Table Of ContentWhat Experts Are Saying About Rewiring the Addicted Brain
“Dr. Laurel Parnell has written a landmark book which is a must-read for anyone
struggling with substance abuse and/or addictive behaviors and for the people
who support and counsel them. Rewiring the Addicted Brain provides a nuanced,
compassionate and client-centered approach to treatment. Parnell focuses on
enhancing resilience, healing attachment wounds and trauma reprocessing. Her
resource tapping techniques build new neural circuitry that supports resilience
and an integrated shift towards health and wholeness.”
—Kim Cookson, Psy.D., Director of Trauma and Resiliency Training and
Services Southern California Counseling Center
“Since its introduction in 2013, I have used Parnell's Attachment-Focused
EMDR in my work with persons, both inpatient and outpatient, who are stuck in
life destructive behaviors that are driven by addiction. In the complex addiction
cases that I work with, Parnell's work has provided a clinical framework that
functions to reprocess traumas that drive addictive behavior and help the
individual stop their addictive behaviors by building stronger internal resources.
These new internal resources allow the addicted individual to have more mature
and healthy coping strategies in response to life stress, along with adaptive
behavioral responses that help to rewire those dysfunctional neural circuitries
that underlie and perpetuate their addictive behavior. In her latest work Rewiring
the Addicted Brain, Parnell shows how to use “Resource Tapping”, EMDR, and
her new “Connecting the Consequences” protocol to help addicted persons be
successful in their efforts to develop a life free of addiction. Parnell's work is an
invaluable resource for anyone who works with people who are impacted by
addiction. For the professional clinician, this work provides the tools that will
help you help your clients develop life changing internal capacities and skills,
allowing them to live a life free of addiction. I recommend it highly.”
—Roy A. Blankenship, MA, LPC, LMFT, CSAT, CAADC, Chief Executive
Officer, HopeQuest Addiction Recovery Center, Woodstock, GA
Dr. Parnell's work is at once brilliant and simple, deep yet accessible, validating
of the destructive nature of trauma and hopeful of one's ability to completely
heal.
With compassion, attunement and intelligence, Dr. Parnell guides therapists
of all levels through reparative techniques that address the many layers involved
in healing; from core trauma to consequential addictive behaviors to
enhancement of self-esteem, resilience, and reduction of shame. As an eating
disorder specialist practicing for 26 years, I applaud Dr. Parnell's original and
creative use of AF-EMDR, resource tapping and the reparative, healing
therapeutic relationship to effectively bring clients into full and joyous recovery!
—Dr. Julie T. Anné, Licensed Psychologist & Eating Disorder Specialist, A
New Beginning / TheHealthyWeighOut
“Dr. Laurel Parnell played a massive role in helping me find my voice as an
EMDR therapist, and I continue to be inspired by our early conversations on
expanding the possibilities of EMDR-related interventions. In her latest offering,
Parnell adds her perspective to a growing collection of EMDR-related
interventions on a topic that is near and dear to my heart, addiction recovery.
Clinicians and human services workers with a passion for healing the suffering
caused by and connected to addiction receive plenty of new ideas for working
with clients, especially in the area of resourcing. You can never have too many
strategies for helping individuals struggling with chemical dependency, process
addictions, and co-dependency issues. I am grateful to Parnell for offering her
unique perspective on how to resource in this work, which I know is near and
dear to her heart as well.”
—Jamie Marich, Ph.D., Founder, The Institute for Creative Mindfulness,
Co-Author of EMDR Therapy and Mindfulness for Trauma-Focused Care;
Author, EMDR Made Simple, Trauma and the Twelve Steps, Trauma Made
Simple, Dancing Mindfulness
Copyright © 2018 by Laurel Parnell.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or
transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or
other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of
the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews
and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For
permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions
Coordinator,” at the address below.
Green Tara Books
900 Fifth Ave. Suite 203
San Rafael, CA 94901
drlaurelparnell.com
Phone: 866-798-7778
Cover design by Mary Ann Smith Ordering Information:
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by
corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales
Department” at the address above.
Rewiring the Addicted Brain/ Laurel Parnell, Ph.D.—1st ed.
