Six Key Ways to Engage a Brain-Based Approach to Support Trauma and Neurodiversity
- Jun 30, 2022
- 8 min read
Julene Siddique is a recognised Thought Leader in Arts & Health. She's the Founder of Musical Nutrition Ltd. which brings together Neurological, Cognitive, Somatic/Sensory and Social aspects of Music for mental health and neurodiversity. As a composer, she creates psychological landscapes with orchestral music for Interactive Music-Wellness events.
Rates of neurodiversity and mental health diagnoses are rising at an unprecedented rate. Autism, AuDHD, and ADHD diagnoses continue to increase, while anxiety, PTSD, and chronic stress have become some of the defining health challenges of our time.
Whilst most people are grappling with whether to see specialists for psychological support or medication, many still find that, despite receiving help, they struggle with the day-to-day ups and downs. I have also had many clients who initially told me they had simply resigned themselves to “life being hard.” But what I have found is that behind many of these struggles is a lack of understanding of how to work with their neurology, access brain-based support, and develop a meaningful praxis.
Talking therapies and medication, although helpful, are not enough. They are pieces of the puzzle, but not the full puzzle. All of our thoughts and emotions live in our bodies. All of our behaviours are linked to neural pathways in our brains. To truly address thoughts, emotions, and behaviour, we have got to involve both the body and the brain, as well as psychological support and medication if and when appropriate.
Within the context of neurodiversity, brain-based support is crucial. Within the context of high levels of anxiety and trauma, body-based or somatic support is the big game changer. Whilst much of this is now supported by research, this article aims to give people and families some actionable insights to work with so they can better support themselves and their families.
1. Find it in the body: Making the somatic choice
Whether I am working with a client with PTSD or a neurodivergent client, the key thing is always learning how to make the shift away from getting caught up in anxious thoughts or emotional triggers and towards being able to stop and notice, “Where is it in my body?”
Learning to track thoughts and emotions as bodily sensations and noticing where and how they show up in the body become crucial steps in: A) not getting lost in anxieties or emotional triggers; and B) taking the first step towards learning how to somatically release anxiety or trauma through the body. That is where the big healing happens.
The reality that is now being backed by science and research is that, in conditions such as autism, AuDHD, and trauma, you cannot “talk your way out of it.” Our thoughts and emotions live in our bodies, and our bodies are one of the most powerful ways we can release them and build our capacity for natural healing and resilience.
2. Self-intervention is self-regulation
Within my company, Musical Nutrition, mental health and wellbeing are not just about how you improve on a clinical scale; they are also about how your day-to-day experience of life improves. In my Resilience and Growth program, I take my clients through a process of “self-intervention.”
That means noticing what is happening in the moment and then being able to use a practice or tool to change your state at will. That is self-regulation: the ability to notice when you are triggered, anxious, or upset, understand what is happening in the moment, and bring yourself back to homeostasis.
The creative, somatic, and brain-based approaches I work with involve bigger methods, but they also include short practices that people can use in their daily lives to improve their everyday lived experience. That is when things really change, as people move out of struggle and into self-empowered wellness. That is the change I love to see, when someone is feeling better and has the tools to truly live better.
3. Dual hemisphere bilateral stimulation
Within the context of trauma therapy, EMDR, and therapies for neurodiversity, there are specialised methods for employing bilateral stimulation. Engaging whole-brain functioning through bilateral stimulation is a crucial part of restoring brain function when certain brain areas become muted due to trauma, as well as balancing and integrating brain function, which can often become unbalanced in neurodiversity contexts.
My Resilience and Growth program works with specialist forms of bilateral stimulation for trauma and neurodiversity, but here are some simple things you can do at home.
March to music. Move the opposite hand and foot as you march to music. You can also simply walk outside while swinging each arm a little more towards the opposite leg.
Writing and drawing with both hands. Spend a little time writing with both hands or drawing a picture using both hands.
Drum with both hands. Drum with both hands on a drum or table. Lift one hand and then the other, tapping on the table or drum. You can slowly work to make the rhythm more complex and push for greater coordination.
These simple activities at home can help improve your whole brain functioning, contributing to a stronger, more balanced brain. You are less likely to become triggered or overwhelmed when your system is strong. So, try some simple bilateral activities to strengthen your system at home.
4. Work with your sensitivities for resilience
I have worked extensively with high sensitivity levels in autism cases, but I also tend to work a lot with highly sensitive people in trauma and mental health contexts. High sensitivity can mean that a person becomes overwhelmed quickly or experiences a lot of emotion within a short period.
When your sensitivities are not trained, life can be full of ups and downs or constant overwhelm. In my Resilience and Growth program, I train people in how to use their sensitivities for resilience, manage them, and use them at will.
