Fast neurological changes for fast people in a faster world
© Jorgan Harris
1. What is BWRT?
Whatever your difficulty, it’s highly likely that this amazing new therapy can help to set you totally free from it. This is a thoroughly modern methodology that draws on the latest research into the technology of the brain and the way patterns of thought affect our well-being. Thus, if you know how you would like to be and feel but just haven’t been able to get there, BWRT can help you find it quickly.
It’s not important if you’re just starting out in the world or have already been ‘around the block’– no matter what time of life you’re in, BWRT can help you actually choose the way you want to feel about almost anything. It is a fact that most people shouldn’t really have problems. It’s also a fact that most people do. BWRT means they no longer have to put up with them and ‘just get on with it’.
BWRT is a new, revolutionary, highly effective and ground breaking therapy as well as a dynamic model of psychology that fits with current thinking of neuroscience. It is one of the most exciting developments in psychotherapy since it is a fast-acting and extremely effective way to bring change within the minimum amount of sessions, compared to other therapeutic systems. The most important thing is that BWRT is totally unique and combining it with other methodologies will produce unpredictable results.
BWRT was developed in 2011 by Terence Watts (assisted by his research partner, Rafiq Lockhat) and operates on the principle that our physical brains respond to events and make decisions even before we are physically aware of them. The brain, however, is adaptable and capable of learning in a fast and efficient way.
It is completely different from any form of conventional therapy since it does not ask unnecessary questions. It does not do “analysis paralysis”. It does not waste time. We are working with neurology and we are changing your neurology with neuroscience with a quick, painless and effective methodology.
BWRT also fits in with new thinking in the field of psychology. BWRT, like Mindfulness and Positive Psychology, tends to move away from the traditional pathology model of psychology where there is focussed on what is wrong with a person. It rather focuses on where you want to be but just haven’t been able to.
2. How does BWRT work?
The principle is that we learn something new by practising it over and over again until it becomes second nature to us. BWRT uses the same idea of learning a new way of reacting and behaving via repetition, rehearsal and reflection of successes. In doing so the brain provides a new neural pathway network. It is about changing an undesired behaviour in favour of a better behaviour. BWRT also uses your own powerful imagination and thought processes.
BWRT is unique and inspired by the research of the Virtual Nobel prize winner, Benjamin Libet (in 1983). His research showed that there is a measurable wait (more than ⅓ second) between the moment the brain commences to act upon any stimulus and our becoming aware of that action – in other words, by the time we know what we’re doing, we’re already doing it and it’s old news as far as the physical brain is concerned. Remarkably, even the decision to change your mind about what you are doing is made before conscious awareness of that decision. BWRT allows us the opportunity to work in that interval between the commencement of an action and conscious awareness. This allows us the opportunity to negate destructive thought patterns so completely it’s as if they were never there.
In fact, immediately after the therapy is finished, the client can no longer feel any negative response to the usual trigger for their presenting symptom, no matter how hard it tries to ‘fire it up’.
This therapy is largely content-free, using the client’s own thought processes to get a release from the symptomatic pattern. There is a strict protocol which ensures maximum effectiveness and complete safety.
3. Specific conditions treatable with BWRT:
- Any form of trauma
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Sexual abuse
- Self-esteem issues
- Issues of rejection
- Trust issues
- Releasing negative emotions
- Stress and anxiety
- Panic attacks
- Habits, including smoking, gambling, eating, drinking, shopping etc.
- Fears, including fear of failure
- Self-confidence issues
- Phobias
- OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder)
- Relationship problems
- Grief
- Depression
- Guilt
- Increasing motivation.
4. Advantages of BWRT
It is a quick process:
Gone are the days of months and months of therapy. You may be surprised as to how quickly the very positive feelings BWRT will bring about. It does not matter where the problem is coming from, how serious it is or for how long you are experiencing this problem, the principle stays the same – all we need to do, is to change your neurology. All of this can happen within a session or two, depending on the problem.
It is a private process:
You will be able to address any problem you have, without the need to reveal them. You will not be asked about your childhood, family, sex life, relationships, your past or anything else you would rather keep private unless you want to talk about it. The only thing your therapist needs to know is what you want to be able to do or be able to stop doing.
It is non-intrusive:
The work is done at a conscious level, so you will be completely aware of the process all the time. We also don’t go into the detail of the problem so you may not become re-traumatized.
It focuses on the outcome:
BWRT is not really interested in the origin of the problem but is focused on the outcome – where you want to be.
