The Power of the Body: Integrating Somatic Approaches for Trauma Treatment

Over the past twenty years, neuroscience research has transformed our notions of
memory work. Newer ways of understanding traumatic memory focus less on traumatic events and more on the nonverbal physical and emotional responses that keep trauma ‘alive’ for decades after the events are over. As Gabor Mate states, “Trauma is not what happens to you. Trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you”.

Using interventions adapted from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems, this workshop will demonstrate simple, practical interventions for addressing the legacy of trauma: the effects rather than the events. The underlying way of working is an
assumption that traumatic experience leads to fragmentation and dissociation. Parts of
the personality remain threatened and vigilant long after the danger is over. These parts hold the ‘living legacy’ of trauma reactivated daily by trauma-related triggers.

Based on the assumption that it is less important to know what happened than for every
part to know ‘it’ is over, a somatic approach helps to resolve trauma by addressing how
the emotional and body memories are carried by each part in the body. By creating a
bodily sense of safety, clients can help all parts feel welcome and protected. Memory is
resolved by offering reparative interventions rather than by re-living the events.