Massaging the mind

Attended a brown-bag session today on addressing trauma through non-traditional therapies. The gist was that the source of much anxiety is in a part of the brain that is very primal, the area in charge of fight, flight or freeze. This area is designed to go into action, help resolve the problem and then go back to baseline. For people who have had a lot of trauma, it tends not to go back down to baseline, and as much as they want to feel differently they can't.

Talk therapies address the rational part of the brain and don't address the source of the anxiety. Non-traditional therapies have the potential to directly affect the primal part of the brain, calming it and giving the rational part a chance to work.

One such therapy is acupunture. MRI shows that accupuncture treatments stimulate that primal, non-thinking part and help people to relax enough that the anxiety can calm and they can act on rational thoughts.

Question for you with strong spiritual beliefs - How comfortable (or un-) would you be with therapies with links to spiritual beliefs and systems that are significantly different than your own?