Merging TMS and Dynamic approach concepts

There has always been a very close relationship between TMS and ISTDP. Arlene Feinblatt, who developed the psychological treatment approach for Dr. Sarno in the 70's, based her TMS treatment on ISTDP. She wrote the following for a wiki page of ours

ISTDP has also gain traction more even recently. Howard Schubiner included it in the 2nd version of his book, Unlearn Your Pain, and Alan Gordon has a section on it in his TMS Recovery Program. It relates very well to TMS due to its focus on helping people come to accept and no longer fear intense emotions such as rage and anger. ISTDP researcher, Alan Abbass, wrote, "In essence, the rage or anger is turned inward into somatic symptoms both to protect the other person from the rage and to serve as a form of self punishment for having the rage to begin with." Since chronic pain is simply a form of a somatization, this is very much in line with the theories of Dr. Sarno.


I am not as familiar with the different Triangles of Conflict, but I think TMS can be attributed to both the corner of defense and the corner of anxiety. Sometimes the symptoms may be distracting us from our emotions, and other times it could be more about our anxiety about our symptoms. The key is to understand how both of these corners affect your symptoms. When does your anxiety begin to get ramped up? What emotions do you tend to avoid? We need to address both of these questions in order to recover. You can know exactly what emotions you are repressing but if your anxiety ramps up and you become hyperaroused, thinking psychological may not help. Likewise you can have a handle on your anxiety, but if you do not allow your emotions to be present your symptoms will continue to persist. Recovering involves addressing both of these issues and understanding what role they play in our own lives.

There are some terrific forum posts and wiki pages about this topic. Here are a few of them:

• http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/thread...essing-childhood-issues.451/page-2#post-10445
• Self Monitor
• http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/welcome-to-the-tms-recovery-program-subforum.2102/#post-11517