What Is Transforming the Experienced Based Brain?

Transforming the Experienced Based Brain (TEB) is a modality that was designed to allow the nervous system to heal from early traumatic experiences, making it very effective for those who have experienced developmental and attachment trauma.

Transforming Touch works with two different systems within our nervous system: our stress responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn) and our attachment system.

When a child experiences stress in early development and/or experiences ruptures in their attachment to their caregivers, these experiences are coded and stored in the nervous system. These experiences can continue to shape how one’s nervous system develops, how one views the world and how they view themselves in the world, and their overall sense of safety and regulation. These early experiences also determine a child’s attachment style; a child will develop either a secure attachment with their caregivers or a non secure attachment (anxious, avoidant, or disorganized).

Stress Responses

When one’s nervous system perceives a threat or danger, the system turns on one of the stress responses. The system will try to fight the danger away, and if that doesn’t work or it isn’t possible, the system will move into flight and will try to move away from the danger. If flight isn’t possible or it doesn’t work, the system will attempt to stay safe with the fawn response, and if that doesn’t work then the system will freeze. When a child experiences developmental and/or attachment trauma, the threat or danger oftentimes is an emotional threat or danger that they are living with on a daily basis. So, the nervous system can be chronically stuck in a stress response. Over time, this wears down a person’s capacity to process stress in the nervous system, which creates a very small window of tolerance. With a narrow window of tolerance, it doesn’t take much to kick someone out of their window of tolerance and into a stress response.

Transforming Touch brings safety into the nervous system. With this protocol, the practitioner is somatically communicating to the client’s nervous system that he/she is safe. When the nervous system feels safe, it can process stored trauma and release stuck emotional energy that it wasn’t able to process and release when it was stuck in fight, flight, fawn, or freeze. This process will thereby widen the window of tolerance and increase one’s capacity to handle life’s stressors in all forms (mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, etc).

Healing at the nervous system level is so helpful for clients who continue to experience triggers that have roots in their back story.

Attachment System

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The experiences we have with our caregivers when we are young determines our attachment style. In adulthood, we show up in our relationships through the lens of our attachment style; this informs our behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions in the context of our relationships. Most children and adolescents move through their developmental years with a non-secure attachment style to some degree (more on this in a later blog post). With that being said, it is important to heal our attachment system and teach our nervous system how to have a secure attachment with self and others in order to experience healthy relationships as adults.

The TEB practitioner becomes the safe and secure base, which makes it possible for a client to experience trust and safety in the therapeutic relationship.

The protocol is the same in every session, so the nervous system receives the experience of consistency and predictability, which often was not the experience for those who have developmental and/or attachment trauma.

The practitioner builds somatic trust with the clients’ nervous system where the nervous system begins to experience a secure attachment. As the Transforming Touch work continues, the client moves from having a non-secure attachment style to a safe, secure attachment style.