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BMSA is an acronym for Brief, Multi-Sensory Activation, a term created by its developers Dr Joaquin Andrade (Uruguay), Drs Maarten Aalberse (France) and Christine Sutherland (Australia), to give demonination to the theoretical basis of the stable of techniques they had devised. Having each separately developed a similar theoretical basis for the so-called "energy therapies" each went on to deduce a treatment technique which accurately utilised both the active mechanisms, and formerly-unrecognised mechanisms, and also eliminated the spurious "purple hat" aspects of older techniques which they had identified as ineffective or even counter-productive to the client's recovery. Briefly and simplistically stated, the theoretical basis of BMSA is: 1) Sensory-based therapies may be highly-effective when used to treat specific types of problems or disorders. These are any disorders which are essentially amygdala based; ie implicating conditioned responsed (not physical/medical issues, not unconditioned responses, and not existential issues or issues strictly relating to lack of skills or knowledge). 2) Many physical/medical, existential, learning, or skill-based issues have components which certainly are amygdala based (in part or whole), because each is accompanied by a set of internal states which are conditioned. 3) Conditioned responses are very vulnerable to extinction, and depend utterly on uninterrupted replay. If replay can be precisely and accurately disrupted, then extinction will occur. The conditioned response cannot recur without a fresh initiating incident (eg, re-trauma). 4) The key factor in BMSA is the "A", or Activation. If the conditioned response is not in the process of replay, either no extinction can occur, or extinction is less than total. 5) The stronger the conditioned response which we wish to extinguish, the more intense and/or more complex must be the sensory stimulation which is used as an interrupt to the replay. 6) Each individual differs in their sensory perception, and some will find kinaesthetic perception the most "intense" while others may find auditory, visual, gustatory or olfactory stimulation more effective. The evidence for these basic tenets is well-known and universally accepted thanks to excellent research in neuro-physio-psychology, including brain mapping. These are the basic tents of BMSA and I hope they are sufficient to allow clinicians to understand the mechanisms at play. However there are important contra-indications for its use, and there are contextual issues which are of vital importance if we are to be successful in identifying causal material, and specific conditioning or constellations of conditioning, as well as a sound awareness of psychological, developmental, and medical issues that comprise, overlap, compound or confound therapy and the therapeutic liaison.
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