What is "body-oriented psychotherapy?"
Traditional psychotherapy primarily pays attention to thoughts, emotions and behaviors. In body-oriented or somatic psychotherapy, such as the Hakomi method, attention is also given to sensations and felt experiences in the body.
It may be as simple as bringing attention and awareness to a felt sensation, or it might entail “taking over” a particular tension or holding, in order to explore what lies beneath. The goal of therapy is to encourage communication among parts and to bring attention to those parts that are lost, hidden or isolated.
Hakomi is a wonderful therapy for those who are interested in exploring themselves at a deeper level. Hakomi uses mindfulness and present moment awareness to help you recognize, explore and shift habitual ways of acting and responding and connect more with your aliveness. It uses multiple dimensions--body, thoughts, emotions, posture, beliefs--to explore, change and grow. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy™ is a body-centered approach that aims to treat the somatic symptoms of unresolved trauma. While traditional talk therapies utilize the words of a person as the entry point for treatment, this type of therapy depends on the bodily experiences of the individual as a gateway to awareness and improved mental health.
Body-oriented psychotherapy can provide an added dimension to the therapeutic process by presenting information that is often overlooked. With the partnership of the conscious mind, it can provide a deeper and more efficient path to work directly with the unconscious mind, facilitating self-discovery and transformation.
Instead of acting as if we can dispose of parts of ourselves, we should learn the art of transformation. We can transform our anger, for example, into something more wholesome, like understanding. We do not need surgery to remove our anger. If we become angry at our anger, we will have two angers at the same time. We only have to observe it with love and attention. If we take care of our anger in this way, without trying to run away from it, it will transform itself...we can deal with any unpleasant feeling in the same way."
This is a process similar to psychotherapy. Together with the patient a therapist looks at the nature of the pain. Often the therapist can uncover causes of suffering that stem from the way the patient looks at things, the beliefs he holds about himself, his culture, and the world. The therapist examines these viewpoints and beliefs with the patient and together they help free him from the kind of prison he has been in...
The therapist does not treat the patient by simply giving him another set of beliefs. She tries to help him see which kinds of ideas and beliefs have led to his suffering. Many patients want to get rid of their painful feelings, but they do not want to get rid of their beliefs, the viewpoints that are the very roots of their feelings. So therapist and patient have to work together to help the patient see things as they are. The same is true when we use mindfulness to transform our feelings. After recognizing the feeling, becoming one with it, calming it down, and releasing it, we can look deeply into its causes, which are often based on inaccurate perceptions. As soon as we understand the causes and nature of our feelings, they begin to transform themselves.
~Thich Nhat Hanh in Peace is Every Step
The more we relate to others, the more quickly we discover where we are blocked, where we are unkind, afraid, shut down. Seeing this is helpful, but it is also painful. Often the only way we know how to react is to use it as ammunition against ourselves. We aren't kind. We aren't honest. We aren't brave, and we might as well give up right now. But when we apply the instruction to be soft and nonjudgemental to whatever we see right at that very moment, then this embarrassing reflection in the mirror becomes our friend. Seeing that reflection becomes motivation to soften further and lighten up more, because we know it's the only way we can continue to work with others and be of any benefit to the world.
-Pema Chodron in When Things Fall Apart
What is EMDR? The short answer....
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of psychotherapy that was developed to resolve symptoms resulting from disturbing and unresolved life experiences. It uses a structured approach to address past, present, and future aspects of disturbing memories. The approach was developed by Francine Shapiro, PhD, to resolve the development of trauma-related disorders as resulting from exposure to a traumatic or distressing event. Although some clinicians may use EMDR for various problems, its research support is primarily for disorders stemming from distressing life experiences.
When a trauma occurs it seems to get locked in the nervous system with the original picture, sounds, thoughts and feelings. The eye movements or other bilateral stimulation we use in EMDR seem to unlock the nervous system and allow the mind and body to process the experience. That may be what is happening in REM or dream sleep--the eye movements help to process the unconscious material. It is important to remember that it is your own brain that will be doing the healing, and that you are the one in control.
