Sensorimotor Pychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma & Attachment

[Hope67]

I have bought this book:

"Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma & Attachment" by Pat Ogden & Janina Fisher

It's a large book - over 800 pages - and 35 chapters -
I'm currently starting Chapter 3 entitled "Orientation for Clients"

I wanted to quote what it says on that page:

"Moving on after difficult events such as trauma or hurtful experiences with the people who raised us is not easy, especially when those experiences have conditioned us to view the world as threatening or ourselves as inadequate.  Even in a good therapy with a skilled therapist, it can sometimes be challenging to find relief or resolution and we may end up feeling discouraged or stuck in our patterns.  Since you are reading this book,  you are probably interested in learning new tools to transform old patterns.  The body's movement, posture, and sensation can provide a missing link that can help you tap into that innate drive in all living things to heal, adapt, and develop new capacities.  This volume is intended to guide you and your therapist to draw upon the natural intelligence of the body to lessen the distress and increase the satisfaction you might experience in your life today.  The purpose of this chapter is to orient you to the structure of the book, how to use it, and to clarify a few underlying concepts and terms that will help you work together with your therapist to use the chapters that follow to your best advantage."

(I am excited about this book - because it is written in a clear and careful way, and I appreciate the structure of it.  It has also got some work-sheets to use and step by step directions and explanations.)

On the back of the book there are comments by the following people:

Philip Bromberg
Daniel J. Siegel
Bessel Van der Kolk
and
Stephen Porges

They all say very endorsing things about the book, which gives me some confidence that it's going to be helpful.  But most of all, as I am already a massive fan of Janina Fisher - I am already keen to read it, just for that reason.

I wanted to put the details here.

Has anyone else been using this book, or using sensorimotor psychotherapy.  I feel it will hopefully be beneficial to me, so I'm going to try to work my way through the book, and will try to do the exercises. 

The book addresses 'trauma-related dissociation'   which is another reason I'm keen to use it, as it includes adaptations to use to take account of this. 

I think these paragraphs are pertinent, and they are from p63 of the book (this chapter was entitled 'Orientation for Therapists')

"As stated in the previous chapter, clients' alternation between being dysregulated by traumatic reminders and trying to avoid them in order to participate in daily life is characteristic of a dissociative compartmentalization that reflects different adaptive priorities.  The goals of the defensive system - to defend and protect - conflict with the goals of daily life systems - to engage with other people and the environment.  If you track for such different priorities in your clients, you may notice that at times, your client is focused on stability, work, or family, and the wish to grow and resolve the issues that bring him or her to therapy.  You may also notice that these goals are thwarted when traumatic reminders activate strong (and sometimes contradictory) defensive responses.  At those times, your client might suddenly become frozen with fear or mute, want to run out of your office or terminate therapy, or first become furious and then drop into helplessness and hopelessness."

The next paragraph says:
"Obviously, such internal conflicts will affect how your client responds to this book.    (my bold print) "For example, a client may initially express a wish to use this material but then have difficulty following through.  As you continue with the book, that same client, though clearly benefitting from its use, might suddenly become ambivalent or even hostile about using the worksheets, or decide that he or she is "too stupid" and will not possibly be able to understand the concepts.  Or, the gains achieved from a chapter are soon completely forgotten or cannot be sustained over time.  The client who seems to be tolerating working with the body quite well might suddenly become triggered and overwhelmed and not want to continue.  These types of strong or sudden shifts in mood, perspective, or belief are often interpreted as ambivalence or resistance but may instead reflect the activity of dissociative parts that have conflicting goals and priorities (I put that part in bold)"

What reassured my own parts was that they wrote "therapists hold the clarity that no part of the body or mind can, or should, be eliminated.  They then said "When you can help your clients understand that, after trauma, they might experience such alternations between parts of themselves that want to engage in daily life and defensive parts that live in "trauma time" (van der Hart, 2012) as if they are still in danger, they can better understand and work with the conflicts between different parts of the self.  They key to increasing their awareness is drawing their attention to the two "sides" (parts fixated in trauma and parts engaged in daily life) so they are more likely to recognise when their reactions are connected to different internal parts and, most importantly, become curious rather than confused by them."

(I am excited by this book, I really think it will be helpful to me, and I think the authors really 'get it' from the point of view of understanding experiences - I realise I've written quite a lot here, but hope it's helpful for others, and I'm only at Chapter 3, but I'm going to hopefully work my way through the book, at a pace that me and my various parts can tolerate. 

Hope 

[woodsgnome]

Sounds like an exciting read, Hope. Lots to chew on, based on what was said in the excerpts you included.

Something I felt close to was the comment about some  therapy clients (both in-person and those goint solo) who have a hard time following through. I know I bolted from several T's in the past, though I've found much more stability with my current one.

As with everything, my biggest obstacle to follow-through is two-fold: what did (or didn't) happen before combined with the scary process of entering almost entirely new territory; even as it involves wandering around in one's murky past. And yet, the best therapy seems to include touching on all those sensitive inner wounds. The trauma escape process is so frightful all on its own, and almost seems radical. And yet, that also seems to be exactly what's needed -- abuses that led to trauma are in fact a radical violation of the human need for love and safety. To get out of the ruts might include even more acceptance of more 'radical' steps.

Meanwhile, I trust you'll be able to find a good pace with which to encounter this wonderful book. I'll offer this encouragement, if alright --- 

[Kizzie]

I agree with WG, it does sound like an exciting (albeit long) read. The length speaks to just how complex CPTSD is when I think about it. 

I'm delighted whenever I see more and more professionals getting that trauma has both physical and psychological impacts which are inextricably intertwined and must be treated as one.    "... no part of the body or mind can, or should, be eliminated [in therapy]." 

Tks for sharing this Hope