Somatic Therapy: New Approaches to Trauma Treatment
February 27 – March 3, 2023 | 9:00 am – 12:30 pm daily | USD$849 / CAD$1,104
About this workshop
Explore somatic therapy and learn skills to help clients process traumatic events through breath and movement.
Somatic Therapy emphasizes body awareness as an essential part of psychotherapy. This is especially beneficial in the treatment of PTSD when symptoms involve physiological distress, affect dysregulation, or dissociation.
Traditional approaches to therapy attend to the cognitive and emotional aspects of clients’ lives, while the somatic experience is often left out of the room.
Our bodies need to process stressful and traumatic events through breath and movement. Unfortunately, we are often taught to sit still and override movement impulses. As a result, the biological effects of stressful or traumatic events tend to persist long after events have passed.
“Talk therapy” can perpetuate this culture of stillness unless the therapist has the training and skills to integrate the body into psychotherapy. Interventions to enhance embodiment in trauma treatment expand the therapeutic experience beyond where words can take a client.
In this course, you will learn the science of embodiment and why somatic psychology is essential for helping clients work with dysregulated affect and arousal states that accompany PTSD. We will discuss the key common factors of somatic psychology which are rooted in interpersonal neurobiology and polyvagal theory. We will also discuss the difference between “top-down” and “bottom-up” interventions and how they can be used to strengthen clients’ readiness for trauma reprocessing.
Without interventions that incorporate somatic therapy awareness and movement, many therapeutic approaches are limited in their ability help clients fully release the impact of traumatic events. In other words, we cannot simply think our way out of traumatic activation. Through the intervention shared in this training, you will learn to help clients not only cope with their wounds but also find greater resolution.
Learning Objectives
- Discuss the theoretical and scientific bases of somatic psychology.
- Discuss the window of tolerance as it relates to dysregulation and dissociation.
- Understand applied polyvagal theory in psychotherapy.
- Explain neuroplasticity as it relates to trauma resolution.
- Learn how to help clients build affect and sensation tolerance.
- Explore the importance of mutual regulation and co-regulation in therapy.
- Integrate somatic psychology into the tri-phasic model of trauma treatment.
- Practice at least three interventions for developing somatic resources for safety and stabilization.
- Practice at least three interventions to enhance embodiment in trauma treatment.
- Explore somatic psychology as it relates to preverbal wounds and attachment trauma.
- Understand the relationship between unresolved developmental adversities and health concerns in adulthood as it relates to somatic psychology applications for chronic pain and illness.
- Explore how somatic psychology can be applied for clinician self-care to reduce vicarious traumatization.
CE Credits
US CE credits pending.
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Additional Workshop Details
Target Audience:
Marriage and Family Therapists, Clinical and Counseling Psychologists, Psychiatric Social Workers, Pastoral Counselors, Psychotherapists, Psychiatrists, Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Occupational Therapists, Counselors, Graduate Students in Accredited Programs in these fields
What level of knowledge should the attendee have in this topic?
Intermediate/Advanced
Daily Workshop Agenda
| Time Frame | Content (Topics) |
|---|---|
| DAY 1 | |
| 9:00 am – 10:15 am | Discuss A Unified Approach to Somatic Psychology Explore the Core Principles of Body Psychotherapy Understand the Science of Embodiment Recognize somatic Intelligence |
| 10:15 am – 10:30 am | Morning break |
| 10:30 am – 12:30 pm | Discuss the physiological impact of stress, trauma, and PTSD Explore safe Mobilization and safe Immobilization Understand Dysregulation and Dissociation as related to the window of tolerance |
| DAY 2 | |
| 9:00 am – 10:15 am | Discuss Neuroception Explore affect and arousal regulation in trauma treatment Practice mutual regulation and co-regulation in trauma treatment Learn attunement skills to track nonverbal communications in trauma treatment |
| 10:15 am – 10:30 am | Morning break |
| 10:30 am – 12:30 pm | Explore Somatic Approaches to Resource Development Discuss Somatic Vocabulary Practice Grounding Discuss Postural awareness as related to implicit memory Explore Proximity Awareness skills Practice Boundary Development skills Discover Empowerment Resources |
| DAY 3 | |
| 9:00 am – 10:15 am | Discuss Somatic Psychology in Trauma Reprocessing Understand Holding patterns and Character strategies Explore Sequencing, Titration and Pendulation Apply Focusing in a psychotherapy session |
| 10:15 am – 10:30 am | Morning break |
| 10:30 am – 12:30 pm | Explore Somatic Repatterning interventions Discuss how to Work with Numbness Learn skills for attending to Shame Learn the Satisfaction Cycle Explore Interventions to Enhance Embodiment in trauma treatment |
| DAY 4 | |
| 9:00 am – 10:15 am | Discuss preverbal and Nonverbal Memories Implicit Memory Attachment Trauma and the Body Explore the integration of Somatic psychology and Parts work |
| 10:15 am – 10:30 am | Morning break |
| 10:30 am – 12:30 pm | Observe and discuss demonstration session |
| DAY 5 | |
| 9:00 am – 10:15 am | Recognize that chronic pain involves disturbing somatic components combined with emotional responses and cognitive interpretations Recognize that a high level of adverse childhood experiences contributes to greater health risks in adulthood Demonstrate how mind-body therapies such as therapeutic yoga, natural vagus nerve stimulation exercises, and self-havening can help regulate a client’s nervous system when working with chronic pain Learn to dialogue with parts of the body carrying symptoms to unwind the wounds of the past |
| 10:15 am – 10:30 am | Morning break |
| 10:30 am – 12:30 pm | Discuss how somatic psychology enhances self-care for clinicians to reduce vicarious trauma and burnout Explore themes of resilience and post-traumatic growth Final QA, Discussion, Closure |
