Professional Training for Psychotherapists

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a conceptually elegant, powerfully effective body therapy that involves a broad repertoire of somatic interventions specifically designed to help clients tap into the wisdom of their bodies. The SPI Training Program offers ingeniously taught intensive courses for clinicians seeking to deepen their understanding of the body.

— Martha Stark, M.D., Author of Working with Resistance
and Modes of Therapeutic Action

The training program consists of three levels, each being a prerequisite for the next. A student may take only Level I, Level I and II, or all three.

Who Should Attend?

Psychotherapists
Psychiatrists
Psychologists
Social Workers
Licensed Professional Counselors
Nurses
Pastoral Counselors
Marriage and Family Therapists
Drug and Alcohol Counselors
Crisis Intervention Counselors
Rape Crisis Counselors
Guidance Counselors
Dance Therapists

Level I: Training for the Treatment of Trauma

Traditional psychotherapy addresses the cognitive and emotional elements of trauma, but lacks techniques that work directly with the physiological elements, despite research findings that trauma profoundly affects the body and that many symptoms of traumatized individuals are somatically driven.

Level I of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Training presents simple body-oriented interventions for tracking, naming and safely exploring trauma-related somatic activation, creating new competencies and restoring a somatic sense of self. Students will learn effective, accessible interventions for identifying and working with disruptive somatic patterns, disturbed cognitive and emotional processing, and the fragmented sense of self experienced by so many traumatized individuals. Techniques are taught within a phase-oriented treatment approach, focusing first on stabilization and symptom reduction. The length of this training is 80 hours.

Curriculum (Level I)

Including the Body in Psychotherapy Practice How to track and name somatic experience and work with physical action.
Trauma and the Body The role of the body in perpetuating PTSD symptoms.
Developmental and Attachment Issues The effects of trauma, attachment failure, and developmental arrests on mind and body.
Hierarchical Information Processing Somatic interventions that expand the capacity to integrate traumatic experience.
The Use of Mindfulness The role of mindfulness in the treatment of trauma and how to teach mindfulness to clients.
Self-Regulation How to stabilize traumatic activation and restore autonomic equilibrium.
Somatic Resources Identification of missing somatic resources and interventions to help clients develop new resources.
Boundaries How trauma affects boundary styles and techniques to restore healthy somatic and psychological boundaries.
Orienting and Defensive Responses Interventions to reinstate effective orienting and defensive responses truncated in the wake of trauma.
Treatment of Traumatic Memory Somatic approaches to overcoming the fear of traumatic memory and interventions to process and integrate memories.
Dissociation Interventions to work with alterations of consciousness and structural dissociation of the personality.

Level II: Attachment, Development and Trauma Training

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy identifies two general kinds of interrelated psychological issues: developmental and traumatic. Developmental issues result from disturbed early attachment relationships that lead to limiting beliefs about oneself and the world, while post-traumatic stress disorder results from overwhelming experience that remains unintegrated. When combined with unresolved trauma, early attachment disturbances can lead to a wide variety of adult relational problems. Level II of the SPI training program builds on the curriculum of Level I, emphasizing how traumatic, attachment, and developmental issues influence one another, and how to provide effective treatment given their inevitable intertwining. The length of this training is approximately 180 hours.

Curriculum (Level II)

Translating the Language of the Body
Working with the Organization of Experience
Working with State-Specific Memory
Attachment Issues: Dependency and Differentiation
Therapeutic Use of States of Consciousness
Body Reading
Characterological Barriers to Adaptive Action
Somatic Transference and Countertransference
Working with Physical and Mental Action Tendencies
Psychobiological Action Systems
Character Strategies and their Interactions with Trauma
Modulation Patterns and Correlation with Trauma
Somatic Resources for Character and Attachment Issues
Character and Structural Dissociation
Working with Regressed Ego States
The Therapeutic Relationship, Attunement, and the Body
Systems Theory: Developmental and Traumatic
Restoring a Somatic Sense of Self

Level III: Advanced Skills/Certification Training

This program is designed as an advanced training towards learning the skills required for certification in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. The focus of the training is the refinement of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy skills at each stage of the therapy process. Each weekend includes exercises, practice, review of videotape transcription and analysis, video assessment, demonstrations, skill assessment, and individual feedback to each student. The length of this training is approximately 144 hours.

Completion of this training indicates that the student has completed 140 hours of advanced skills training. It does not ensure attainment of Certification in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Attaining certification in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy can require work beyond this training.