ISBN 978-1-7325790-0-2 print
ISBN 978-1-7325790-1-9 ebook
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018955732
To all those who are struggling with addictions and addictive behaviors, and to
their family members and friends.
May the long time sun
Shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light
Within you
Guide your way on
Guide your way on
—MIKE HERON
Contents Introduction
Part One
Treating Trauma and Supporting Resilience
Chapter One: Overview of the Rewiring the Addicted Brain Treatment Model
Chapter Two: Getting to the Root of the Problem: Reprocessing Traumas with
EMDR
Chapter Three: Resource Tapping for Addictions: Activating and Integrating
Resilience
Part Two
Tools for Affect Regulation
Chapter Four: The Four Foundational Resources
Chapter Five: Resource Tapping Tools for Managing Anxiety
Chapter Six: Repairing Developmental Deficits
Chapter Seven: Resources to Lift the Spirit: Antidotes for Depression and Inertia
Part Three
Rewiring the Motivation-Reward Circuits
Chapter Eight: Spiritual Resources
Chapter Nine: Connecting to Inner Strength
Chapter Ten: Resources for Restoring a Sense of Inner Goodness
Chapter Eleven: Resource Tapping to Enhance Motivation
Part Four
Change the Brain, Change the Behavior
Chapter Twelve: Defusing and Deactivating Urges and Triggers
Chapter Thirteen: The Connecting the Consequences Protocol
Part Five
Putting It into Practice: Cases
Chapter Fourteen: Using Attachment-Focused EMDR, Resource Tapping
Techniques, and the Connecting the Consequences Protocol to Work with a
Young Man Struggling with Shame and Alcohol Addiction by Elena Felder,
LMFT
Chapter Fifteen: Using the Bridging Technique to Find the Early Roots and
Triggers of a Male Client Who Binges on Alcohol and Has Early Attachment
Deficits by Constance Kaplan, LMFT
Chapter Sixteen: Using Attachment-Focused EMDR, Resource Tapping, and
Connecting the Consequences Protocol to Treat a Woman with Life-Threatening
Diabulimia by Julie Probus-Schad, LCSW
Concluding Thoughts
Rewiring the Addicted Brain: Resource Toolkit
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Index
Introduction
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
—RUMI
Ihave spent my thirty-year career as a clinical psychologist working with people
who have experienced trauma. I have worked in clinics serving low-income
children, youth and adults, as well as in private practice treating clients with a
range of presenting problems. I have trained thousands of therapists worldwide
in the trauma therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
(EMDR) and provided consultation on thousands of cases.
Through all my work with traumatized people, I have noted the co-
occurrence of trauma and substance use/abuse and addictive disorders. I have
seen how people who have experienced trauma from abuse, neglect, poverty,
divorce, loss, and discrimination often turn to substances or behaviors to help
manage unmanageable feelings. People raised in unstable families where parents
or caregivers struggle with addiction or trauma may not have their early
attachment needs met in a way that allows them to develop a secure sense of self
and the capacity to soothe themselves when distressed. As they grow into
adolescence or early adulthood and discover that substances or behaviors
provide short-term symptom relief, they fall into addictive patterns.
Addiction can also develop in people without histories of trauma. They may
have a genetic vulnerability or become addicted to a medication originally
prescribed for pain or attention deficit disorder.
Effective treatment of addiction requires a holistic approach that takes into
consideration its underlying causes and current behaviors and patterns.
Techniques to aid in emotional regulation as well as attachment repair are
required. Methods derived from what I call “Attachment-focused EMDR” and
Resource Tapping can yield excellent results in a milieu that has proven very
difficult to treat with more traditional approaches.
Why the Need for This Book?
Most of us in the U.S. have friends or family members who struggle with
addictions or addictive disorders. Some of us may struggle with such addictions
ourselves. The pain and impact of these disorders is tremendous.
Over the years, I have been frustrated with what I have observed to be a
limited approach to the treatment of addictions that does not adequately take into
consideration the complexity of each person’s situation and the drivers for their
behaviors. In my opinion, addiction treatment’s one-size-fits-all approach has
not kept up with what we know about addiction itself, or what we know about
brain science, trauma, and disordered attachment.
