Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT)

Advanced Integrative Therapy or AIT for short, is an energy psychology that works to gently clear the traumatic energy of past wounds that is held in our bodies.

We have all experienced something that felt unmanageable, which is how we define trauma. Difficult experiences can be encoded in our bodies, our energy field and our psyche. We need a comprehensive approach to heal from these past wounds that goes beyond talk therapy.

At Therapy for People, we use a specialized Energy Psychology approach called Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT) to support the recovery of your whole self. AIT is an evidence-based method that gently releases the physical and emotional consequences of trauma. When we have difficult experiences, we store these ‘traumas’ in our physical and energetic bodies.

“Trauma is anything that fractures human wholeness”

Asha Clinton, Founder of AIT

This method is a gentle somatic (which means body-based) therapy technique that allows an individual to release trauma stored in the body. We utilize the chakra energy centers and psychological theory to help clients release the stored traumatic feelings and experiences. Chakra energy centers are spinning energy discs holding feelings, thoughts, memories, and experiences. They are ancient knowledge originating in India about 1500 BC.

Interesting research suggests that a bundle of neuropeptides and biochemical substrates are concentrated at each Chakra point. That means that, biologically speaking, these difficult emotional experiences may be encoded in your body.

In fact, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study is the first study of its kind that has shown that adversity in childhood has a direct correlation to increased rates of physical illness such as autoimmune disorders, lung cancer and ischemic heart disease later in life. Now more than ever, effective trauma therapy is necessary to help people heal. There are lots of small ways trauma shows up in our lives.

Each chakra point in AIT corresponds to a biological and energetic system, and it relates to specific emotions.

Lissa Rankin, MD, has recently published her book Sacred Medicine. Lissa has experienced AIT and writes an entire chapter dedicated to the modality. AIT is powerful and Lissa recognizes it as a promising new option for dealing with fractures to the human body, mind and soul.

How does AIT work?

The client finds the sentence that describes their trauma experience. For example, during the pandemic, I have cleared “All the fear I feel about COVID-19”. The client then places one hand on the chakra center where they feel the emotion or physical sensation most intensely as they tune into their treatment phrase. Their other hand moves through the remaining energy centers while they repeat the sentence at each place. At each new point, the client breathes and notices – sometimes they feel physical movement in the body, sometimes memories or feelings come up. Often, people yawn or take involuntary deep breaths as the trauma releases.

By the end of the process, people often report incredible sensations of relief. I have seen clients who can barely get the words out at the beginning report that the memory has lost all emotional charge by the end. This approach is gentle and can have an immediate and lasting impact on your life.

Advanced Integrative Therapy can be used to reduce anxiety and depression. It is also an effective way to deal with what we call ‘originating trauma’. These are the things that happened back then that are impacting our daily life now in negative ways. Childhood abuse, neglect, emotional abandonment, or invalidation of our experience are all examples of ‘originating trauma’.

We cannot change the past. However, through this process, it is possible to release the traumatic charge held in the body from past experiences. In doing so, the past becomes just something that happened back then instead of a life-defining experience.

Chakra System

The Chakra System has been used and referenced in many forms throughout history. Each point correlates to both a physical-biological system, an energetic system, and an emotional system.

Energy/Emotional System in Trauma Recovery

Below is a diagram that details each chakra point and the connection between that energetic point’s emotional and higher-level functions. It can give us clues as to where we might store specific traumas. For example, a child of an abusive father might hold trauma in their head (crown chakra), whereas an abusive mother might be held in their pelvis (solar plexus).

Biological System and the Chakras

Each Chakra point also correlates to a set of biological functions and physical organs. At every physical location of a Chakra, there are significant nerve ganglia along the spine. Comparing the biological point with the energetic one holds interesting information.