While we all have different states of mind and emotion, when an individual has a history of chronic, repeated trauma, there can be a greater divide between these different parts of the self. In many cases, clients might feel an unrelenting need to be perfect, be plagued by a harsh inner critic, or exhibit self-aggressive tendencies that lead them to feel at war with themselves. They might also feel as though they are cut off from their feelings or as if they are going through the motions of their lives without meaning or a sense of connection. However, with strategies rooted in parts work therapies you can help clients to decrease their defensiveness so that they can finally find freedom from the burdens of their traumatic past.

In this expediential, engaging and informative 2-evening workshop focussed on body intervention skills, by Dr. Arielle Schwartz, we 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 explore how to integrate body centered interventions and parts work therapies into therapy. Throughout the 2-days, Dr Schwartz will discuss specialized therapeutic considerations that allow clinicians to address somatization symptoms and chronic pain including how we can recognise somantic intelligence, work with intercorporeality and embodied culture, develop skills for implicit memory and preverbal traumatization, work with proximity awareness and boundary development, understand emotional dysregulation as a “part”, work with titration and pendulation, and get skilled on the sequencing and somatically patterning.

Over the two days we will:

• Describe at least three principles that are part of the unified approach to somatic psychology
• Recognize the key principles of somatic psychology including awareness, resourcing and self-regulation interventions.
• Explain how mutual regulation serves as a precursor to self-regulation in treatment
• Identify how somatic counter transference deepens our understanding of therapist/client relationship
• describe how to help clients build affect and sensation tolerance in preparation for trauma processing
• Apply interpersonal neurobiology through co-regulation strategies that strengthen the client’s social engagement system
• Recognize emotional and physiological dysregulation as “parts” of self.
• Learn practical parts work therapy interventions to improve treatment outcomes for “resistant” clients.
• Help clients to work with shame and develop self-compassion for their most wounded parts.
• 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

Workshop Schedule

Module 1: Foundations of Somatic Psychology

• The theoretical and scientific bases of somatic psychology
  • Historical Perspectives and Somatic Therapies Today
  • A Unified Approach to Somatic Psychology
  • The Core Principles of Somatic Psychology
  • Recognize Somatic intelligence
  • Intercorporeality and Embodied Culture
  • Embodied Self-Awareness (Experiential)

Module 2: Trauma and the Body

• The Neurophysiology of Trauma
  • Polyvagal Perspectives: Mobilization and Immobilization
  • Dissociation: Dysregulation, Depersonalization, and Derealization
  • Implicit Memory and Preverbal Traumatization

Module 3: Stabilization and Safety

• Phase Based Treatment
  • Somatic Approaches to Resource Development (Experiential)
  • Grounding
  • Proximity Awareness and Boundary Development
  • Empowerment
  • Building Affect and Sensation Tolerance

Module 4: Fragmentation and Parts Work Therapies

• Discuss and recognize fragmentation in clients
  • Discuss parts, ego states and defenses
  • Skill: Understand Emotional Dysregulation as a “part”
  • Compassionate Strategies for “Resistant” clients
  • Skill: Connect to the Adult Self
  • Skill: Differentiating from a Part
  • Parts Work and Trauma Recovery
  • Skill: Identifying Allies
  • Skill: Facilitate Repair Scenarios

Module 5: Somatic Interventions to Enhance Embodiment in Trauma Treatment

• Titration and Pendulation
• Sequencing and Somatic Re-Patterning
• Skill: Regulation Strategies for Dissociation
• Chronic Pain and Somatization

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