Complex Trauma and Shame: Somatic Interventions

• Dysregulated autonomic arousal
• Overwhelming affects and sensations
• Intrusive images and memories

• Impulsivity and acting out
• Dissociative phenomena
• Numbing and disconnection

• The Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma and how the mind and body react to threat and danger
• The Nature of Traumatic Memory and how the “body keeps the score” (van der kolk)
• Neurobiologically Informed Trauma Treatment to regulate the nervous system and restore a “witnessing self” by reframing symptoms and avoiding self-defeating stories
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, tracking the body as a source of information and using body-centered treatment techniques
• Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity in practice to differentiate thoughts, feelings and to better interpret body experiences
• Challenges of Trauma Treatment and secondary symptoms such as anger, aggression, self-harm, depression, anxiety
• Therapy as a Laboratory for the Practice of New Actions to dis-identify with the symptoms and develop a new language and story
• Somatic Resolution of Traumatic Events using somatic resources to address symptoms, repair and transform the traumatic events, rather than merely re-processing, to create internal safety and to feel safe with others

Through Janina’s expert insightful commentary, case studies and examples, you’ll develop highly practical, evidence-based skills, and learn powerful assessment tools, case conceptualization techniques and proven clinical strategies that you can immediately apply in your practice.

Shame and Self-Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma
with Janina Fisher, PhD

Does shame prevent your traumatized clients’ recovery and hamper their ability to find relief and perspective despite effective treatment?

Do your clients’ feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy interfere with taking in positive experiences, leaving them to feel hopeless?

Despite your best efforts, unshakeable feelings of shame and self-hatred often undermine treatment: your clients repeatedly take two steps forward, then one step back. In this one of a kind bonus seminar, you’ll understand shame from a neurobiological perspective — as a survival strategy driving somatic responses of automatic obedience and total submission — enforced by the client’s punitive introspection.

You’ll learn to integrate traditional psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral techniques with sensorimotor interventions that emphasize posture, movement and gesture. With these new techniques, issues of shame can become an avenue to transformation rather than a source of stuckness.