It does not matter how severe it was or how long ago it happened:
It does not matter how traumatic an incident was or how long you are suffering from your symptoms. The brain does not do chronology. We are focusing on the effect it has on you in the here and now. It also does not concern itself about how severe an incident was of how severe your depression, anxiety or whatever symptoms you may present. BWRT works with the interpretation of the problem in the here and now. The methodology stays the same.
The results are lasting:
Once a new neural pathway is established, it cannot return to the old negative neural pathways.
5. What happens during a BWRT session?
Initially, the principles behind BWRT will be explained in more detail. Your brain is like a computer. (By the way, all prototypes of computers are designed after the human brain). The software your brain is using is your memories. These memories cause problems. We are literally going to freeze the old software and install new, positive software.
You will then be guided through the process with your eyes closed and in a completely alert state, until you have reached your desired state. Although you are fully aware of what is going on, you may not really understand what your therapist is doing. Within 15-20 minutes during the process you will experience a fast, substantial and permanent relief of your symptoms.
In a session, you will be guided to use your own thoughts – without your therapist even knowing what those thoughts are. The process is completely logical, practical and down-to-earth. All it needs to be successful is for you to want to make positive changes in your life.
This is done in a special way to create a totally natural change that comes from within you rather than from suggestions made by your therapist.
You will not even realise the complex theory of neuroscience behind BWRT, which will be discussed in the next section.
6. The neuroscience behind BWRT
(optional and only for people who really want to know the neuroscience behind BWRT)
Conservative estimates inform us there are at least ten billion neurons in the human brain, which by seven years of age is almost adult in weight and size. Thereafter, complexity is the result not of the growth of more cells but of connections between cells.
There are between ten trillion and one hundred trillion such connections.
Each neuron may be likened to an electric generator. Some neurons are running constantly while others fire intermittently as they receive messages from other neurons. Each of the nerve cells produces about 20 millivolts of power. Information is coded by the frequency of the impulses. It is this electricity that we see on electroencephalographic tracings.
The neuron consists of three parts:
- cell body, which contains the nucleus;
- dendrites, which form the branches or “receiving wires” that picks up messages from other neurons; and
- axon, or “sending wire” through which messages are passed on after being evaluated by the nucleus.
The sending wire of one cell does not touch the receiving wires of other cells. They lie on the other skit of a chasm that is a millionth of an inch wide (a far piece less than “halfway to the wall”). The message must “jump” the chasm, called the Synapse. The next cell repeats the process. Brain messages can perform this “leap” 500 to 1 000 times per second but the average speed or frequency of firing is 100 times per second.
There is no actual electrical connection nor any passage of electric current between one neuron and the next. The sending wire of the cell ends in little protein vesicles called boutons (French for buttons). The actual transmission of the message across the synapse is a chemical reaction. Chemicals produced by boutons “squirt” the message across, like popcorn being able to pop and hop when heated. When an action is repeated, stimulating cells at frequent intervals, boutons at the synapse increase both in size and number, shortening the span over which the message must jump. The more boutons, the less energy is needed for action to occur and habits are formed. The more often we perform the act, the more firmly the habit becomes established. As many as 80,000 boutons have been counted at the edge of a single neuron. Boutons which transmit messages along habit path-ways are thought to be permanent. The name engram is given to the specific network of neurons in habit or memory chains that replay the same picture or movement with stimulation or association.
We do not lose our boutons but we can build new ones.
Think of your habits. Now think of your boutons. How are you to change your habits if you can’t get rid of your boutons – the faithful transmitters of years of economic stimulus-response messages “how are you – and the automatic answer: ‘well thanks and you?” Smelling smoke; light a cigarette. Hear phone; answer it. Boss enters; look alert. Walk on the sidewalk; avoid cracks. Go to a wedding; cry. See a ladder; walk around it. See patrol car; lift foot off the accelerator. With our past behaviour so firmly encoded in a verifiable system of physiological reality, how can we change?
The encouraging discovery is that even though we cannot destroy the old boutons, we can grow new ones and build new neural pathways around the old ones (like bypass heart surgery). The most important element in building new habits is not time, but energy.
Energy builds new habit pathways.
If we wish to succeed to create a new pathway in the lush lawns, we need to regularly repeat the action with our feet firm on the ground. In time, results will show. Wholeheartedness produces maximum energy. It does not matter what kind of energy the body feels – emotional, physical, sexual- all can be used to build new habits. Learning to dance is a good example of building new boutons.
Four groups participated in an exercise to learn meaningless words. The group lying down took the longest time learning these words. The participants sitting, did better. Standing was even better. The fastest learners were those who paced and said the syllables aloud. Positive emotional energy – joy, enthusiasm, anticipation, visions of glory, being stroked — is the most potent energy.