2015 Professional Seminar: Hemi-Sync® and a Seizure Disorder (Suzanne Evans Morris)

2015 Professional Seminar: Hemi-Sync® and a Seizure Disorder (Suzanne Evans Morris) (Transcript) NOTE: This is an unedited transcript – it is exactly as created by otter.ai. 00:10 Please welcome Dr. Morris talking about connection 00:22 thank you so much, Barbara. It truly has been a journey and a journey of connection for me since I first came here. As I listened to Marilyn Schlitz this morning, I was very struck by the synchronicity of concepts between what she has to share and what I have to share. Because truly it is all about the connections that we make, that we create, and that the world invites us to, to create. For me the beginning connections came in 1981, when I first came to the Monroe Institute, and met Bob Monroe, and was introduced through the gateway voyage program. This was a very powerful connection for me, I had been raised by two parents, who were both scientists. And from them, I learned the wonder of very linear logical thinking, and I got very good at it. I also however, there was a part of me deep within, that was not that linear, logical person, it was somebody who often knew the answers be without figuring out, you know, ABCD, etc. And when I went into my profession, as a speech language pathologist, working with children with Feeding and Swallowing dysfunction, I began finding that I was working at a very different level with these kids. But I also felt I had to keep that hidden, it was not acceptable in my profession, it was not something that you talked about. And yet at the same time, I was interested in very involved in the whole brain accelerated learning movement, in an at a time in the, in the 70s, when people really were talking a lot about left brain and right brain kind of information processing. But there was something about that connection, that did not go deeply into who I was. And then I met Bob Monroe. And then I came here, Bob was, for me, an absolutely wonderful guide and mentor in the gateway program. And also, a number of years later, when I made the decision to move from Wisconsin to Virginia, and to reside here in this community here on the new land. There was a connection that came for me very profoundly, even though I had come to the Gateway program, thinking it was kind of all about my wanting to understand the technology of music and sound, and how Hemi sync fit into that model to make learning easier for everyone. And I left with so much more, because it was indeed a connection to the deepest part of who I was, that very profoundly changed how I approached everything. And over the years, then began to find the connections that enabled me to live my life at a fuller and deeper level. And as I changed, my therapy with children and families became so much more meaningful to all of us. I expanded the connections then as I went back into my work, I was very astounded at the at the both the depth and the breadth of what Hemi sync could mean in my own life. And I wanted to see if there was a connection then to what I was doing with the children and families I was working with, and so expanded that. And that just as Bob was a friend and a mentor for me, I found myself in a sense taking that mentoring role into my work with families into my work with other therapists, of helping them to absolutely know that what we were doing, first of all, was totally relationship based, which means that it's the connection between ourselves and each other, and the person that we're with, that makes the most profound difference. But it's also then the connection of not what do I do with a child this, this and this, but how I do it? Where am I coming from within myself, that an Abels, that connection to become stronger, to become deeper. And so again, it was a continuation of the connections. For me, there was another very profound connection that came a year ago, I was invited to participate in some an intensive therapy model at the Scandinavian center of neuro movement, which is of a small Therapy Center, about 25 miles north of Copenhagen, Denmark, near frightening sport. And in this program, one of the things that the first thing that struck me was some of the similarities in underlying concepts between what I had learned here, and what I had the opportunity to participate in there. Some of that connect, this is a program that it focuses very much on very specific type of movement learning for children with developmental disabilities, often with very complex neuro motor challenges. But the key with a lot of the movement approach is on building attention and awareness through a slow, very focused approach in that instance, basically, on how we move, and on how with that kind of intentionality, and attention, the brain itself changes, it maps itself differently. And therefore, children who often the world has said death, there's no hope for this kid, they change, and they change very profoundly. And this is what I was finding with my work with the Hemi sync as well. So there was this wonderful commonality. As I was going through my slides, I was also very struck by the commonality of the rainbow over the center, and the rainbow over the center. So another wonderful set of connections. As part of my work at the center, I went and I teach a two day workshop. Each time I have gone for a month, on two different occasions, and I'm going back twice. In the current year, I started out with teaching a two day workshop for therapists and parents, and then continue with a period of about three weeks, where I'm involved in an intensive therapy program for about 12 to 15 kids. In that program, I'm seeing the same child for about anywhere from five to 10 therapy sessions, in within the same week, often within the same two to three days. So it allows for more of a masked learning, kind of an experience for both of us. I went I was there in November, I taught a