Abstract - Somatic EMDR

Integrating Somatic Psychotherapy into EMDR AIP Model
Pacing the Work, Tracking Resiliency, Deepening Processing
Craig Penner, MFT, EMDRIA Approved Consultant and Therapist
A four-day advanced training for EMDR trained clinicians
EMDR has proven to be a highly effective methodology for reprocessing trauma,
working through unfinished material, building strengths and resources, and
integrating new learning and states of being. The EMDR protocols take
advantage of our natural drive for completion, or adaptive information processing
(AIP). From somatic approaches to psychotherapy, we see that bringing
awareness to the body and functioning of the nervous system also taps into this
inclination towards growth and completion.
This 4-day training includes lectures and “prezi” presentation, discussion,
demonstrations and/or videotape sessions, and practicum sessions for
participants. This workshop is limited to 24 participants, to provide a more
intimate and personal experience. The design is to meet you at the edge of your
own growth and expertise.
Heightened somatic focus with EMDR serves many advantages:
1) It helps the client to be more present.
2) It aids the therapist in the task of tracking that presence closely, in ways that
go beyond verbal reports.
3) As levels of activation shift, both before and during EMDR processing, this
tracking helps the therapist assess the client’s ongoing resiliency.
4) Similarly to using bilateral stimulation during resource installation, focusing on
somatic experiences with judicial use of bilateral stimulation can aid in
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assessment of resiliency and heighten the opportunity to expand on this
resiliency somatically
5) Close tracking and pacing gives the client and therapist access to engaging in
nervous system processes that normally happen outside our conscious level
of awareness.
6) Tracking resiliency allows the therapist to pace the work well, in order to help
the client stay within the Window of Tolerance, so the work can be integrated.
7) This enables the therapist to more accurately assess the client’s ability to
process through difficult material, in the face of strong emotional reactions.
8) When developing resources, adding a somatic focus helps clients to integrate
the resources into their bodies and nervous systems, thus enhancing their
access.
9) As clients’ resiliency builds, and their ability to notice and tolerate physical
sensation increases, this strongly enhances their discernment and helps them
to slow down assessments, such the difference between “danger” vs.
“discomfort.”
10) With somatic interventions, clients are often able to hold a focus in a “stuck or
looping” process, and work through it, without having to return to the target.
11) Tracking “sequences” of body and nervous system reactions helps to bring
unconscious processes and patterns into awareness, making them easier to
work with.
12) Attending to the small movements of orienting responses can allow early
moments of activation to be exposed and reprocessed, and thus unraveling
larger dysfunctional patterns.
13) Moments of dissociation, across the spectrum from the most subtle to the
most severe, are more easily identified.
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14) Skills can be built to identify and intervene in the dissociative process itself,
which can enhance the ability to embody resilience and stay more present,
and thus reprocess the actual dissociative dynamics
15) Developmental challenges arising from poor early attachment manifest in the
body and nervous system, and can be recognized and addressed with a
somatic focus.
16) The repairs in attachment work are often non-verbal, so working the
dynamics through the body is advantageous.
17) Adding enriched somatic awareness to ego state work helps to track
resiliency, ground the processing, and deepen the resolutions and
connections
18) When “traumatic” reactions, both big and small, are thoroughly worked
through the body and nervous system, we see a heightened generalization of
positive effects of the reprocessing.
19) Using bilateral stimulation to “install” or expand detailed somatic awareness
of positive shifts that occur spontaneously in EMDR sessions furthers the
integration of the growth.
20) As clients learn to track their own resiliency though their bodies, they gain a
truly felt sense of trusting their own natural abilities to process and heal.
Lecture topics include:
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Nervous system responses to trauma and poor attachment - episodic and
developmental
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A somatic understanding of the Cycle of Experience
The Window of Tolerance as a co-creative assessment tool with the client
The triune brain, the nervous system, and Polyvagal theory - with
implications for assessment, pacing and interventions
Inherent dilemma between drives for completion and drives for safety/
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protection
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Psychophysiology of self-awareness and the building of internal
awareness skills
Uses of bilateral stimulation to enhance somatic awareness and resiliency
Specific skills for helping clients to return to the Window of Tolerance from
both hyper-aroused and hypo-aroused states
Top-down vs. Bottom-up processing - “Thinking vs. Noticing” questions
Resourcing with a somatic focus
Understanding the value and necessity of well-paced therapy
Dynamics of moving from “sensation to awareness,” pacing the potential
activation, with attention to transference
Utilizing a focus on somatic sensation to enhance “bridging”
Common errors when the therapist is not well attuned to the client’s signs
of resiliency
Assessing when explicit somatic focus is important, and when subtle
tracking suffices
Somatic indicators of attachment difficulties, and implications for treatment
Addressing dynamics of shame and humiliation using the somatic
manifestations
Somatic tracking to expose subtle dissociative patterns, and ways to
create collaborative agreements to target the minute moments of a
dissociative process in order to then reprocess that dynamic
Addressing embodied dynamics of helplessness
Therapist’s self awareness, embodiment of resiliency, and co-regulation
Practicum Sessions:
Participants will practice specific skills in brief practicum sessions, in addition to
having the opportunity to do 60+ minute sessions to experiment with a fuller
integration of a somatic approach to using EMDR.
Craig Penner, MFT
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Santa Barbara, CA
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www.craigpenner.com

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