Keys to Patient’s Speedy Recoveries, Five Star Patient Reviews within a Four Step System and without Medication – by Dr Ronnie Manns ABA, CBT, DBT, FAIHCP, FCMA
I took my first steps in the fields of psychology and sociology in 1978 with a simple mission, born Black and in a small southern town in the State of Tennessee (USA), the mission was to try and understand why one particular race strongly believed that they were superior to all other races but what I learned was so much more. These subjects became my purpose, and they taught me more about myself than I ever knew existed.
Through that , the more I learned about every aspect of this industry, the more I wanted to know and practicing what I had and were learning helped me to create a system, 40 plus years in the making, that now allows me to enjoy helping patients speed toward recovery, capture and maintain five star patient reviews and contain my success within four easy steps that not only allow patients to finally regain their dignity but self-esteem and self-worth at the same time. Watching the pain and the suffering begin to erode away from patient’s faces has become a reward far more precious than money.
My system is a mixture of neuropsychology, neurophysiology, cognitive based, dialectical behavioral and spiritual therapy. It all begins by understanding that the key is the RonSue Tree of Mental Illness. The RonSue Tree of Mental Illness begins with its roots in abandonment and adverse childhood disorder. Here we learn from those most important to us and ones we trust more than anyone else in or that will enter our lives. We learn right from wrong, good from bad, and witness how relationships are supposed to work and how we should treat ourselves and others. If we know this then we can provide our patient’s with the coping skills needed to manage and take back that control that traumas have taken away.
To better explain what I mean by the phrase I coined as the RonSue Tree of Mental Health is to provide readers with a clear and picturable point to focus on. Any tree begins from the seed and then spreads into roots as it also forms it’s base. The roots are where the tree begins and grows. Upon those roots sprouts the base of the tree of mixed ingredients like frustration, disappointment, helplessness, and of course anger. The limbs are depression anxiety, bipolar, and so forth. To combat trauma properly, one must begin at the root and help patients understand how they came to be. To defeat any enemy, you must first know them. No mental issue has a cure unless your travel back in time and prevent it from happening in the first place, so patient must be endowed to believe that they have the power to manage them. To remove the tree, you must take out the roots because as long as the roots are viable, the tree will still live. So is the beginning of our very first trauma that all human beings experience, which is birth. Failing to understand this first trauma continues the cycle of failure to understand any other trauma.
Consider, at the early stage of conception, the part of the brain that has formed contains one cognitive component called the Mix Match Negative (MMN). This component is tasked with telling the fetus when it is time to form the different parts of the body and to begin recording everything that happens in our lives and our reactions to them from that point on. Now apply this to the path of the fetus.
The fetus had become accustomed to being safe and sound in the womb. There we felt real love, affection, and a great sense of belonging, it wasn’t until it was snatched out into a world with many different sounds and smells that it experienced trauma, becoming frightened and confused. The only defense that the fetus was equipped with to fight back against this traumatic event was to cry. This effort worked because crying forced the reunion with that familiar smell, heartbeat, touch, and voice that we had come to know as our first safe haven. Today, every single time we get surprised by trauma, our initial reaction is to cry. Even if many of us refuse to cry, we cannot prevent that from being our very first reaction and now our normal which shapes our behavior.
This first trauma becomes the first root of our tree of mental illness and then all other traumas which occurs between the ages of infant to eleven years old forms the remaining root system of this tree. Next comes the base of our tree created from disappointment, frustration, fear, and anger. Other ingredients such as regret, embarrassment, shame and guilt are thrown in for good measure. Last and finally comes other well-defined mental issues which form the branches, limbs, and leaves of our tree. The initial feed to fertilize and grow our tree comes from the inherited hopes, dreams, goals, aspirations, fears, and phobias donated to us by our biologicals. This feed is where we begin figuring out who we are, what we are about, how to belong, and how to get along. What we witness from those who are placed upon a higher plane that all others give us the basis of what we now believe. And nothing is ever true, until we start to believe it.
As therapist, counselors, and behavioral health professionals, I contend that we must take our patients on this journey of how it all begins so that they can learn the enemy that they must fight. Only by knowing the enemy will success in battle ever be possible. Once this journey has been completed, we then must present evidence that proves the choices made during those times are forgivable and can always be corrected. They need to know that mistakes and failures have a purpose and when we are able to understand that purpose, it will enlighten and elevate us. Imagine a volcano that is constantly being packed down placing one trauma on top of another and never addressing them, just stacking them away hoping that they will finally just disappear. What happens to any volcano if all that happens is it keeps getting packed down, it will always erupt.
I believe these four steps program is key to how we can aid our patients to finally take back the piece of their soul trapped with every trauma that they have endured and finally feeling a real sense of purpose and pride. Finaly being able to understand what is meant when it is explained that the real meaning of life is understanding that there is a balance that must be maintained between the opposites (love-hate), (passive-aggressive), (selfish-selflessness), Both are needed to really enjoy and live life instead of simply existing but to do this we must now discover the purpose of life which is to find your individual balance because the balance for one will never be the balance for all.
Step one of our keys is that patients must be ready, willing, able, and courageous enough to challenge all their traumas, one at a time. Traumas offer us but two choices, we can either remain a victim or we can become a survivor. Victims are blinded by the results of their traumas and cannot see anything else, while a survivor learns from their traumas, they remember how it occurred and make the necessary changes so as not to allow the same thing to happen again.
Step two of our keys is all about communications, to realize, that it’s not what your say that really matters but how your say it. This thought helps us to answer others based on how we would like them to answer us. Taking a few minutes to think about how your would react if someone answered your question like your were about to answer theirs will help eliminate the possibilities of making enemies and failing to make your intended point.
Step three of our keys is all about not running way from mistakes and failures, instead seeing them as the perfect opportunity to become a better version of yourself. If we were to take a few minutes and dissect miscue, we can see where they went wrong to fix or replace that action with something else so when that issue makes it’s full rotation and returns again, we do not manage it like we did the first time. We all know that doing the same thing the exact same way expecting a different result will not end that merry-go-round ride.
Step four of our keys is about removal of all conditions and time limitations on recovery. Years have passed before many sought assistances with dealing with or correcting their mental health and behavior so understand that cognitive reframing will take hold. Without the pressures of a time frame for recovery, the work can continue unimpeded without the unnecessary stress and strain.
My practice began to really take off after trying my new system and getting just a few five star reviews on Google. Taking full advantage of the crisis intervention label and expanding my knowledge, education, and experience in achieving so many other certifications and diploma in different disciplines has made my practice an almost one-stop shop and increased my presence hugely within my community.
About The Author
Dr. Ronnie Manns ABA, CBT, DBT, FAIHCP, FCMA is a Fellow of The Complementary Medical Association and he specialises in Neuropsychology and Neurophysiology. He can be contact via mail at A Twist of Faith Counseling & Therapy, 45433 W. Sandhill Road, Maricopa, AZ 85139 or Email: [email protected];