Traumatic experiences are primarily remembered not in words but as speechless terror, overwhelming emotions and body sensations, self-destructive impulses, and intractable depressions. What were once discrete traumatic events have been “wired” into the brain and body as automatic reactions to present experience disconnected from any context that could explain them. In such a body, despite the best efforts of client and therapist, the world still feels unsafe decades after the trauma.

We now know that trauma changes the brain, facilitating procedurally-learned automatic responses best suited for survival and adaptation in a threatening world. Insight, interpretation, and the ability to tolerate remembering inform but do not directly alter these patterns. Instead therapists need approaches have a direct impact on the brain structures responsible for post-traumatic symptoms, approaches that capitalize on the inherent neuroplasticity or ability to grow and transform itself by growing new capacities and inhibiting others.

Utilizing principles and techniques drawn from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a body-centered therapy for the treatment of trauma, this workshop will utilize lecture, demonstration, videotape, and experiential exercises to provide new solutions to understanding and treating the often baffling treatment challenges presented by these clients. Easily integrated into traditional and body models, this way of working enables both clinician and client to feel a greater sense of hope and mastery as they address the challenges of trauma treatment.