At this intellectually stimulating and practically-oriented workshop, Dr Arielle Schwartz explains how somatic psychology can help us, as therapists, by recognising the value of working with the felt sense of the body to access implicit memories – helping our clients sense the affective components of body posture, gestures, breathing patterns and movement impulses with interoceptive awareness.

However, it is important to be cautious when working with preverbal & nonverbal memories as they often do not represent an exact replay of the original set of events. Moreover, such clients are more prone to fragmentation, requiring us, as therapists, to be skilled in recognising and treating dissociative symptoms.

This workshop will allow us to learn a specific integrative model for trauma therapy that helps our clients safely attend to and work with preverbal memories associated with Preverbal Trauma, Developmental Trauma and Attachment wounds. Using case studies and clinical scenarios, over the two evenings, we will specifically develop our skills including: understanding emotional dysregulation as a ‘part’, connecting with the adult self, repair and rescue scenarios and somatic interventions that enhance embodiment in trauma treatment.

Our learning objectives over the two days include:

• Explain how mutual regulation serves as a precursor to self-regulation in treatment
• Recognize emotional and physiological dysregulation as ‘parts’ of self
• Help clients to work with shame, and develop self-compassion for their most wounded parts
• Identify how somatic countertransference deepens our understanding of the therapist-client relationship
• Practice at least three interventions for working with somatic symptoms in Trauma treatment
• Understand how to work with preverbal memories by attending to somatic sensations

Webinar schedule

Day 1:

Understanding preverbal memory

• The Neurobiology of memory
• Developmental trauma and ‘body memories’
• Addressing pre- and peri-natal trauma
• Attachment and self-states
• Implicit vs. explicit memories

A Ground of Safety in the Here-and-Now

• Window of Tolerance
• The Polyvagal Ladder
• Enhancing Embodied Self-Awareness
• Skill: Awaken the Social Engagement System
• Interventions for Psychobiological Regulation
• Somatic Countertransference and Re-enactments in psychotherapy
• Skill: Therapist Self-Awareness Practice
• Skill: Explore Co-Regulation

Day 2:

History taking and Case Conceptualization

• Identify developmental and Attachment trauma
• Understand Betrayal Trauma
• Assess for dissociation (‘fragmentation’)
• Recognize parts and ego states
• Working with Shame
• Cultivate mindfulness, acceptance, and self-compassion
• Skill: Build Affect and Sensation Tolerance
• Skill: Understand Emotional Dysregulation as a ‘part’
• Skill: Connect to the Adult Self

Working with Preverbal Memories

• Focusing and listening to the body
• Titration and Pendulation
• Sequencing and Somatic Re-Patterning
• Re-imagining the past
• Skill: Repair and Rescue Scenarios
• Skill: Somatic Interventions to Enhance Embodiment in Trauma Treatment

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