The Integration of Mindfulness and New Somatic Approaches for the Treatment of Trauma & Cultivating Resiliency

Recent advances in the fields of neuroscience, somatic experiencing and integral psychologies have revolutionized current thinking about the resolution of trauma, painful patterns of thought and psychosomatic disorders. In 2010 Dr. Norman Farb and colleagues published a study in the American Psychological Association on “Minding One’s Emotions: Mindfulness Training Alters the Neural Expression of Sadness.” Their conclusion showed that the mindfulness group was able to focus on the feeling not the story and therefore had a less chance of relapse & depression. In 2012, Michael Posner, PhD published a study in National Academy of Sciences on mindfulness and the neuroplasticity of the brain. He concluded that mindfulness gave the brain the ability to influence its growth, which had tremendous implications on trauma cultivating greater compassion, awareness, and self-regulation. Through these and many other studies a new view has emerged which sees symptoms of suffering as the body’s wisdom creating communication between the unconscious (the unaware) and the aware self for promoting somatic re-learning, compassionate acceptance, shifts and new awareness.

This experiencial workshop will include direct experience, clinical demonstrations, and practicum theory. It will use the modalities of Somatic Experiencing and relational dialogical approaches emphasizing mindfulness-based practices for accessing the somatic "core-self" to develop clinical skills and deepen the participant’s own healing process. Special emphasis will be placed on the treatment of trauma and psychosomatic disorders within the relational field with Somatic Experiencing, Gestalt Therapy and Ericksonian mind body approaches, which are highly effective techniques that understand the importance of the symptom as a pathway to inner healing.