Here’s a shout-out to Gareth Jones who is saving his life with the help of Dr. Louis Tinnin and Dr. Linda Gantt, whose blog has given him the tools to heal from infant surgery without anesthesia or pain control. Check out Gareth’s vlog at Trauma Transformation: A Ghost being Reborn. On this site, Gareth shares his self-healing from pre-verbal infant trauma. Gareth was operated on as an infant for pyloric stenosis, a blockage between the stomach and small intestine, but was given no anesthesia or pain control. Same situation as mine.

Gareth is a brave young man who I learned about through the Intensive Trauma Therapy website. On this site, Dr. Tinnin gives directions about how one might attempt to heal from infant surgery without anesthesia if one can’t afford the treatment at his center in Virginia, The United States. Gareth bravely takes on the process and records it on his vlog with video, images of his drawings, and written text.

Here are Gareth’s words about what he’s done: “This is a STEP-BY-STEP process using the latest techniques used by the Intensive Trauma Therapy (ITT) Team in Morgan Town Virginia USA. I am not connected to ITT in any way, I am using their ideas and structure to implement my CHANGE so it is only fair that I mention them. My way of doing this may be slightly different but essentially is the same basic core structure. Combining with this is “PARTS PSYCHOLOGY” which is taken from a method used by ITT also called Internal Family Systems Therapy by Richard C. Schwartz. I will also be using [the book] The Instinctual Trauma Response – Dual-Brain Dynamics as a guide to this therapy/recovery by Louis Tinnin & Linda Gantt.”

The process is complex but basically, one merges the non-verbal narrative of the trauma, remembered through drawing and visual imagery, and the verbal narrative, based on what one remembers from family and what one understands in the present. By listening to Gareth’s explanations in his videos, then reading his narrative of the trauma, and looking at his pictures as Gareth mentions them in the narrative, one can easily follow his healing journey.

Part of this  journey is his sister’s narration of his story. She reads his narrative as his pictures are projected onto a screen so that Gareth can experience his story being re-presented by his sister. In this way, he gains the benefit of an ally’s support and affirmation of his story. He will be able to integrate what happened to him as a baby in a new way.

Gareth Jones’s work is worth viewing by anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of how trauma works, especially pre-verbal trauma, and how various techniques can be used to heal it. If you don’t have time to view all the material, watch a video or two and read some of his narration. Even a partial viewing is powerful.

Watching Gareth’s journey has brought me to tears several times. It takes such courage to be as vulnerable as he makes himself and to face what he’s facing. He’s determined though to find his way to sanity, self, and soul. For me, he’s one of my heroes.