Bilateral stimulation is a technique used for people who have experienced some sort of trauma in their life. This is a technique in which the meridian points on the body are tapped in an alternating pattern in a specific order to release negative feelings that are associated with the traumatic event. Many people with PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder, have been able to benefit greatly from this type of treatment. Bilateral simply means that it is something that happens on both the left and the right. This type of therapy has been used with those suffering from PTSD from some of the violent wars they have been in, and with great success.
Bilateral stimulation is specifically done by touching the body, starting with the head, and tapping right, left, right, and left. The reason it works is that it allows the memory to be transferred and processed to the other side of the brain. Many times, these traumatic memories are stored on the right side of the brain, and when you do this type of stimulation, it is allowed to be processed through the left brain’s processing, which is quite different than the right. Another technique that is often used with this type of therapy is to move the closed eyes from side to side towards the side of the body which is receiving the touch. How helpful the eye movement is might depend upon how each person processes things since some people are more visual versus touch, and again versus aural.
Elements of the human brain often times become blocked when a person experiences and processes a traumatic event, causing the memory or trauma to remain unchanged and not properly processed until that memory is unblocked with something like bilateral stimulation and allowed to be processed differently. When this blockage happens, a person is susceptible to repeatedly experiencing that trauma in the same manner, over and over again. This is why so many veterans had flashbacks and many other life problems occurring after they were brought home “safely” from the war. They might not have had bodily wounds, or maybe they did, but almost all of them had some form of post traumatic stress disorder which affected their lives.
Bilateral stimulation works through allowing these post traumatic stress disorder victims to take their horrible memories and transfer them through the left side of the brain, which brings them a sense of peace and makes their lives better for living. Releasing these memories from the place where they cause anxiety, depression, addictions, and much more also releases these individuals to live a healthier, more normal life.
