EP17 Workshop 10 – In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Released Trauma and Restores Goodness – Peter Levine, PhD

Description:

Traditionally, therapies have attempted to change perceptions of the world by means of reason and insight, with conditioning and behavior modification, or with drugs and medications. The trauma response is a set of defensive bodily reactions that people initially mobilize in order to protect themselves, both from threat, and then later, against feeling the crushing totality of their horror, helplessness and pain. However, as time goes on, this avoidance keeps them frozen and stuck in the past, unable to be fully present, in the here and now, and unable to go forward in life. Fixed in the defensive trauma response, the shame, defeat and humiliation, associated with the original event replays itself over and over again in the body. Dr. Levine explores the implications of Body-oriented psychotherapy and recent findings in the neurosciences, on how the brain and body deals with emotional information.

Educational Objectives:

1. Differentiate between top-down and bottom-up processing.
2. Utilize procedural (body) memory in resolving trauma.
3. Create new interoceptive experiences as a way of transforming traumatic experiences.

*Sessions may be edited for content and to preserve confidentiality*