In the same way that you can tune into a negative feeling, you can also tune into a positive feeling and become a more resilient person. It is about learning how to manage your sensitivities and use them to your advantage rather than allowing them to take over your life through overwhelming ups and downs.
5. Healing through growth
There is nothing “wrong” with you. When you let go of “fixing problems,” that is when you can start to acknowledge what is really there without judgement. Then, you can allow it to speak and give it the space it needs to send you the messages and learnings you need in order to grow from your experiences and challenges.
In the context of trauma, I cultivate the conditions that support post-traumatic growth: safety, non-judgement, somatic sensory integration, and self-knowledge. The part of the brain that was damaged by trauma can, through the process of healing, overgrow. So, a person who heals from trauma through post-traumatic growth has more of a brain than a person who did not go through the trauma.
In the context of neurodiversity, my job is to help clients grow into who they are: to work WITH their brain type, their unique sensitivities, their bodily sensations, and what their difficult feelings are trying to tell them. That is when we come into contact with the ability to learn, which can lead to genuine growth. Healing that leads to life change, meaning getting out of a bad place and into a good place, happens through growth.
So, start creating the conditions for growth. Do not judge yourself. Listen to your body and to what your emotions are telling you. If you have sensory needs, listen to, respect, and prioritise those needs.
Know that all pain does is point to where the problem is. If you ask the problem to speak, it can tell you and even teach you some quite profound and life-changing things.
6. Creative sensory practices
There is incredible power in creativity, especially when you start to understand that emotions are not linear; they are associative. We associate emotions with people and experiences, and it is generally not a linear process. Creativity uses a different part of the brain from simply asking someone to describe what they went through.
Often, when people describe how they feel, they feel the need to explain themselves or “figure it out.” You do not need to prove anything, explain anything, or figure anything out. Healing only asks you to acknowledge, give life to, and give a voice to what is there.
In Resilience and Growth, through a creative sensory process, we help you unravel things. By connecting creativity to the body, we allow your bodily sensations to speak, and we find out where the stress or trauma is living in your body. Then, we creatively work to release it and rewire your mind and body so you can experience more happiness, aliveness, and more of your natural self.
The future therapies are based on the brain, body, and creativity
We cannot afford half a solution, and our clients deserve better than half a solution.
If people are still struggling after they have worked with us, then we have not done our job. We cannot afford for this work to be one-dimensional. One-dimensional therapy is a job half done.
Although talking therapies and medication are supportive, I would argue that the therapy of the future is holistic and integrative. It engages neurological support, psychological support, brain training, and behavioural intervention, and it is built on “learning through doing.”
The brain only learns something new when it is asked to DO something new. Experience-based, brain-based therapies give people techniques and tools that help them learn how to do things differently and how to BE different. By working with creativity, we stop prescribing and put the power back into the patient’s hands to reimagine themselves and their lives.
The brain, body, and creativity therapies of the future offer an empowered and non-judgemental approach. We are not judging people for their challenges or conditions; we are looking at how these things show up in them and their lives.
When you look at that holistically, you can create a space of non-judgement and deep listening, allowing you to hear and understand where those challenges are coming from and give people the most appropriate tools for healing, resilience, and growth. This is what I believe is the foundation of genuine personal transformation and life change.
That is truly where any form of healing or therapy should take us, into positive transformation. That kind of positive transformation is built on insights from lived experience, learning through self-knowledge, and brain training that lead to real evolution.
We can do it. We have got the science now to do it; we just need to start restructuring our practices to accommodate more integrative ways of working. My Resilience and Growth program is a pioneer, and we are learning every day how to improve. I hope there are many more practitioners who make the move towards a more integrative approach.
I also hope these six simple steps in this article can help more people know that they have the power to change and live better, happier lives, and that the power is, in fact, in their hands. They just need to learn the tools and ways to access that agency.
The knowledge of transformation is the knowledge of hope. When you think nothing can change, you become hopeless. Seeing genuine transformation creates hope. Transformative healthcare is the healthcare of hope, and I do believe that that is worth fighting for.
Read more from Julene Siddique
Julene Siddique, Composer, Therapist, and Thought Leader
Julene Siddique is a Composer, Creative Therapist, and Thought Leader innovating across therapies, wellness, and music entertainment. As a Classical Composer trained at The Royal College of Music and a Therapist trained in Neurologic Music Therapy, Neuroscience Coaching, Neuro-Art, and Trauma-Informed Expressive Art Therapy, Julene creates unique Neuro-Creative Experiences designed to transform Mind, Brain, and Behaviour. She founded Musical Nutrition, which provides creative therapies for mental health and neurodiversity, but also interactive wellness entertainment. She developed 'The Musical Nutrition Method' so Neurological, Cognitive, Somatics/Sensory and Social Aspects of Music could be applied across therapy and performance settings.
