NeuroFeedback, NeurOptimal and Electroencephalography

[Persej]

Here is a guide about how to create RGB Ring Light Glasses that perhaps could be used for peripheral light therapy:

Make Your Own RGB Ring Light Glasses

Make Your Own RGB Ring Light Glasses: It's really difficult to read in dark environments, so I made a pair of glasses with Neopixel RGB lights and a photoresistor so you never have to worry about lighting again! The RGB Glass also has different functions like rainbow mode and morse cod…

www.instructables.com

Of course, for our purposes, the LED Ring would be placed in the inside of the glasses. Also, some modifications of the frame would have to be made so that one eye does not see the light from the other ring.

Another option could be to use VR glasses and make a software for it.

 

[Yas]

I'm reading Steve Vazquez book about Emotional Transformation Therapy (ETT) and it truly is very interesting. I want to finish it before I post some more comments, perhaps open a specific thread for it. But I just wanted to say something about another method for colored light stimulation:

Here is a guide about how to create RGB Ring Light Glasses that perhaps could be used for peripheral light therapy:

Make Your Own RGB Ring Light Glasses

Make Your Own RGB Ring Light Glasses: It's really difficult to read in dark environments, so I made a pair of glasses with Neopixel RGB lights and a photoresistor so you never have to worry about lighting again! The RGB Glass also has different functions like rainbow mode and morse cod…

www.instructables.com

Of course, for our purposes, the LED Ring would be placed in the inside of the glasses. Also, some modifications of the frame would have to be made so that one eye does not see the light from the other ring.

Another option could be to use VR glasses and make a software for it.

One method he uses, and I also saw a little bit about it on the video below is to use a hand-held target with a light color. It even seems that the first two modules of his training only teach this and the color chart and the use of his other devices are learned in more advanced trainings.

The hand-held targets seem to be very similar to the ones used in brainspotting (which the guy from the video above says is somewhat similar to ETT). In the video, he doesn't show them very well but they look a bit like pointers with colored tops. Perhaps they have a lightbulb at the top with particular colors?

This is an example of what they use in brainspotting:



In the book, he describes this method of eye movement for therapy:

A New Eye Movement Psychotherapy

For Beverly, life had essentially stopped since that fateful day two years ago when her husband had died in a tragic car wreck. Beverly could not get the image of seeing her husband change from conscious awareness to lifeless stillness in that emergency room bed. The visual image replayed over and over, and the pain of it occurred as if it had just taken place. Beverly finally decided that she was willing to work on seeing her husband of thirty-five years die before her eyes.

We departed from our usual procedures when I asked her to watch a colored visual target that I held. She was asked to look only at that target while I kept her focused on the issue by verbalizing it. Within two minutes there was no more image of death and no more pain about that incident. The stunning, rapid change caused her to exclaim, “I can’t believe it!” Nonetheless, it was gone, and she could now talk about that event without even a hint of distress. Moreover, it never came back.

How could looking at a handheld, colored target completely eliminate the extreme pain and change such a devastating trauma? The tragic shock caused by the death of Beverly’s husband had tormented her daily for over two years. Now, with a new procedure, hope exists for Beverly and others, along with the possibility of a rapid recovery. Let’s explore how this stunning process works.

The therapeutic use of eye movement for psychological and physical changes is undergoing a basic paradigmatic shift with the advent of multidimensional eye movement (MDEM). There is a long history of using some aspect of the eye’s functioning to enhance therapeutic purposes. During the last decade eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) has been validated as a means for relieving certain aspects of post-traumatic stress disorder and has gained widespread popularity (Carlson, Chemtob, Rusnak, Hedlund, and Muraoka, 1998; Ahmad, Larsson, Sundelin-Whalsten, 2007; Chemtob, Nakashima, and Carlson, 2002; Edmond, Rubin, and Wambach, 1999; Rothbaum, 1997). However, eye-movement procedures have long been used in different cultures like those of China and Brazil. The new development of variations of eye-movement processes has substantially improved the potential to change and improve eye-movement methods over time. MDEM provides a substantial leap forward in the precision and impact of eye movement and eye position for rapid therapeutic gains. MDEM is one cluster of processes within the overall method of Emotional Transformation Therapy® (ETT®) (Vazquez, 2004).

MDEM versus EMDR

How does multidimensional eye movement (MDEM) differ from EMDR? There are at least twelve ways in which MDEM differs from EMDR.

