Janina Fisher – Trauma & the Body: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Description of Trauma & the Body: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

In surviving trauma, individuals are left with a host of easily re-activated somatic responses and an inadequate memory record. Uncertain about what happened, trauma survivors interpret the somatic activation as data about “me:” “I am still not safe,” “I am worthless and unlovable.” Through the lens of these procedurally-learned, body-based responses, the traumatized individual makes meaning of all subsequent experience.

In this recording with international trauma expert and author Janina Fisher, PhD, you will learn how to assess and make sense of trauma-based symptoms and how to apply neuro-biologically-informed treatment techniques drawn from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a body-oriented talking therapy.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy addresses trauma-related challenges such as:

• Dysregulated autonomic arousal
• Overwhelming affects and sensations
• Intrusive images and memories
• Impulsivity and acting out
• Numbing and disconnection

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy offers simple body-oriented techniques for addressing somatic responses and can be seamlessly integrated into traditional talking therapies.

What you will learn in Trauma & the Body: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Outline

• The neurobiology of trauma: why we need to work with the body
• The ‘living legacy” of traumatic experience: what perpetuates PTSD after the event is
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: principles and interventions for resolving trauma symptoms

Objectives

• Describe the implications of the neuroscience research for assessment and treatment of traumatized individuals
• Describe the autonomic, cognitive, affective and somatic effects of PTSD
• Implement mindfulness-based techniques to challenge procedurally-learned patterns of response
• Identify cognitive and somatic interventions that regulate the traumatized nervous system
• Delineate sensorimotor techniques for “completing the unfinished past”

About Janina Fisher

Janina Fisher, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and former instructor at The Trauma Center, a research and treatment center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known as an expert on the treatment of trauma, Dr. Fisher has also been treating individuals, couples and families since 1980.

She is past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.

She is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017) and the forthcoming book, Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma (in press).

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial: Dr. Janina Fisher has an employment relationship with the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. She is a consultant for Khiron House Clinics and the Massachusetts Department of MH Restraint and Seclusion Initiative. Dr. Fisher receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. Dr. Fisher has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.

Non-financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is on the advisory board for the Trauma Research Foundation.

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