PSY646

Trauma & the body: Sensorimotor psychotherapy. (2016). PESI. https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/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 effects 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.

Rolef, B. A. (2014).Touching the relational edge : Body psychotherapy. Taylor & Francis Group. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nu/reader.action?docID=1637612&ppg=66

This is a comprehensive textbook that is available to you online in Somatic Psychotherapy. Please use this if there is a topic covered in the lesson that you would like to learn more about.

10 Somatic Interventions Explained — Integrative Psychotherapy Mental Health Blog. (n.d.). Integrative Psychotherapy & Trauma Treatment. https://integrativepsych.co/new-blog/somatic-therapy-explained-methods‌

Berger, R., & Tiry, M. (2012). The enchanting forest and the healing sand: Nature therapy with people coping with psychiatric difficulties. The Arts in Psychotherapy,39(5),412–416. https://go.openathens.net/redirector/nu.edu?url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197455612000330

This article will introduce ways in which the connection with nature, and non-verbal and creative work in nature, can empower adults coping with emotional and psychiatric difficulties. Relating to two sessions from a short-term Nature Therapy intervention group program in Israel, it will present Nature Therapy’s key elements and highlight possible connections with Drama and Art Therapy. The article will focus on creative and non-verbal processes and highlight their potential to support therapeutic processes originating in the right hemisphere – imagination, emotions and body.

Lobo, L., Heras-Escribano, M., & Travieso, D. (2018). The history and philosophy of ecological psychology. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02228

Ecological Psychology is an embodied, situated, and non-representational approach pioneered by J. J. Gibson and E. J. Gibson. This theory aims to offer a third way beyond cognitivism and behaviorism for understanding cognition. The theory started with the rejection of the premise of the poverty of the stimulus, the physicalist conception of the stimulus, and the passive character of the perceiver of mainstream theories of perception. On the contrary, the main principles of ecological psychology are the continuity of perception and action, the organism-environment system as unit of analysis, the study of affordances as the objects of perception, combined with an emphasis on perceptual learning and development. In this paper, first, we analyze the philosophical and psychological influences of ecological psychology: pragmatism, behaviorism, phenomenology, and Gestalt psychology. Second, we summarize the main concepts of the approach and their historical development following the academic biographies of the proponents. Finally, we highlight the most significant developments of this psychological tradition. We conclude that ecological psychology is one of the most innovative approaches in the psychological field, as it is reflected in its current influence in the contemporary embodied and situated cognitive sciences, where the notion of affordance and the work of E. J. Gibson and J. J. Gibson is considered as a historical antecedent.

Anthony, & Soule, R. (1998). A Multicultural Approach to Ecopsychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 26(1-3), 155–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/08873267.1998.9976970