Full Course Description
Somatic Therapy for Attachment and Developmental Trauma with Abi Blakeslee: A Master Class on Body-Based Healing Interventions
Difficulty trusting, fear of abandonment, trouble regulating emotions, and persistent feelings of loneliness. These are just some of the consequences of attachment trauma. And if you try to approach treatment in the same way you would for other types of trauma, you're going to quickly hit a dead-end that can leave you and your client feeling frustrated and hopeless. That’s because traditional treatment approaches don't effectively repair the damage that’s done when a young child's survival is dependent on the very person who's abusing them. To truly help clients, you need the skills that work with the body to provide deep and lasting healing. In this all-new Master Class, you can equip yourself with the most powerful somatic interventions to help your clients overcome the catastrophic consequences of early abuse, neglect, ruptured attachment, transgenerational trauma, and more… so you can walk away feeling fully prepared to use Somatic techniques to offer your clients breakthrough results, even in the very first session.
Program Information
Target Audience
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Psychotherapists
- Therapists
- Marriage & Family Therapists
- Addiction Counselors
- Case Managers
- Physicians
- Other Mental Health Professionals
Outline
Introduction: Unlocking Healing Through the Body: An Introduction to Somatic Therapy
In this introductory module, Abi Blakeslee shares with you the core concepts of somatic psychotherapy and reveals why body-based approaches are uniquely equipped to facilitate deep healing for attachment and developmental trauma. You’ll discover:
- An overview of somatic psychotherapy and how it leads to deep healing
- Key neurobiological aspects of the body that are impacted by trauma
- The types of somatic psychotherapies that shape Abi’s approach
Module 1: From Neglected to Connected: A Somatic Healing Approach for Physical and Emotional Abandonment
Meet Hannah, a young woman who experienced severe emotional and physical neglect from her parents. Watch as Abi uses body-based interventions to discover what is keeping Hannah stuck and what needs to happen to repair a persistent sense of aloneness. You also learn how to:
- Rapidly establish a sense of safety, trust and connection with clients
- Use somatic-based questions to discover what to focus on in the session
- Integrate visualizations, props and interpersonal interventions to help clients release fear physiology, create attachment healing, and expand capacity
Module 2: Creating New Experiences: Working Together to Release Physical and Emotional Pain
In this session, Abi is joined by Adrian, a woman and mother struggling with a legacy of abuse and neglect. Watch as Abi follows the signs of the body to realize the connection between Adrian’s trauma and her chronic pain. You’ll discover how to:
- Recognize the long-term physiological impact of trauma on the body
- Access attachment wounds and empower clients to become their own source of connection and support
- Use the therapeutic relationship to facilitate here-and-now attachment healing
- Recognize and work with survival physiology
Module 3: Transforming Anxious Attachment Through Embodied Healing
Meet Kevin, a man with an anxious attachment style that has impacted his romantic relationships. Here, you’ll discover how Abi uses here-and-now interventions with the therapeutic relationship to build safety, connection and trust. You’ll also learn how to:
- Interpret physical movement and presence to determine attachment styles
- Use repeated movement patterns to help clients release stored trauma
- Create enactments with simple body movements and statements, allowing clients to have new experiences related to past trauma
Module 4: Resolving Generational Trauma: Mobilizing Clients to Release Trauma and Create New Relational Experiences
Meet Maria, a biracial woman whose childhood was shaped by the Salvadoran Civil War. Discover how Abi traces Maria’s experience of emotional flooding to discover what is holding her back from having the life she wants. You’ll see how Abi works with the body to:
- Mobilize and complete protective actions, allowing for fear physiology to be processed and released
- Help clients set and maintain healthy boundaries
- Rewire ‘shut down’ responses to activate and empower clients
Module 5: Navigating Dysregulation to Release Attachment Trauma from the Body
In the next two modules, Abi shows you how individual and couple therapy can be used in tandem to create powerful moments of attachment healing. In this module, Abi is joined by Alicia, a wife, mother and artist, struggling with the legacy of growing up with a mother with schizophrenia. Watch as Abi navigates periods of dysregulation to create the safety and trust needed to heal. You’ll discover how to:
- Recognize and work with body physiology related to trauma
- Establish and maintain relational connection while guiding clients through painful trauma memories
- Work with dysregulation to expand tolerance and build capacity
- Empower clients to use their adult presence to creating healing moments for their younger, vulnerable self
Module 6: Healing Attachment Wounds in the Context of Relationships
In this module, Abi continues her work with Alicia, this time in the context of a couple session with Alicia’s husband Travis, a hardworking father struggling to balance responsibilities with his sense of self. Watch as Abi helps Alicia and Travis break down barriers and find connection. You’ll discover how to:
- Facilitate attachment healing in the context of couple therapy
- Utilize body-based interventions with couples to improve communication
- Manage dysregulation and repair ruptures in session
Module 7: Wrap up
In this final module, Abi shares key takeaways from the course. She’ll discuss:
- What you need to know about using somatic therapy in your practice
- Critical adaptations when working with attachment and developmental trauma
- What it takes to heal attachment and developmental trauma
- Tips for therapists: What to look for, what to say and what to do
Objectives
- Increase Body Awareness to help the individual develop the ability to recognize and understand bodily sensations, emotional triggers, and physical tension patterns.
