I’m sorry to hear about your friend. That stinks.
Stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (and the vagus nerve) is very helpful in highly stressful situations. As an RN, she’s undoubtedly knowledgeable about its function and how to stimulate it. It basically sets the body back to center when thrown off-kilter by extreme stress. There are various techniques, including self-massage of the vagus nerve at the ear, meditation, yoga, deep-breathing, acupuncture at specific pressure-points on the ear – all of which tells the body to reset and calm. The Ferengi on Star Trek pretty much had it wired! :-)
I’m doing this with a friend whose husband is going through cancer treatments and she’s super stressed. It’s very tricky though, and I’m careful to just share with her what I’m learning for myself, rather than offering any advise – which could be perceived as a burden and be off-putting (just more stuff to process when you’re already stressed). Which is a different situation than your friend, who already has knowledge of the parasympathetic nervous system, so that’s really helpful.
I’ll try to find some youtube clips to send over. You can also try searching “stimulating parasympathetic nervous system” or “stimulating vagus nerve,” and scan for the ones you think she might be receptive to.
About hypnotherapy, a friend of ours was a hypnotherapist and worked with trauma. Just being curious, we asked her about getting hypnotized and she strongly advised against it. She said that unless there is a great need, and the risks outweigh the potential benefits, then she would not advise it, as it can trigger and unleash other, sometimes unwanted responses and outcomes. Perhaps other, more targeted approaches (like hypnotherapy for quitting smoking) might be different. For deep relaxation and stress release, acupuncture is the bomb, if you have a really good acupuncturist. |
