Minding the body:  Working with the somatic legacy of trauma

As the price for surviving trauma, individuals are left with an inadequate memory record and a host of easily re-activated neurobiological responses. Trauma-related autonomic dysregulation prohibits processing and resolution, and the somatic responses, divorced from the events that caused them, are interpreted as data about the self or the world. This worksop will introduce approaches for working with traumatically encoded somatic experience using Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a body-entered talking therapy that addresses these non-verbal, autonomic components by using the body as the entry point in treatment, rather than the event. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy offers simple body-oriented interventions for tracking, naming, and safely exploring trauma-related somatic activation, modulating a dysregulated nervous system, creating new resources and competencies, and restoring a somatic sense of self. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy can be easily integrated into EMDR and other trauma treatments and used to enhance installation of positive cognitions and resources or to facilitate processing and integrating of traumatic memories.

Conference

English

Janina A. Fisher

Fisher, J. A. (2005, September). Minding the body: Working with the somatic legacy of trauma. Presentation at the 10th EMDR International Association Conference, Seattle, WA