About the Session
Session Description:
Therapy is more effective when we assess our clients’ “resiliency” accurately at each moment. The more acutely the therapist tracks subtle shifts to more hyper- and hypo-arousal, the closer the therapy can focus on problematic dynamics that cause our clients to disconnect. Somatic signs lead us into non-verbal processes, as do numerous other indicators of client disconnection from full presence. These crucial “non-presenting problems” strongly impact therapy. Tracking “disconnections” guides us into our clients’ process: somatic bracing, incongruities (smiling when sad), rhetorical questions, collapsing, vagueness, interrupting self, wishing/hoping, signs of sympathetic and dorsal vagal activation, shifts in contact, and more.
Learning Objective 1
Participants will be able to describe the “window of tolerance” and how they can use it as an active lens to assess moment-by-moment resiliency in their clients.
Learning Objective 2
Participants will be able to describe 3 ways to track resiliency somatically, and implications for pacing the sessions from that data. This includes the acute assessment of when to use bilateral stimulation, and when not to, in order to stabilize the therapy.
Learning Objective 3
Participants will be able to identify 3 signs of how clients “disconnect” during sessions, and interventions to make the process more explicit so awareness of the activation is tolerable for reprocessing.
Learning Objective 4
Participants will be able to identify 3 signs of “subtle dissociation” observable from close somatic and nervous system tracking, and describe options for how to target the dissociative process itself.