Theoretical basis
EMDR integrates elements of imaginal exposure, cognitive therapy, psychodynamic and somatic therapies. It also uses the unique element of bilateral stimulation (e.g. moving the eyes back and forth, or alternating tones or taps). According to Francine Shapiro's theory, when a traumatic or distressing experience occurs, it may overwhelm usual ways of coping and the memory of the event is inadequately processed; the memory is dysfunctionally stored in an isolated memory network. When this memory network is activated, the individual may re-experience aspects of the original event, often resulting in inappropriate overreactions. This explains why people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic incident may have recurring sensory flashbacks, thoughts, beliefs, or dreams. An unprocessed memory of a traumatic event can retain high levels of sensory and emotional intensity, even though many years may have passed.
The theory is that EMDR works directly with memory networks and enhances information processing by forging associations between the distressing memory and more adaptive information contained in other semantic memory networks. It is thought that the distressing memory is transformed when new connections are forged with more positive and realistic information. This results in a transformation of the emotional, sensory, and cognitive components of the memory so that, when it is accessed, the individual is no longer distressed. Instead he/she recalls the incident with a new perspective, new insight, resolution of the cognitive distortions, elimination of emotional distress, and relief of related physiological arousal.
How long does it take?
When the distressing or traumatic event is an isolated incident, the symptoms can often be cleared with one to three 50 minute EMDR sessions. But when multiple traumatic events contribute to a health problem—such as physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, parental neglect, severe illness, accident, injury, or health-related trauma that result in chronic impairment to health and well-being—the time to heal may be longer.
By Ellyn Bader, Ph.D. and Peter Pearson, Ph.D.
This document is designed to help you get the most benefit from our work together. The first three sections deal with how to prepare for and maximize the value of our sessions. The fourth section summarizes some brief concepts about relationships and productive couples therapy.
Your job is to create your own individual objectives for being in therapy. Like a good coach, my job is to help you reach them. I have many, many tools to help you become a more effective partner - they work best when you are clear about how you aspire to be.
My goal is to help you each make better adjustments and responses to each other without violating your core values or deeply held principles.
Goals and Objectives of Couples Therapy
The major aim of therapy is increasing your knowledge about yourself, your partner and the patterns of interaction between you. Therapy becomes effective as you apply new knowledge to break ineffective patterns and develop better ones.
The key tasks of couples therapy are increasing your clarity about:
.The kind of life you want to build together
.The kind of partner you aspire to be in order to build the kind of life and relationship you want to create
.Your individual blocks to becoming the kind of partner you aspire to be
.The skills and knowledge necessary to do the above tasks
Tradeoffs and Tough Choices
To create sustained improvement in your relationship you need:
.A vision of the life you want to build together and individually
.The appropriate attitudes and skills to work as a team
.The motivation to persist
.Time to review progress
To create the relationship you really desire, there will be some difficult tradeoffs and tough choices for each person.
In all these areas, there is generally a conflict between short-term gratification and the long-term goal of creating a satisfying relationship. The blunt reality is that, in an interdependent relationship, effort is required on the part of each person to make a sustained improvement. It is like pairs figure skating - one person cannot do most of the work and still create an exceptional team.
How to Maximize the Value from your Couples Therapy Sessions
Important Concepts for Couples Therapy and Relationships
The following ideas can help identify areas of focus in our work and/or stimulate discussion between you and your partner between meetings. If you periodically review this list, you will discover that your reflections and associations will change over time. So please revisit this list often, it will help you keep focus during our work
Attitude is Key
· When it comes to improving your relationship, your attitude toward change is more important that what action to take.
· What to do and how to do it can often be easily identified. The real challenge is why you don't do it.
· How to think differently about a problem is often more effective than just trying to figure out what action to take.
· Your partner is quite limited in his/her ability to respond to you.
· You are quite limited in your ability to respond to your partner.
· Accepting that is a huge step into maturity
The definite possibility exists that you have some flawed assumptions about your partner's motives. And that he/she has some flawed assumptions about yours. The problem is, most of the time we don't want to believe those assumptions are flawed.
Focus on Changing Yourself Rather than Your Partner
Zen Aspects of Couples Therapy (Some Contradictions)
Tough Questions
The Importance of Communication
Some Final Thoughts
© Copyright MMIV The Couples Institute
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