• MDEM is used to facilitate rapid reduction of many more forms of physical pain than EMDR.
• The specific wavelength (color) of light entering the eyes during eye fixation and eye movement is an important factor in MDEM and not in EMDR.
• The directions of eye movements used in MDEM are infinite but are limited in EMDR.
• Fixed eye positions play a prominent role in MDEM and are not used in EMDR.
• Eye position or eye movement is based upon “eye scan pathways” in MDEM, not in EMDR.
• There are more speeds of eye movement used in MDEM and the premise upon which speed of movement is chosen is different from EMDR.
• MDEM provides rapid access to relevant implicit memory and affect to a far greater degree than EMDR.
• Visual perceptual feedback is verbalized by the client to adjust eye movements during MDEM in many cases, and verbalization during EMDR is discouraged.
• Unilateral visual stimulation is often the focus of eye position or eye movement instead of the dual focus of EMDR methods.
• MDEM is only one of several techniques in the ETT® method.
• Specific forms of interpersonal responses are used in conjunction with eye techniques that vary according to the attachment pattern of the client in ETT® which is unlikely in EMDR.
• MDEM utilizes focal points in a three-dimensional visual field as compared to two dimensions used in EMDR.
• Facilitating substantial affective change typically takes place much faster by MDEM than EMDR.

While the popularity of EMDR has brought attention to the role of the eyes in psychological processing, many people are not familiar with the different types of eye activity. MDEM was originally developed by this author in 1992 and has been expanded to its current usage in the last decade. Research in optometric sciences has clarified the different types of eye activity and their functions.

Memory Retrieval and Eye Movement

There exists both an internal and external function of vision. Once light enters the eyes it is converted into impulses that travel through the entire brain and nervous system. (Liberman, 1991) This visual pathway is bidirectional, meaning we can retrieve information such as emotion and images drawn from within the visual pathway system, or an image associated with emotion can be taken into the visual system from an external source. Of course, these two types of vision are interrelated. Certain eye activity accesses awareness of internal psychological and physical experiences by means of the visual pathway. MDEM involves observing and using external eye activity that activates internal visual pathways and then utilizing these pathways to facilitate change related to emotions or physical symptoms.

Most of the clients with whom visual light stimulation was used, who had already experienced EMDR, became aware of entirely new memories related to their issue when MDEM was used. This suggests that the type of rapid saccadic eye movement used in EMDR often fails to elicit the psychological depth necessary to relieve the implicit memory associated with the conscious awareness of trauma processed in EMDR sessions. Saccadic eye movement is not associated with long-term memory (Henderson and Hollingsworth, 1999; Hollingsworth, Williams, and Henderson, 2001). Therefore, while saccadic eye movement in EMDR can facilitate change in a known trauma, it is very limited in its comparative capacity to retrieve implicit memory. This could mean that an issue and unresolved emotions would continue to arise even though superficial relief may have taken place initially with EMDR.

On the other hand, visual fixation, gaze aversion, and closing the eyes have been found to aid retrieval of recollections as well as increasing the efficiency of encoding memory (Einstein, Earles, and Collins, 2002; Glenberg, Schroeder, and Robertson, 1998). Eye fixation is known to take place during hypnosis, which is well documented to retrieve memory (Hammond, 1990). However, while visual fixation retrieves memory, the accompanying affect does not necessarily progress. In many cases, retrieval of memory results in emotional flooding—a situation that can re-traumatize a person who suddenly recalls a dormant traumatic memory.

Retrieval of traumatic memory is usually only valuable if it can be rapidly processed in order to limit re-traumatization. However, in MDEM visual targets that resonate with the emotional tone of the recollection are used to facilitate progress of affect. When this takes place along with interpersonal responses appropriate to the client’s attachment pattern, retrieved affect tends to rapidly progress through its fixated state.

Combining Verbalization and Eye Movement

An additional factor discovered in scientific research is that “visual impact can alter spoken language comprehension, and spoken instructions can alter visual perception” (Beaulieu, 2003, p. 87). This means that verbal guidance during guided eye movements amplifies the internal cross-talk between cognitive, affective, linguistic, and sensory activity. As a result, verbalization and eye movement together form a synthesis that yields far greater outcomes than either process alone (Eberhard, Spivey-Knowlton, Sedivy, and Tanenhaus, 1995). Therefore, when the facilitator verbally replicates descriptions of the client’s emotion at the same time the client is doing the prescribed eye movement, the process is often amplified. This keeps the clients’ mental attention on track during the process while relieving the client from the task of verbalizing during eye movement. However, spontaneous client verbalizations are also helpful and may serve to inform the facilitator about the client’s changing psychological progress so that the facilitator can make adjustments to stay attuned to the client. Verbal expressions by the client are particularly valuable if the client’s issue concerns thwarted verbal expression.

