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Mental Training (also known as Autogenic Training) was developed in the 1930s by German Neuroscientist and psychoanalyst Johannes H. Schultz. It became popular in the United States in the 1970s when Olympic athletes identified mental preparation as the key to all their successes in competition. Over the years, mental training has proved to be much more than just a best practice in the world of Sports Psychology. Its benefits have been well reviewed in both medical and mental health journals. For decades, NASA has used Mental Training to prepare pilots and astronauts for space travel, teaching them how to control their physical responses in emergencies and high-stress environments.
The Theory Behind Mental Training is that your body reacts to your thoughts. Every thought you have sends electrical signals throughout your body, and these signals are coded like a blueprint in your mind and your nervous system. When you mentally rehearse mental training methods for symptom relief and relapse prevention, you are programming your body to mirror and perform that behavior on a neuromuscular level making it automatic and easy to recall.
Applications Of Mental Training In Addiction Recovery
Mental Training is a mind-body approach to self-regulation and self-control that provides therapy clients with tools they can use independently to relieve symptoms and prevent relapse. Mental training is based on practical psychological principals. It teaches clients how to control unwanted physical responses through visualization, goal-setting, imaginative involvement, and mental rehearsal. Clients learn to become their own therapists as they experience mental training methods and understand how to use them to deactivate negative feelings states. Key components of mental training are mental preparation, a mindset for achievement, and developing the ability and confidence to overcome obstacles (and mistakes) that might otherwise be barriers to success in addiction recovery treatment.
Mental Training Instills In Clients The Ability To Be Self-Contained. Not only are they able to rethink the personal meaning of recovery, but they also experience a renewed sense of purpose as they implement these methods for symptom relief and relapse prevention.
Learning Objectives
1. Describe the relationship between developmental trauma and substance use;
2. Integrate mental training into individual and group therapy;
3. Discuss how mental training can be used to minimize or eliminate involuntary responses to negative introspection, fear, pain, and traumatic memories;
4. Help clients use mental training skills for symptom relief and relapse prevention;
5. Distinguish between mental training, meditation, mindfulness, and clinical hypnosis.
Reading Recommendations
The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.;
Trauma And Memory by Peter A. Levine, Ph.D.;
The Feeling Of What Happens: Body and Emotion In The Making Of Consciousness by Antonio Damasio, M.D.;
The Worst Is Over by Judith Simon Prager, Ph.d., and Judith Acosta, LISW;
Invisible Heroes by Belleruth Naparstek, LISW;
Peak Performance by Charles A. Garfield, Ph.D.;
Human Givens by Joe Griffin, Ph.d, and Ivan Terrell;
Mirroring Hands by Richard Hill and Ernest L. Rossi
Healing The Heart of Trauma and Dissociation with EMDR and Ego
State Therapy by Carol Forgash, LCSW, and Margaret Copeley, ME.d.;
Eye Movement Integration Therapy by Danie Beaulieu, Ph.d.;
Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days Of The War On Drugs by Johann Hari
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