USABP Spotlight -

Presented by:
Joe Weldon, PhD
Co-Founder of the Somatic Therapy Center

Description

In the worlds of exploring the human experience of trauma, the word “Issue” has taken a permanent, dubious place in the vernacular. Therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, body workers, doctors, and lawyers arrange their practices based on the idea of identifying the trauma as an issue and then helping to resolve that issue. This has been the protocol for the treatment of trauma for many years now. Treatment, at some point, involves the practitioner saying to a client “You have an issue with…” , or, the client saying “I have an issue with…” An “issue” by definition is a concern, a problem, a matter that is in dispute between two or more parties. To treat the issue is to focus on the problem, the dispute, the “What’s Wrong”.

For a traumatized body—-a traumatized client, that approach and focus frustrates it’s natural ability to share an injury. An injury, by definition is a harm suffered by a person due to some act or omission done by another person. An injury to a client consists of many facets of pain, which always presents in the sequence of the harming. Sometimes the body is harmed first, the mind second, the emotions third, the soul fourth. Other times these positions are shifted—the feelings get hurt first, then the body ETC.. Each client presents their own unique sequence. Traumatized bodies are always presenting injuries, not issues. When we treat a client as suffering from an injury, we are clearly making the client’s body essential to devising a treatment protocol.

When we treat the client as having an injury rather than having an issue, we help the client to know the sequence and syntax of what was done to, or omitted from, their bodies and their lives. When we mis-identify a client’s injury as an issue, we focus ours, and our clients’attention on the consequences—the chaos that crackles in the mind .When we call an injury an issue, we rob it of it’s integrity, it’s integral nature. Once this happens, the client will be lost in the “MIND” field always trying to solve a problem rather than putting salve on the wound.

Join us as we explore, and, recognize how identifying and treating your clients’ injuries restores movement and integrity to a client’s body. Experience how restoring integrity and movement to a client’s body animates, rejuvenates, and resources the wisdom of the client. Learn how this” paradigm shift “from “Issue” to “Injury” changes the landscape of healing trauma.

This workshop will use didactic and experiential exercises with attendees (and volunteers) to elucidate the body’s ability to discern holding on from being held onto

The Main Points of this Workshop

• Shifting to a somatic paradigm of "Injury" rather than "Issue"
• Treating traumatized clients bodies as expressing injury
• Restoring integrity and movement to a body.
• Rejuvenating and resourcing the wisdom of the client
• Assisting a client's body to be back in sequence

Participants will Learn

• How using the paradigm of injury to treat a traumatized client engages and encourages a client’s body to come back into sequence and balance.
• How using the paradigm of injury to treat a traumatized client aids in developing a treatment plan that is essential to maintaining the health of a client.
• How identifying and treating your clients’ injuries restores movement and integrity to a client’s body

General Agenda

• Welcoming and introduction( 5 minutes)
• Didactic presentation with case examples ( 30 minutes)
• Personal experience exercise- whole group ( 20 minutes)
• Short demo with one member of group ( 10 minutes)
• Professional experience exercise—breakout rooms ( 20 minutes
• Sharing learnings from the exercise ( 10 minutes)
• Questions (10 minutes)
• Closing ( 5 minutes)
• Overtime questions ( 10-20 minutes)