In addition to the use of color and verbal input, appropriate empathy provides the support that also encourages disclosure and progress through fixated affect. This third factor often provides a base of safety that allows the otherwise defended emotion to emerge. Communication of attunement to the client’s experience during emotional experiences reduces the tendency toward intensification of affect as well as the tendency for unresolved emotion to endure excessively. In many cases, the emotion is fixated because of the absence of interpersonal support during the original formation of the affect. Attunement during the client’s emotional experience can serve to release the fixation in these cases. Specific responses for each type of attachment disorder are used in conjunction with eye movement procedures to elevate effectiveness.

I mention the above because it might be easier to adapt one of those pointer with a top lightbulb-type thingy.

However, another thing that I wanted to mention is that, his therapeutic method is heavily based on attachment theory and he himself emphasizes that although light stimulation has an effect by itself, it is within the context of his very specific therapeutic context that it has the benefits that he discovered. So, according to him, it isn't JUST stimulation with the colored lights but the stimulation with the presence and guidance of a therapist.

Here are a few excerpts on that:

The Interpersonal Aspect of ETT®

Research in neurobiology and the cognitive sciences has shed much light on exactly how the developing human bra in is shaped. The response of a caregiver to a child has the potential to actually modify brain structures, and even in adulthood, our brains are influenced by our relationships. As a consequence, neurotransmitters such as serotonin are influenced by our interpersonal experiences.

Guidance of the client’s mental focus adds to the impact of visual brain stimulation and produces a potential therapeutic hybrid. For example, focusing on the first moment you fell in love, or the surprise of a trauma, in all likelihood, would activate your brain to increase hormone secretion, induce muscular activity, and initiate other physiological responses. Therefore, when a skilled facilitator guides a person to stay on track with an issue while appropriately targeted visual brain stimulation is occurring, the result is a carefully amplified experience

How Interpersonal Contact Changes the Brain

Why is an attachment approach to therapy important? First, abundant scientific research now verifies the powerful role that attachment relationships play in the development and function of the brain and in recovery from biochemical dysregulation. Second, attachment patterns govern emotional regulation. Third, attachment patterns are potentially changeable through specific forms of interpersonal interaction. The biochemical paradigm of treatment has depended upon the use of pharmaceutical agents to improve brain chemistry related to moods, cognition, and behavior. We now know that brain biochemistry can be profoundly and precisely altered by interpersonal processes that impact attachment patterns and their regulation of emotions. However, therapists can no longer simply assume that their own personalities, no matter how personable they are, will consistently produce success when applied to clients with different attachment patterns. Research has shown that the most effective types of therapy are those that are custom-tailored to each individual (Krebs, P. M., Norcross, J. C., and Prochaska, O., 2011). When therapists can shift their interpersonal responses to match the optimal needs of each client’s attachment pattern, interpersonal communication becomes a state-of-the-art “technology” to alter brain chemistry and efficiently regulate emotions. Research has isolated the therapeutic bond to be the most potent factor in therapy (Duncan, Miller, and Sparks, 2000, p. 53). By accurately applying this potent interaction to attachment patterns, the impact is raised to new levels.

The fact that the therapeutic bond is something crucial in therapy outcomes is something that has caught my attention for the past few years. It's interesting.

From Vazquez's book:

Without adjusting interpersonal responses to each attachment pattern there is a high risk that certain therapeutic modalities may actually make a person become worse or, at best, have no significant impact.

Some more on his method:

Attachment and Color

During ETT® the facilitator controls the light source so that a precise resonance between the client and the light occurs at the same time that verbal interaction provides both a perception of safety and guidance through emotional states. When clients are processing an issue during the viewing of certain forms of light stimulation, models of interactions from previous relationships emerge as if the light-human interaction is a person-to-person interaction. For example, a light that appears too bright or intrusive suggests that the re-enactment of the attachment figure has been emotionally intense and intrusive. On the other hand, attachment figures who have been emotionally unavailable during contact with the child in previous relationships may cause light and/or color to be perceived as drab, dull, or lacking clarity when a relationship with light is triggered later in life.

Viewing certain lights or colors during the processing of issues typically evokes the same type of response that was previously learned in relation to attachment figures. Once these emotional responses are evoked, the attuned facilitator can alter some aspect of the visual light target or guide the client to different angles at which light enters the eyes in order to change the manner in which emotional patterns proceed. For example, changing the visual target from one color to another, to more closely resonate with the emotion, can be experienced as a form of attunement and repair of an emotional pattern that would otherwise escalate in intensity or endure for an extended length of time according to the imprinted attachment pattern. However, visual stimulation amplifies the effect of attunement. This matching of color with the client’s emotional state functions as a form of support to the client. According to Fosha (2000), attunement and repair are the key features of interaction that impact attachment relationships. In other words, the past attachment pattern can be changed by certain types of light-human interaction in conjunction with appropriate interpersonal responses.

