Original Pain Therapy (OPT) is one of the most modern, scientifically researched forms of therapy.

OPT gets to the root cause of negative behavioural patterns by a simple exercise in regression that takes you through the stages of childhood development, starting from in the womb.

“The scientific understanding is that what happens to us from conception to puberty is what makes us the adolescent we are or the adult we are. So all our behaviour can be found in the traumas or the positives of our childhood from conception to puberty,” said Sr Helena Profiero, O Carm, a psychologist who specialises in this type of therapy here in Trinidad and Tobago .

The Secret Life of the Unborn Child by Thomas Verny, MD and John Kelly, introduced Sr Helena to the concept when she was principal at St Charles ' High School, Tunapuna. She was also impressed with the writings of psycho-historian Lloyd de Mause, who studied the effects of foetal and birth trauma in a historical context.

But Sr Helena first heard about OPT while studying for her Master's in Psychology at Salve Regina University , Rhode Island , United States .

The therapy is promoted by John Bradshaw, an experienced psychologist, in his book Homecoming.

Lorraine Pouchet, who works with Sr Helena, was trained by her in this form of therapy, and also studied counselling at the National Institute for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST).

Sr Helena said, “Even though quite a few people are doing something close to it, I think only Lorraine and myself actually do this particular therapy in Trinidad and Tobago .”

Sr Helena believes OPT is a godsend. With all the violence in the country, this is one way to start the healing process. She said: “When you look at social violence, when you look at what is happening in the country right now, it has to be seen from a different perspective.

If [Angela] Cropper would be listened to, she did say it; she said you've got to be punished for what you do, but hanging is not the way to go.

Even at home when you did something naughty you were punished, so as a child you understand this is not how you are expected to behave. So, by the punishment you learn, and if you do something wrong you must be punished, but you must not be hanged.

“If we want to become a First-World country we must begin to listen to the scientists who are researching human nature.”

Sr Helena and Pouchet do prison ministry and use OPT with prisoners who are to be released. What these two women have realised is that these criminals are victims of childhood circumstance. Their coping systems are very negative, and that is why they are violent.

Sr Helena feels that hanging is not an acceptable punishment. “The Government needs to be humble and look at what the research scientists are saying about violence."

The research

Foetal trauma can be brought about by genetics or by maternal distress, according to Sr Helena. “When a (pregnant) woman is stressed, beaten up or takes drugs of any kind, that foetus is severely damaged,” she said.

Sr Helen Profeiro

When a pregnant woman uses drugs or alcohol these substances can be passed on to the foetus, physically and mentally damaging the child. Stress hormones are released during maternal stress and the unborn baby picks up these hormones in the mother's blood and can feel stress. If there is maternal stress for prolonged periods, the baby may develop a higher propensity for stress, which may last into adulthood.

“Everything is damaged, the glands, the organs, the nervous system, the entire human being, so you have a damaged person and they can become very violent. What is being damaged are the neurochemicals. Those neurochemicals help to control us when we get angry and also alert us for fight or flight.

So when these glands and the hormones they are secreting and sending all about the body are affected, it means that the foetus is being given less chemicals to cope with the stress. The chemical balance is so affected that the child does not get enough coping chemicals, like serotonin,” explained Sr Helena.

How it works

She added: “The sad thing that's happening in the field of counseling and in the whole handling of ‘problem people' in society [is that] they are working on the symptoms, and not on the root. You have to go into that root and pull it up and dig it up and work with it, free the person up from it.”

This is Sr Helena's approach to counselling and therapy. OPT uses a method of regression, all the way back to inside the womb. Regression is not hypnosis, it is an exercise in which you connect with yourself. You are guided back to different stages of your development, starting from conception.

One immediately wonders how someone can possibly remember something from within the womb.

Sr Helena explained: “What the scientists have found is we have something called an Early Emotional Memory System as foetuses.”

By three weeks after conception (the neurula stage), the foundation for the brain, spinal cord and entire nervous system is established. But even before the brain starts taking shape, the mother's emotions, along with hormones and substances that pass from her blood to the bloodstream of the foetus are encoded in the making of the foetal brain.

“When the child comes out he/she is acting out of that,” said Sr Helena. Pouchet, her associate, put it this way: “Everything that happens to us, every single thing, is in our memory system. We do not forget anything.”

They went on to explain that there are three levels of awareness --conscious, subconscious, and unconscious. Most of what we think we “forget” is in the unconscious level, and there are methods of reviving these memories.

Lorraine Pouchet

Why do you need to go back to these early memories to deal with your adult problems? Pouchet explains: “At every stage of our lives from conception, certain things are supposed to happen and if these things don't happen, it mucks us up a lot. We try to find out what causes the negativity and how we can assist people to overcome what has happened to them.

“In other words, it is like you are walking around as an adult and you think you are in charge, but you really are not in charge. That hurt little child inside of you is the one who is really pressing your buttons. So our work is to help you to meet that little child, understand how that child is feeling, help you work through it -- and then you take charge of your life.

“You allow yourself to feel the pain (of your experience) again, and when you do that you can get rid of it and start to understand what

motivates you to do the things you don't get good results from. Once you could identify that, it's easier for you to deal with it.”

You “deal with it” through what Sr Helena calls behavioural modification.

Instead of repeating the “survival patterns” you developed as a result of a childhood or pre-natal emotional experience, you behave in an adult way, consciously choosing your actions and behaviour.

“It is absolutely unbelievable the feeling that I get when somebody I am working with sees the light, understands why they are doing what they are doing, and knows they have the power to change it. Many people are doing things and they don't know why,” said Pouchet.

Further information

This therapy is done in just three to four sessions. The standard cost per session is $100 and special arrangements can be made with Sr Helena and Pouchet depending on your circumstances.

Sr Helena is also running a course on OPT, in the hope that it can be used in parish counselling. The cost of the course is $300 for five classes. For further information, Sr Helena can be contacted at 628-7093.