two day workshop on music and Hemi sync. And everybody got very excited about looking at the Hemi sync particularly from the perspective of children whom they do, and children who at that time I knew as well, because I had been there last May. One of the children who I will introduce you to is Julius and Julius is a five year old and he and his mother found and dad found this incredible place in my heart. Julius is a youngster with a great many developmental challenges. He has a seizure disorder, which is his primary diagnosis. He has multiple types of seizures. He also has a lot what we call a sensory processing disorder or difficulty in that the sensations coming in through all of his sensory channels often get overwhelming. In terms of sensory overload, they often are misinterpreted. And he in part related to the sensory processing disorder, does a great deal of moving into himself. taking care of himself by moving inward. And what we see on the outside is often what the world can describe as more of a social interactive kind of a problem. Many of the things that people see and describe with children on the autistic spectrum. 10:24 And I will go back to these he has feeding and mealtime difficulties, which is sort of how he got on my intensive work of looking at how children eat, but most importantly for him, how does he relate to food? How does he relate to a mealtime experience, if you think about your meals, they're particularly for this little boy growing up in a family of four kids. mealtimes can be pretty loud and pretty chaotic, and pretty overwhelming. And then you get all of the multiple sensory inputs from the food. And it can be a very difficult time for children with sensory kinds of issues. And as one can imagine, with all of this, a lot of challenge in communication. Now, let's talk when I look at each of these characteristics, one of the things that ties them all together is that is the word disconnection. And so I'd like to talk a little bit about how some of that disconnect happens. And why you Liz has multiple types of seizures. And this is the thing that has made it very, very difficult for him. He started out with, with what are called infantile spasms, or West syndrome in which a child kind of jackknives into flexion, this can happen. And that happens, usually in clusters, so that he was having a lot of this kind of pattern occurring in groups of five to 10. And occurring all throughout the day. And throughout the night. His a lot of this hit its major bid when he was about between two and three and a half, and he was having 5060 seizures a day. That's a lot. That's an incredible amount. Now, if you think about the fact that when you're having a seizure, you lose information that we can take in information, but that seizure can often wipe it out. So you become very disconnected from a lot of the things that you need in order to learn. Medication, of course, was tried tremendously with him both medication and diet. And as he got a bit older, the seizures expanded into different types. I don't need to go into all of those types. They're called myoclonic, seizures and Clonic, tonic seizures, and partial complex seizures, there are a lot of different ones. Yulia has has about three or four different kinds, which means that since the major approach to managing and suppressing his seizures, is medication, It either means you have to have the on huge number of medications, and combinations of meds, or it doesn't work. It may alleviate one type of seizure. Not the others may exaggerate a third type of seizures. And so his seizures have never been able to be controlled on medication. Now, he there also is an approach to diet that is helpful for many kids with seizures, called the ketogenic diet, which involves a very high amount of fat and protein, very low carbohydrates. It's very helpful for a lot of kids didn't do a thing for you lists. However, his family did find that when they eliminated gluten, and they eliminated dairy, that his digestion got better. And over time, as that digestion improved, he the seizures went down, which was very interesting. They also tried homeopathy with him. And again, it was something that brought the seizure level down. So the seizures when I first met him, still were quite uncontrolled, but he was only having perhaps two or three seizures a day, which for him was great. It was much, much better. One of the other things that happens when your seizures are uncontrolled is that when they come on, you just fall. And so he had to wear a helmet at that time to prevent self injury. So very complex issues with a lot of implications for learning, a lot of implications for not feeling so connected with the rest of the world. Now, many of the same things can happen with the challenge of a sensory processing disorder, disconnection. When we think of sensory processing, it's not us or them. It is a continuum. And all of us in this room experience sensory overload. All of us in this room experience sensory disorganization. What is different for each one of us is the threshold at which that occurs? You know, for example, when I was in the dining room this morning, and everybody was sharing so delightedly in the noise level was up here. It's like, there were points where I thought I gotta get out of here. My system is on such overload, I can't think I can't process what somebody's saying to me. Now, when I went back over into the foxes den for the break, yeah, there were people there talking, et cetera. But the level and the number of people was much fewer. And so I had no problem at all. Imagine the times when you are feeling sensory overload and disorganization? What would that be like? If every almost every moment of your life was that experience? What would it be like? One of the things that we know about the sensory system is that there are certain kinds of sensory input that can be very organizing, and very helpful to