Those are just a few examples.

The reason I mention this is not to say that we shouldn't try to do this on own, it's just to say that there's more to his method than just the stimulation with colored lights and that the efficacy of the method depends a lot on other factors, in his own words. So far, I have the idea that these types of tools are all very helpful but what matter most is awareness and networking (be it via therapy or by other means of contact with another human being who can be an anchor to reality with whom you can verbalize the experience).

So, I just wanted to share that now. From what I read so far, Vazquez seems to have done lots of research and I believe his method has a solid foundation. It would be interesting to try his therapy for those who can find an ETT therapist.

 

[Persej]

Perhaps they have a lightbulb at the top with particular colors?

There is no lightbulb, there is just colored material.

However, another thing that I wanted to mention is that, his therapeutic method is heavily based on attachment theory and he himself emphasizes that although light stimulation has an effect by itself, it is within the context of his very specific therapeutic context that it has the benefits that he discovered. So, according to him, it isn't JUST stimulation with the colored lights but the stimulation with the presence and guidance of a therapist.

The reason I mention this is not to say that we shouldn't try to do this on own, it's just to say that there's more to his method than just the stimulation with colored lights and that the efficacy of the method depends a lot on other factors, in his own words. So far, I have the idea that these types of tools are all very helpful but what matter most is awareness and networking (be it via therapy or by other means of contact with another human being who can be an anchor to reality with whom you can verbalize the experience).

Even if that is true, the peripheral light goggles are used as a standalone modality.

 

[Persej]

Marie looked serious, tired, and withdrawn. She made no eye contact as she looked downcast when she began to describe her depression. “Although I usually make it to work, I feel no motivation to do anything since the winter season started and I feel like I want to cry all the time.” This has happened not just this winter but the last several winters. Marie described that once spring arrives she comes out of these depressions.

I directed Marie to the spectral chart to assess her condition. As she looked at the green band she talked about her sad experience. At first the sadness grew worse only to ease up after a couple of minutes, but her overall condition was about the same. Then I had her view red. On this color she perked up and said that she suddenly didn’t feel so tired.

During the viewing of these colors Marie’s sadness led to recollection of previous sadness and isolation in her life. She recalled going outside of her house often to cope when her family life made her feel alienated. Marie was adopted and never quite felt like she belonged. Darkness and aloneness was a common experience for her as a child. These feelings progressed to a release within minutes as the reflected light accelerated the process.

Then as I had her view orange everything changed. Marie said that it “feels like it should be summer outside” even though she knew it was January. Marie reported in an excited voice that she felt no more sadness and she felt awake and alert. She said, “I can’t believe it but my whole body feels different!”

It took a few more sessions to stabilize this change, but the pattern appeared shifted. We knew for sure that the pattern of winter depression had been broken long-term when the next Winter came and left without depression.

Accelerated Ecological Psychotherapy

This sound similar to my experience with the movie Sunshine, where the authors also used this technique of first only using the cold colors, and then presenting the warm colors to the audience. Perhaps something happens in the mind when such contrast is experienced?

 

[Breo]

I'm reading Steve Vazquez book about Emotional Transformation Therapy (ETT) and it truly is very interesting. I want to finish it before I post some more comments, perhaps open a specific thread for it.

Emotional Transformation Therapy seems to be a very interesting system. I just received the book. Thanks a lot for the information and great summaries from @Persej and you.

I read the comparison of MDEM and EMDR with great interest, it already was a mindopener. I had a few EMDR sessions but the structure felt somehow rigid to me. I can put EMDR now in better perspective. What I was consciously missing, was a guided verbalization as mentioned above. I felt it would have been helpful to me. Maybe others had more positive experiences. In one session, the practioner chose colored glasses for use. This did strenghten the work. Here is an example of the glasses. The color then is for both eyes the same.
Maybe its useful for experimenting.

ETT seems to work quite differently, opening to a wider perspective.

Research has isolated the therapeutic bond to be the most potent factor in therapy (Duncan, Miller, and Sparks, 2000, p. 53). By accurately applying this potent interaction to attachment patterns, the impact is raised to new levels.

The fact that the therapeutic bond is something crucial in therapy outcomes is something that has caught my attention for the past few years. It's interesting.

Concerning guided verbalisation, thanks for bringing up this aspect. Since a long time, I am thinking about this factor, especially in relation to trauma work. That research confirms it is the most potent factor, is really good to know.