Curriculum (Level III)

Practice techniques through exercises and role-play with classmates.
Consultation and feedback from instructors regarding practicum with clients and skills necessary for certification.
Individual troubleshooting, consultation and assessment to assist each student in refinement of skills.
Analysis of audio and videotapes, and individual assignments to help each student refine their skills.
Homework and study group assignments that include tape analysis and other assignments.
Attention to each student's character strategies, countertransference tendencies, and traumatic patterns as they interfere with certification skills.
Experiential exercises, individual processing as well as relevant didactic material and discussion are included.
Review and analysis of videotaped student sessions.

Certification in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Certification in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is granted following the Level III Advanced Skills/Certification training and indicates that the therapist has attained a high level of expertise in the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy method. Certification is awarded on an individual basis established by the student’s demonstrated proficiency in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy concepts and skills.

Those who achieve this high level of proficiency are qualified to use the title, “Certified in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy” or “Certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist.” Both of these titles identify qualified Level III Graduates as experts in implementing the techniques and methodology of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy into clinical practice.

Advanced Trauma Training: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Complex Trauma and Dissociative Disorders

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy techniques are uniquely suited for clients with complex symptoms and disorders. Complex trauma and Borderline Personality Disorder clients benefit from the emphasis on mindfulness and present day focus, while dissociative disorder clients benefit from working with the body that is a shared whole for all parts. Despite the fact that more complex clients can be body-phobic or have difficulty with movement and action, Sensorimotor techniques can be adapted to suit their special requirements. Slowing down the pace, working with ‘slivers’ of information, combining body and parts work, increasing the amount of repetition and practice all contribute to expanding the Window of Tolerance.

Here are just some of the topics that will be covered in this training:

Challenges to stabilization in complex trauma and dissociative disorder clients and how to address these challenges
Increasing the client’s capacity for mindfulness and top-down regulation
Working with the body with body-phobic clients
Becoming a neurobiological regulator: using somatic attunement and interactive regulatory techniques
The challenges presented by clients who are either hyperactive or cannot act
Overcoming traumatic reactions through the practice of new actions
Working with orienting and defensive responses in dissociative and dysregulated patients
Resolving inner conflicts that impede healthy boundaries and defenses
Approaches to working with memory with clients who cannot regulate arousal sufficiently to sequence or to process daily experience

In addition, we will review the basic skills from the Trauma Training and provide intensive skills practice to increase mastery of sensorimotor work and prepare participants for the Attachment and Development and the Certification training. This training is 50 hours.

Teaching Methods at SP Institute Trainings

Lectures

Didactic material is taught through lectures
accompanied by slides.

Exercises

Role play and practice vignette exercises are
designed to give students the opportunity to practice
techniques.

Demonstration

Faculty demonstrates techniques through
role-play, vignettes with students, and review of video
sessions with patients.

Discussion

Both large and small group discussion offer opportunities to explore topics in depth and ask questions.

Consultation

Case consultation is provided by instructors to facilitate integrating Sensorimotor Psychotherapy interventions into clinical practice. Faculty provide consultation regarding Sensorimotor Psychotherapy interventions only, and not comprehensive client or case consultation or supervision.

Feedback

Faculty observe and critique students' skills during class exercises.

Video Library

Videos of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy therapy sessions as well as lecture videos on various topics by faculty are available for students to review online.

Reading Assignments

Each training has its own online training manual containing articles to accompany course material.

Writing Assignments

Online workbooks are provided that contain study exercises and written homework designed to facilitate application of course content.

Peer Partner Assignments

Students team up with one other student in the training for educational purposes to practice elements of the method.

Admission to SP Institute

SPI provides adjunct training and continuing education. SPI is not authorized to grant licensure, nor is it board certified or accredited. To apply, please follow the links from a training to apply online.

Requirements for Admission

SP Training Level I: Trauma Treatment

Appropriate for psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists,
social workers, licensed professional counselors, marriage and
family therapists, psychiatric nurses, pastoral counselors,
addictions counselors, dance therapists, rape crisis counselors,
guidance counselors, and students in one of the above disciplines.

SP Advanced Trauma Training

Completion of Level I.

SP Training Level II: Development, Attachment and Trauma

Completion of Level I.

SP Training Level III: Certification

Completion of both Level I and Level II.

Locations

Trainings are regularly offered throughout the world. Please go to our Upcoming Trainings page for current information.