Main Elements of the Rainbow Map

The Rainbow Map is divided into four columns.

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The first three columns split our experience of ourselves into:

 

• Emotions and Wishes: Where wishes are the narrative component of an emotion ie I feel frightened, my wish is to run away, I feel confused, my wish is to clarify.

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• Styles of Thinking and Typical Thoughts: Where a style of thinking might be pessimism and a typical thought might be, "you will never change".

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• Sensations and Mannerisms: Where a sensation relates to incoming signals from the body to the brain and mannerisms are physical signs a person might notice emanating from any part of their body from legs to voice (cadence, volume, pitch).

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The fourth column (Trigger Cycle) provides a graphical way for a client to track the direction, intensity and duration of their emotions/wishes, Styles of thinking/Typical Thoughts and Sensations/Mannerisms over a typical Trigger Cycle.

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The Rainbow Map is divided into five main horizontal bands of colour:

 

• Red Hyper Triggered Band: The Reactive Brain is sensing intense threat and the Reactive Body is fully activated. The Reflective Mind has largely shut down as the Reactive Brain and Reactive Body dominate what is said and done with an orientation towards fight and/or flight modes of behaviour. Memory and verbal functions are strongly impaired in this zone.

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• Yellow Hyper Triggering Band: The Reactive Brain is sensing threat and the Reactive Body is activating. The Reflective Mind is progressively shutting down as the Reactive Brain and Body increasingly dominate what is said and done with an orientation towards fight and/or flight modes of behaviour. Memory and verbal functioning are increasingly impaired. This Zone represents an opportunity for the Reflective Mind to notice and catch the progression of the Triggering. Clients identify a Trigger Flag and develop resources that they can deploy to halt and reverse their progression up into the Hyper Triggered zone. 

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• Green Untriggered Band: The Reactive Brain and Body is not sensing threat. The Reflective Mind is fully open enabling the person to communicate more effectively and exert free choice in how they behave.

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• Blue Hypo Triggering Band: The Reactive Brain is sensing threat and the Reactive Body is de-activating. The Reflective Mind is progressively shutting down as the Reactive Brain and Body increasingly dominate what is said and done with an orientation towards hide/play dead modes of behaviour. Memory and verbal functioning are increasingly impaired. This Zone represents an opportunity for the Reflective Mind to notice and catch the progression of the Triggering. Clients identify a Trigger Flag and develop resources that they can deploy to halt and reverse their progression down into the Hypo Triggered zone.

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• Dark Purple Hypo Triggered Band: The Reactive Brain is sensing threat and the Reactive Body is largely to fully de-activated. The Reflective Mind has largely shut down as the Reactive Brain and Reactive Body dominate what is said and done with an orientation towards hide/play dead modes of behaviour. Memory and verbal functions are also impaired in this zone.