From my experience as a client, when there is really deep trauma work to be dealt with, a healthy and safe therapeutic bond is the very foundation. IMO this is super rare to find. E.g. if the client comes with a POV from a soul level and the practitioner has different values, or the awareness level differs, bonding can be difficult or impossible to achieve. I noticed this topic gets little attention compared to its relevance.

In trainings, the main focus often is mainly on techniques. The being of the practitioner is much less trained to work with. IMO educating the being - like here on the forum to work on self and through networking - is as important as the technical side of therapy. IMO the practitioner has to be capable to safely guide through sometimes very complex and deeply imprinted trauma content - to enable to create meaning and goodness together with the client as a team. And divination and prayer could be an integral part of it. Enabling prayer in a safe therapeutic context could enable to reintegratrate, to reconnect to the Devine - as part of healing trauma.

I hope I have not gotten much off topic on ETT in sharing my thoughts about what could contain a truely healing therapeutic relationship. Please notify, if I have. It would be great to continue to network on this topic here or elsewhere in connection to therapy.

 

[Persej]

I haven't found any scientific experiments about what SV talks about, but I have found some interesting things about single cells in retina.

https://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animations/content/receptivefields.html

Receptive Fields

elvers.us

Perception Lecture Notes: Retinal Ganglion Cells

Receptive fields in the retina have been classically treated as elliptical center-surround structures, with the parts being either ON or OFF, and antagonistic between them. For an ON-center cell to fire, it needs to be stimulated by light mainly on its center, while for an OFF-center cell, it fires when the light is mainly on its surround. Why “mainly”? Because when light is in both center and surround, these cells fire in a slow way (low-frequency), whereas when stimulated only in their ON area, they fire rapidly.

What are retinal receptive fields?

What are retinal receptive fields? In order to answer this question, we need to respond two others beforehand. The first is what's the retina? A short answer for this question is that the retina is the bowl shaped tissue located in the back of the eye. This light sensitive tissue contains a...

project.inria.fr

If the same rules which are found in a single ganglion cell are also valid for the entire retina, then this would explain what all these modern people are describing in their work.

 

[Persej]

This sound similar to my experience with the movie Sunshine, where the authors also used this technique of first only using the cold colors, and then presenting the warm colors to the audience. Perhaps something happens in the mind when such contrast is experienced?

Well, it seems that there really is something in that concept.

Neitz: About 20 years ago, researchers here at the University of Washington discovered that these neurons that are inside of our eyes, that communicate with the clock, are actually color sensitive. They’re excited by either blue or longer wavelengths like yellow and orange, or vice versa. So if they’re excited by blue, they’re inhibited by orange lights or vice versa. And so they’re very sensitive to changes between blues and oranges.

Miller: So my understanding is that you have engineered an LED light that very quickly goes back and forth between these two light colors: blue and orange. How much more effective was that system in changing our internal clocks than the old standard, very bright light that was a part of SAD treatment?

Neitz: Yes, so let me just say why it needs to be so bright if it’s white. White light contains both short wavelengths like blues and long wavelengths like yellows and oranges. One of those excites the cells and the other one inhibits it. All white lights are, basically, very very ineffective at activating these neurons that communicate with our brain. So that explains why regular dimmer lights didn’t do anything. Basically, the combination of wavelengths at the same time was shutting them down.

UW researchers develop more effective light therapy for seasonal affective disorder

SAD is thought to be caused by the body’s internal clock being disrupted by a lack of sunlight in autumn and winter months. The new light therapy targets this by mimicking sunrise and sunset to reset the body's clock.

www.opb.org

The white light drives both excitatory and inhibitory sides of the color-opponent response, which cancel each other, thus producing little net drive to the ipRGCs from cones. In contrast, the blue light strongly stimulates one side of the color-opponent system. The white light is predicted to produce a null response (Figure 1d), and the blue light is predicted to strongly differentially excite one side of the color-opponent ipRGC (Figure 1e), making blue about 660 times more effective at driving the color-opponent cone pathways upstream of the ipRGCs compared to static white illumination.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07487304241262918

In 1958 De Valois and his collaborators observed geniculate cells in the macaque monkey that were excited by one set of wavelengths and inhibited by another, making it apparent that in higher mammals the spectral composition of the stimulus was also an important variable. Similar opponent-color effects have since been described in the primate at the level of the retinal ganglion cell, and in the visual cortex. (...)

In summary, the receptive field as examined by these rough tests appeared to have an excitatory center and an inhibitory periphery, with the center differentially sensitive to long wavelengths and the surround to short wavelengths. The responses to white light, seen in the lower records of Fig. 1, can now be understood as the resultant of the effects of long and short wavelengths. (...)