- Regulate the Nervous System. Support the individual in recognizing dysregulated states (e.g., hyperarousal or hypoarousal) and practicing techniques to return to a regulated state.
- Establish Safety and Grounding, Learn how to create a sense of safety within the therapeutic environment and help the individual cultivate internal and external resources for grounding during moments of distress.
- Reconnect with the Present Moment. Reduce dissociative tendencies by fostering mindfulness and somatic practices that anchor the individual in the "here and now."
- Rebuild Secure Attachment. Encourage experiences of secure attachment through the therapeutic relationship and body-based exercises that promote trust and connection.
- Heal Early Developmental Wounds. Address pre-verbal and early childhood trauma by working through implicit memories stored in the body.
- Release Somatic Holding Patterns. Identify and gently release chronic tension, bracing, or postural patterns that developed as protective responses to trauma.
- Enhance Emotional Regulation. Help the individual use somatic tools to identify, process, and express emotions without becoming overwhelmed.
- Increase Capacity for Pleasure and Joy. Explore and expand the individual’s ability to experience positive sensations and emotions in the body, often diminished by trauma.
- Rebuild a Sense of Agency. Support the individual in reconnecting with their body as a source of strength and empowerment, increasing their sense of control over physical and emotional responses.
- Integrate Trauma Memories. Facilitate the processing and integration of fragmented trauma memories stored somatically, helping the individual feel more cohesive.
- Repair Relationship with the Body. Cultivate a compassionate, non-judgmental relationship with the body, recognizing it as an ally rather than an adversary.
- Expand Window of Tolerance. Gradually increase the individual's capacity to stay present with a wider range of sensations and emotions without becoming dysregulated.
- Develop Attunement Skills. Enhance the ability to tune into and interpret both internal bodily cues and relational dynamics.
Copyright :
10/02/2024
Embodied Healing for Developmental Trauma
It can be easy to focus on the words a client uses, but some of the most important information they reveal is through their physiology, posture, and movement. Our early life is encoded in the elusive dimension of implicit memory. Thus, a primary way to repair developmental trauma is to work directly with the nonconscious memory systems where patterns of relationship to self, other, and environment originate. You can do this by tapping into the “language” of the body. In this highly experiential workshop, hands-on exercises to engage developmental repair with clients suffering from attachment wounds, emotional abuse, and neglect will be explored. You’ll discover:
- Experiential and easy-to-use exercises to foster developmental repair with clients
- Embodied movement techniques to help clients initiate action, foster agency and follow-through, and expand their capacity to receive
- How to help clients more fully embody their emotions and learn to communicate authentically
Program Information
Objectives
- Describe the process of modifying the physiology underlying implicit memories from early life through the application of somatic interventions.
- Recognize the signs and symptoms of developmental trauma as they relate to survival and attachment theory.
- Demonstrate at least two somatic exercises to increase emotion regulation.
Outline
- What somatic psychotherapy offers the field of developmental trauma
- Defining implicit memory
- How to work with a client’s physiological, including limitations and potential risks
- How interoception and conscious awareness can be used to help clients access implicit memory
- Experiential exercises for using interoception to access implicit memory
- The signs and symptoms of developmental trauma
- Art and movement exercises for working with developmental trauma
- Defining embodied relational repair work
- Somatic exercises for increasing affect regulation
- Risks and limitations of the research
Target Audience
- Psychologist
- Physicians
- Nurses
- Counselors
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Addiction Counselors
- Social Workers
Copyright :
03/21/2024