A video series demonstrating somatic psychotherapy:

Body-Oriented Therapy Sessions

"One of the things that is so delightful about a session like this is that it can be done in the context of traditional talking psychotherapy...to bring in body-centered techniques without disturbing a patient who has been used to talking therapy, or disappointing the patient’s hopes that we would talk about it, while at the same time reorganizing the story of what happened to become a story of what’s possible" – Janina Fisher, PhD

In recent years, growing numbers of therapists have found that body-oriented approaches can be highly effective in helping clients to resolve traumatic experiences. This DVD series provides complete demonstration sessions in three body-oriented modalities: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, and Psycho-Physical Therapy. These programs are designed for clinicians who want to know more about the approaches discussed in our Body-Oriented Trauma Therapy series. Excerpts from these sessions are included in Body-Oriented Trauma Therapy II: Treatment Modalities.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy addresses the somatically-based symptoms of trauma through approaches that "uncouple" the traumatic events from their legacy in the form of intense feelings, bodily responses, and punitive cognitions. Somatic Experiencing is the gradual, resourced discharge of the highly compressed survival energies, accompanied by a "retrospective" completion of biological defensive and orienting responses that were frozen at the time of overwhelm. Psycho-Physical Therapy is the active engagement of the body as central to the psychotherapeutic process. The body is viewed as a primary vehicle for the therapeutic process, where psychological and physical interventions are continuously overlapping.

Presenters include Janina Fisher, Peter Levine, and Bill Bowen. Released 2009.

Body-Oriented Therapy Sessions I: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
(#285, 39 min.)
In this session, Janina Fisher works with a woman on her reactions to being told "no." They explore feelings of immobilization, setting limits, the role of mindfulness, and integrating shifts back into the real world.
Contents
Statement Of The Conflict
Exploring Feelings Around the Conflict
Exploring the Movements Around the Conflict - Mindfulness
Mobilizing the Body
Experimenting With New Movement
Transformation - Deepening the Response
Getting Resources - Extending the Response
New Goal and New Movement
Practicing

"The fact that she was asleep right at the moment when it occurred, so the state of consciousness of the sleep kind of got tangled into all of these defensive, protective responses, that’s why you have to go in there very, almost surgically, and untangle it. And go in a little bit deeper each time, a little bit deeper each time." – Peter Levine, PhD

Body-Oriented Therapy Sessions II: Somatic Experiencing
(#286, 55 min.)
Peter Levine helps a woman process her complex physical and emotional reactions to an automobile accident. In the process, he uncovers an earlier near-drowning experience.
Contents
Focusing on the Body - Working in Small Amounts
Working With the Breath
Working With Premonition of Accident
Working With Being Asleep During the Trauma
Working With the Moment of Impact
Accessing Power in the Body
Accessing a Previous Trauma
Returning to the Here and Now

"I’m trying to lace through this session, I’m trying to fold back in on itself, what’s happening emotionally, what’s happening psychologically, what’s happening somatically, and if we’re in a process that also has a spiritual component, what’s happening spiritually. I’m folding this together, kind of like kneading bread, until it becomes a whole process." – Bill Bowen, MFA, LMT

Body-Oriented Therapy Sessions III: Psycho-Physical Therapy
(#287, 85 min.)
Bill Bowen works with a man on relationship difficulties that are rooted in early traumatic experiences. They explore impulses for self-protection, coping with anger and aggressions, feelings of chest constriction, and building internal resources.
Contents
Assessing the Client Physically and Psychologically
Clarifying and Refining Therapeutic Goals
Hands-on Work and Somatic Education
Deep Trauma Work
Building Psycho-Physical Resources
Moving to the Table - Deepening Somatic Awareness and Resources
Integrating Resources

Purchase: One DVD $50, two $75, complete set of three $100
Rental: One $25, two $40, three $50
TO ORDER - phone or fax 800-345-5530

Customers who bought this video series also bought:
    Body-Oriented Trauma Therapy
    Treating Complex PTSD
    Successful Trauma Therapies

About the Presenters

Bill Bowen, MFA, LMT is the founder and director of Psycho-Physical Therapy. He has taught at colleges in both Europe and the United States. He is trained in Rolfing and Rolfing Movement work, Hakomi Body Centered Psychotherapy, Bodynamic Analysis, Somatic Experiencing and numerous other somatic and psychological disciplines. He has trained in somatic approaches to psychotherapy with Ron Kurtz, Peter Levine, Lisbeth Marcher and others. He has trained in the field manual therapy with Dr. Alain Gehin in biomechanics, connective tissue work, visceral and cranial work.He has been a trainer in the Hakomi method and was a co-founder, with Pat Ogden, of the Hakomi Somatics Institute. He was a founding member of the Northwest Coalition of Body-Psychotherapy. Bill has taught at colleges in both Europe and the United States and is currently on the faculty of the Somatic Psychology program at JFK University.

Janina Fisher, PhD received her PhD from Boston College and completed her Clinical Psychology internship at Cambridge Hospital, as well as a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in trauma treatment at the Victims of Violence Program, Cambridge Hospital. Since completing her post-doctoral training, she has been in full-time private practice at the Center for integrative Healing in Watertown and has been an Instructor at both the Trauma Center and Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Hospital. In addition, Dr. Fisher is an EMDR Approved Consultant, a trainer in Sersorimotor Psychotherapy, and Past President of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation. Dr. Fisher lectures nationally and internationally on topics related to trauma, dissociation, and the implications of the neurobiological research for treatment.

Peter A. Levine, PhD is the originator and developer of Somatic Experiencing® and the Director of the Foundation for Human Enrichment. He holds doctorate degrees in Medical Biophysics and in Psychology. During his thirty-five-year study of stress and trauma, Dr. Levine has contributed to a variety of scientific and popular publications. Dr. Levine was a stress consultant for NASA during the development of the Space Shuttle, and has taught at treatment centers, hospitals and pain clinics throughout the world, as well as at the Hopi Guidance Center in Arizona. Peter served on the World, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, presidents’ initiative on responding to large scale disasters and ethno-political warfare. He is presently a distinguished faculty member at the Santa Barbara graduate Institute. His best selling book, Waking the Tiger; Healing Trauma, is published in 12 languages.

The Trainer’s Guide

The 74-page trainer’s guide includes a summary of the program content, biographical information on the presenters, reproducible viewer handouts, a resource list, and annotated transcripts of the therapy sessions.

Transcripts

1. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (annotated)
2. Somatic Experiencing
3. Psycho-Physical Therapy (annotated)