Time to Stop Talking (Retelling the Story)
and Start Living!

The memories and “Ghosts of Traumas Past” we call Hostage-takers, because they steal your joy and restrict your ability to make important positive strides.

Think of these Hostage-takers as Emotional Scar Tissue – things your mind has created to protect itself from further injury.

Just as physical scar tissue protects muscles and joints from further physical damage by restricting movement, Emotional Scar Tissue restricts, impedes and, blocks your emotional energy.

And there’s the rub! Despite your best efforts to motor on down the highway of life, gas pedal to the floor, your Emotional Scar Tissue, (your Hostage-taker), plants your other foot firmly on the brakes and says, ‘no you don’t!’

Although you’re still in the car, your fear has become the driver.

Joe Graedon, Pharmacologist, 5 times NY Times Bestselling Author, and Host of The People’s Pharmacy, talks about his Trauma work with Stephanie Shipper

The Reactions That Hold You Hostage Have a Protective Intent

As much as you hate those reactions, those reactions are your alarm system.

The fight and flight center (your amygdala) has one job and one job alone. That job is not logical or reasonable. The job is to keep your safe. So that whatever has happened to you never happens again.

To be sure that you remain safe, your fight and flight center records a visual, auditory, feeling, and smell-based memory of the injury.

Anything that looks the same, acts the same, smells the same and reminds you of the injury sets off all your alarm systems. These reactions are often referred to as PTSD symptoms, Fear, Anxiety, or Phobias.

Why Can’t I Talk this Traumatic Memory Out of My Head?

It’s not a head game. It’s a fight and flight game.

Has someone told you that you just need to tell your story to a counselor and you’ll be better? So, you went to talk it out. How come you’re not better? In fact, telling and retelling the story seems to beat you up and give you more bad memories. SSDD! (Same Sh-t, Different Day) and often more symptoms.

The reason that talking is not helping is because traumatic injuries don’t live in your head. They live in your fight and flight center. You have a full body response, not just a thinking response. So no matter how much you talk it out, your full-body response still kicks in.

An Evolutionary Approach: Build a Safe Haven and a Healed Answer to Your Pain

Building a Safe Haven From Your Trauma

Dr. Ronald Ruden, MD/PhD from Harvard studied traumatic response for 20 years. His book When the Past Is Always Present: Emotional Traumatization, Causes, and Cures (havening.org) explains how traumas are recorded and their potential negative effects. He describes a revolutionary method to permanently relieve the symptoms produced by recorded trauma.

This technique gently interrupts and re-encodes the neurochemistry of the traumatic event so that the symptom pattern, memory and responses are quieted and no longer have the same meaning.

After a session, most people report having a very different understanding of the traumatic event. Dr. Ruden calls this a ‘landscape change.’

A Healed Answer / A Permanent Repatterning of Your Pain

It is not safe or useful to remove a reaction or traumatic/phobic response without replacing the response with a permanent healed repatterning of your pain.

A large piece of the change involved is the antidote (or healed response) to the event/events you are reacting to. In addition to Havening, I work with a myriad of brain and linguistic techniques that restore and change the stories of the trauma, permanently changing not simply your reaction, but what you are reacting to. Simply put: you will remember what happened to you, but you will no longer feel the same way about it or see it in the same light. You will no longer feel the same way about it, your reactions will go to peace and the sense of being held hostage permanently heals.

I Hated My Life – it Was a Struggle to Be Alive

“I hated my life…it was always a struggle just to be alive.

I grew up as an empathic, sensitive, highly intelligent Jewish boy. My family were stoic second-generation Holocaust survivors. Holocaust remembrance was a large part of my life. I was taught not to feel.

As early as I can remember I have felt disconnected from a sense of self and my internal world and have been haunted by a sense of heaviness and impending disaster. This was confirmed and compounded by my time as a tank gunner in the Israeli army during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 where I witnessed my buddy’s death and lost many friends killed in action.

I participated in 3 hours of Havening and after a whole life of feeling frozen I am blessed now to feel a definite lightness and vitality. Other welcome changes included noticeable softening in my face, my bronchial tubes have expanded, and my ability to socially engage has definitely improved.

I recommend Havening for anyone ready to experience relief from significant trauma.”

Gadi Pollack. President, Lead Beyond Trauma Project. Houston, TX

67 Year Old Survivor of Incest. Now Feels Safe in His Body

“First off, I am not a testimonial writer. However after working with Stephanie, I felt compelled to share my experience.

My age is 67, I now feel younger each day because of the Havening Technique. My main trauma was incest abuse as an adolescent. As a result of the violation of my body I have lived many days at an off the chart pain level for 50 years. How I have held my life together all these years is a mystery to me. How I am alive today is a miracle as well.

I have tried almost every type of therapy except electro-shock therapy. I always made some progress…but the Big Elephant in the room always returned; self-abuse was my coping mechanism. I had a death wish.

I found Stephanie by coincidence…she let me know right away that there would be homework each session. I found the Havening Homework pleasurable. In two sessions (about 5 hours) my discomfort levels significantly dropped, with only occasional peaks. My life became manageable in a very short time.

I completed my work in several sessions (about 10 hours). I am totally at peace with my past, I am at peace with myself and the abuser; it’s as if it no longer matters. Stephanie’s work gave me a ‘safe haven’ from the abuser. I feel safe in my body and safe sharing this story with you.

I start each day with the techniques I have been taught; I have feelings daily of love, calmness, joy, and peace and I believe in myself. Due to this work I feel more whole each day!”

Chaz R., Corporate Sales Manager, Meditation Teacher

A Safe Haven Awaits You

• If you have been down all the standard routes and you are still moving in a circle, The Trauma Freedom Project, a profound Mind/Body Process, can open a new world for you of choice and remembering who you really are!
• If you are sick and tired of having to catch up to your good life, then The Trauma Freedom Project is for you!
• If you are ready to stop what has held you hostage and start living your life.

I welcome a Call, Email, or Text from you for your free 30-minute exploratory conversation to discuss how Brain-based Transformation can make an important difference for you in a short time. It is common for people to have significant easing of specific reactions in several hours of work.

This Is Nothing Like Standard Counseling

How Is It Different?

The Sessions Are Focused Principally on Your Resourcefulness . . . Not Your Personal Problems

• The entire approach is to restart the creative, resourceful you by permanently repatterning the traumas and old self sabotage.
• The focus is on your total outcome in the present; there is very little emphasis on years of history and what is wrong (your diagnosis)
• Sessions focus on strategic, outcome focused pattern change. You see, hear, and experience life change during several sessions. It is common for people to report: “My life is changing quickly and painlessly; I feel free of the reactions/fears that have historically ruled my decisions.”
• This process is resource-focused, not problem-focused. The pathway through the problem is to use your resources and abilities, not a focus on fixing what is wrong with you.
• The aim is to empower you and hand you the tools to restart your life, so that you don’t need to rely on continual sessions in your day-to-day life.

The Duration of Sessions is Different and Expected Time For Recovery is Brief

• Sessions are not 50 minutes. This process employs a few concentrated sessions to accomplish long-term change. In the first session (typically about 3 hours) I get an overview of your traumatic events and your resources. Once we determine that we are a team, we work together and create clear goals. Subsequent sessions are normally 1.5 to 2 hours. There is homework each time to boost the repatterning.
• Unlike normal counseling, this does not take years. People commonly spend a total of 20 hours in sessions over several months. The outcome is expressing the creative, resourceful you by permanently repatterning old traumas and old self-sabotage.