaks personally from this experience because he is currently sheltering in place alone - that is, away from his family - so his advice is coming from a place of knowing. Elliott and his colleagues have developed a model for the treatment of early attachment and healing called the 3 pillars model discussed in detail in episode 34. In today's episode we discuss the tenets of the first pillar - the power of the mind to imagine - the essential elements of connection and security needed for coping during this COVID quarantine crisis. Ann & David discuss the empirically studied outcome of the power of imagination to generate learning and neurological growth. They provide examples of ways athletes and musicians use imagery to improve their performance. David then leads us through a mindful exercise based on the tenets of the first pillar. Through a guided exercise, he helps us create and be with an imagined "safe other" which provides our minds with the sense of social and emotional connection. Our bodies often can not distinguish between the real and imagined and our social-engagement system can respond with the soothing and healing connections that our bodies need during stress. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ie0YaRLLe3GOyOO0OXm02roSX4Cih7zY/view ( CLICK HERE) to access the audio of this mindfulness demonstration. _____ https://www.therapistuncensored.com/resources/ (RESOURCES:)Additional resources for this episode:Stand-alone mindfulness exercise https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ie0YaRLLe3GOyOO0OXm02roSX4Cih7zY/view (download here) Contact Dr. Elliott directly at http://www.davidelliottphd.com (http://www.davidelliottphd.com) Please refer to our previous episode with Dr. David Elliott for even more resources in the audio and show notes. - https://www.therapistuncensored.com/episodes/treating-attachment-disruptions/ (TU34: Treating Attachment Difficulties with Dr. David Elliott) https://www.therapistuncensored.com/write-for-therapist-uncensored/ (Attachment Disturbances in Adults Treatment for Comprehensive Repair (2016) Daniel Brown and David Elliott ) These and other resources have been collected for you https://www.therapistuncensored.com/resources/ (on our Resources page!) ___Dr David Elliott’s Bio:Dr. Elliott comes from an academic career in psychology from Harvard University. He gained experience at the Tufts University Counseling Center, the Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic of St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, Massachusetts, and McLean Hospital,... Support this podcast