Both opponent mechanisms seem aimed at increasing the specialization of single cells, in the direction of color as opposed to white, or spatial contrast as opposed to diffuse light. Thus the existence of inhibitory mechanisms leads to the surprising result that the optimum response of a cell in the visual pathway is not obtained by stimulation of all of the receptors - in general that is the least efficient stimulus. For the cell to respond optimally a particular set of receptors must be activated, the set varying from one cell to the next.

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/jn.1966.29.6.1115

In the last article, they use the concepts of "light adapted" and "dark adapted". Perhaps the same concepts can be used for colors. So, in the movie that I mentioned, the audience is adapted to cold colors and then exposed to warm colors, the same method that SV is using in his treatments. That is different from the first article where they created fast flickering light with two opposing colors. But the basic principle of opposing colors is the same. And which is also the color equivalent of the spatial opposition of center and periphery.

So the biology seems to confirm the validity of this phenomenon, but the psychological part is still a mystery.

 

[Yas]

the audience is adapted to cold colors and then exposed to warm colors, the same method that SV is using in his treatments.

Just a note that according to the book at least, that's not what he does necessarily. He explains that the decision about which color to use isn't related to it being warm or cold but to the psychological/physiological effect the colors have on the person and the dynamic they create in the session, almost like a relationship between the colors and each person, although there are some guidelines as to which color works best for certain issues.

So, for example, for anger, he has noticed that yellow tends to bring anger up for processing, not red as many would think; he indicates indigo for things related to disorganized thoughts, blue for speech issues, green for things related to sadness, violet for things related to mistrust, red-orange for excessive sense of responsibility (among other things), etc.

The above are just some examples, here's a table from his book where gives those guidelines, which also indicate body areas for which each color may be useful:



He correlated the Polyvagal Theory with the processing of the issues with colors, so, when a person is exposed to the color, they go through the three states described by polyvagal theory: primitive parasympathetic (or dorsal vagal), sympathetic (fight or flight) and then modern parasympathetic (or ventral vagal) and the facilitator changes colors according to what emotions or reactions come up.

Again, I'll paste a few fragments, they're long but I think they're interesting:

The Continuum of Color Stimulation
Observations of relatively consistent patterns of responses to color stimulation have led to predictable patterns of processes for each color. The exception to these patterns is learned responses to particular colors. For example, if your closest friend died while wearing a blue dress, you had a traumatic auto accident that hit a blue car, and you had other negative experiences with the color blue, more than likely you would develop an aversion to blue. In addition, many of these associations may have become unconscious, so this aversion to blue may appear to have no causation. When color stimulation takes place, these learned associations tend to emerge first. Then, the more universal responses that will be described emerge next.

Each person possesses varying degrees of development in regard to several specific psycho-emotional themes. For example, the color “far red” activates a theme regarding our degree of groundedness. Far red may evoke experiences of shock or numbness—lacking a sense of basic security in its least grounded activation. Then, with far red stimulation and appropriate processing, the person might feel an elevation of his or her sensory experiences or feel preoccupied with death. The psychological movement is from a “frozen,” ungrounded shock into an active existential anxiety. Further far red stimulation and psychological processing ultimately lead the person to an experience of embodiment, security, and stability. Therefore, although the types of experience are markedly different, the psycho-emotional theme is the same. This explains why each person may react differently to the same color, but the continuum of each psycho-emotional theme also provides facilitators with an expected pattern of progress.

The first three phases of a sequence of emotional unfolding match almost exactly with Dr. Steven Porges’s (2001) polyvagal theory of trauma recovery. His theory offers the following explanation:

• When a person is in the most compromised phase of traumatization, he is in the “primitive parasympathetic” phase that involves the dorsal vagal branch of the tenth cranial nerve. This phase is withdrawn, “frozen,” or generally inactive, which is common in states of shock. Next, through visual color stimulation and either self-help, interpersonal support, or therapeutic maneuvers, movement occurs.
• The first phase gives way to the second phase of trauma recovery that accesses both the reptilian and limbic brain functions. This phase is referred to as the sympathetic phase, in which disturbing emotional expression becomes expressive, often as fight-or-flight oriented reactions. Various forms of fear or anger expressions are prevalent in this phase.
• After the person progresses through these emotions and their accompanying physical and behavioral sequelae with further color stimulation, the person emerges into the third phase of recovery. This phase is referred to as the “modern parasympathetic” and concerns the activation of the prefrontal lobe of the neocortex, ventral vagal part of cranial nerves V, VII, IX, X, and XI. This third phase yields more appropriate social engagement and in many cases completes emotional recovery (pp. 123–46).
• With the use of color stimulation to assist rapid progress through emotional recovery, a fourth transcendent phase is often likely to occur. Porges does not elaborate on this phase. I refer to this fourth phase as the brainsequence of transcendent function. Through brain scans and biochemical mapping, Newberg has mapped exactly how the brain processes transcendent experiences (d’Aquili and Newberg, 1999). In his description of the process of brain activity in transcendence there is a sequence that bears some resemblance to Porges’s three phases before the transcendent events occur.

More about the complexity of the process:

Complex Sequences of Affect from Color Stimulation
These continuums through which psycho-emotional themes progress have a high degree of consistency, except that as layers of affect are completed, new layers may emerge from themes of different colors. When an emotional theme is being experienced and an event suddenly evokes a sense of shock, the previously experienced emotional theme may likely emerge first when the shock is relieved. For example, if a person is sad due to a friend’s illness and then that friend dies, shock in a phase one experience may occur in which numbness and flat affect predominate. As the shock is dislodged, the sadness may reemerge. In this case, an experience of phase one from far red advances into green phase two.

Experiences can advance from one psycho-emotional theme into another and then another, all within the same phase on the continuum. For example, if a man’s partner abandons him, he may go through the following process:

• He may first feel betrayal in the form of anger (yellow).
• With appropriate processing, this phase two yellow may emerge into phase two green in the form of sadness.
• Further green processing may evoke an end to sadness and an emergence into phase two of confusion (indigo).
• Finally, it all becomes clear as phase three of indigo emerges. In this case, the man never becomes traumatized in the primitive parasympathetic phase one; instead, he experiences emotionally the expressiveness of phase two of several themes that culminate in understanding.

Porges’s theory, coupled with each color’s attributes, provides a context of emotional states that demonstrate a clear hierarchy for knowing when surfacing emotions are advancing and when they are not. When a person is emotionally immobilized, friends and family of the client recognize this as a problem, but when the person enters phase two and expresses anger, friends and family may view this condition as getting worse. In the case of sadness, psychiatric medications can slow down or stop progress by blocking the ability to face and overcome emotions in certain instances. Therefore, educating the client about how to recognize progress becomes important so that family and physicians do not define an experience incorrectly and block progress.

At times, the processing of emotion will lead a client from phase two in Porges’s continuum of experience backward into a phase one experience. This occurs when emotional symptoms are processed in a way that leads to underlying experiences or memories at the core of the symptoms. For example, one may pursue resolution of an anger issue only to regress to a previous state of helplessness that was the source of this anger. If the facilitator follows this path with the client, resolution of the underlying helplessness will likely lead to relief of the current anger pattern. In these cases, the person has dissociated the underlying affect into implicit memory. As the presenting affect is relieved, the underlying affect emerges. In this case, progress occurs by virtue of proceeding from the present to the past, the surface to the depth, or the known to the unknown. This pattern exemplifies an alternative route for affective resolution.

The common theme in process color theory is that color evokes movement of stagnated affect. The array of circuitous routes that emotion needs to take in order to discharge makes it necessary for the facilitator to be ready to use different colors to match different affective themes as they arise. This matching of states with color is the essential feature of ETT®’s use of color. Human situations and the variety of responses to them make it possible for people to develop dozens of patterns of emotional unfolding during recovery. Therefore, a flexible system that possesses a precise means for moving emotional charges quickly is of enormous value in promoting rapid change of a huge range of psychological symptoms.

And about the chart shared previously and the correlation between colors and parts of the body:

This awareness of where human physiology is activated by the use of specific wavelengths (color) of light can be used in a variety of ways. Its primary use involves the somatic experience associated with specific emotions. For example, a person may not be able to identify a certain emotional experience but can identify where the tension, fatigue, nausea, or other physical symptom is felt. This somatic awareness can then be used by the facilitator to select the appropriate wavelength of light to match that experience. By matching it, either the physical symptom rapidly abates or the emotion held in that somatic vicinity may emerge to the surface of awareness for processing. Sometimes the somatic location of distress will not be congruent with the emotion the client has labeled. In this case facilitators might often select the wavelength that matches the physical experience over the verbalized emotion because many clients do not accurately label their emotions.

Even when an organically produced physical symptom exists, it is unlikely that an emotional reaction to the symptom will not occur. Therefore, an organically produced physical symptom will likely possess emotional attributes. When this occurs, selecting a wavelength to match the physical vicinity may activate progress of that physical symptom.

I'm just posting to share a bit more about the method so that we can understand it better and perhaps use it effectively. I still don't understand all of it but it is all very interesting and I still have more than half the book to read!

 

[Persej]

Just a note that according to the book at least, that's not what he does necessarily. He explains that the decision about which color to use isn't related to it being warm or cold but to the psychological/physiological effect the colors have on the person and the dynamic they create in the session, almost like a relationship between the colors and each person, although there are some guidelines as to which color works best for certain issues.

I am reading his other book, Accelerated Ecological Psychotherapy, and he uses this color contrast quite often.

So, for example, for anger, he has noticed that yellow tends to bring anger up for processing, not red as many would think; he indicates indigo for things related to disorganized thoughts, blue for speech issues, green for things related to sadness, violet for things related to mistrust, red-orange for excessive sense of responsibility (among other things), etc.

Well, it makes me wonder if he overcomplicated his approach with all of that. Just like people who work with neurofeedback overcomplicated their approach with so many brainwave frequencies, which was then simplified with Neurooptimal. Perhaps this light therapy should also be simplified?

 

[Yas]

Well, it makes me wonder if he overcomplicated his approach with all of that. Just like people who work with neurofeedback overcomplicated their approach with so many brainwave frequencies, which was then simplified with Neurooptimal. Perhaps this light therapy should also be simplified?

Could be, he says he's based on all the work with lots of people from different countries and their responses and proceses, so there's something to it I guess.

I personally don't like it so much when there's prescriptions like that (this color for this issue, etc.), but sometimes there can be something into it too, like, certain medications are more useful for certain things and other for certain other things. So it's a matter of balance and I guess trial and error too, and perhaps intuition for some people who can 'sense' it.

In terms of the other things he combines, like the attachment approach and polyvagal theory, I think that's helpful and is what the latest research in trauma suggests as well. So I think that adding those approaches to his method is something good.

 

[Persej]

Zelinsky uses a much more simplified version of light therapy. I am not saying that her approach is necessarily better, and she is not working with people from a psychotherapeutic perspective, but perhaps this is something that can also be similarly effective?

There's also something called an optokinetic drum, so it's stripes black and white stripes and you can rotate the stripes and you're looking for a reaction if the person can engage in the environment. You should see a reaction if the person is just staring and they're not engaged in the environment, they're not able to follow anything, you won't see a reaction and with some of our patients, especially the ones who had hypoxic events where their brain didn't get enough oxygen, we'll do these striped movements and we'll find one or two spots on the retina that will elicit a response reaction but then other spots that won't and then we know where to start. You got to find the one way into the brain so if you have a patient who is physically there because they're eating, sleeping and pooping, so they exist, you can find which spot in the brain is the way to get to them, where's the key, and start from there by pushing light toward that good spot and slowly...

I talk about neighborhoods you're finding the neighborhood that the party is in, where's the party in their brain and then when you push the light that way and activate that part of their brain eventually if it's noisy enough it will start waking up the neighboring sites and then you can push the light a little bit to one neighbor, a little bit to the other neighbor and slowly work your way. So more spots in the brain are active. That's kind of a simplified version, but that's it.

Now we also work with different colors so you can put colors in front of somebody's eyes in the retina, there are sensors and the sensors react to different colors, so if I put a blue filter on only the blue receptors will react, if I put a red filter only the red filter sensors will react. So we'll put different colors on and we'll see, oh you know, when the red sensors are reacting the brain is bright and symmetrical, when the blue sensors are reacting it's not so much. So we can look at that. We can see if any lenses make a difference.

(...)

What prism lenses work best it depends on the person. Everybody's got a completely different personality. Some people and every autistic patient has one little chunk of space that they're comfortable in. So if a person is way down here and this is their little chunk of space on their bottom right then they're going to get a different prism than somebody whose best chunk of space is up and to their left and that's different than a child who hangs their head down and their whole world is beneath them and a different one whose world is on the right and another one whose world is on the left. So there is no like formula saying if you have an autistic spectrum disorder you need this kind of prism.

What the prisms do is bend light and you have to figure out in each person which spot in their environment is comfortable for them and then you can bend the light toward that spot and make them comfortable, because if you bend it another way they're oblivious to it. So there's no specific one per autistic and many autistic children don't do well with any prisms. I don't use prisms on every single patient because sometimes lenses are better. Lenses uniformly disperse light and prisms don't uniformly... Prisms push light more toward one section than another so if you need to wake up a brain a lot of times prisms are good but we might use prisms sparingly a little bit here and there to kind of poke your brain as opposed to wearing them fulltime where you get stimulation on one spot but not the other other spots.

I think that SV also talks about this, where certain angles or colors are giving people positive energy. But in his work, he first works with angles and colors that produce negative emotions and then after working through them, he finishes the session with the positive emotions. If Zelinsky was working with his methods, she would probably skip negative emotions and go straight to the positive ones, with the goal that increasing the positive emotions will fix what is wrong in the psyche. Perhaps such an approach, with the methods that SV uses, would make light therapy even faster?