trauma – INTEGRA CPD

Relational complications in current trauma therapy (Morit Heitzler & Michael Soth 2018)

Michael - Articles & Papers — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 14:31:18 +0000

Trauma therapy, aided by revolutionary neuroscientific understandings, has been very successful over the last 20 years or so, and has expanded enormously. New trauma therapies have proliferated, new tools, techniques and methodolgies have been developed, the reach and scope of treatable conditions has been extended and public and scientific acclaim (NICE guidelines) as well as financial success have followed (Ecker, 2012; Levine, 1997; Kalsched, 1996; Rothschild, 2000; Schore, 2003; van der Kolk, 1996).
Having extended their reach beyond the traditional focus on critical incident debriefing and single-event trauma, the modern trauma therapies, however, have reached a threshold. Increasingly, trauma therapists come into supervision distraught, frustrated and despirited because it is not working as it ‘should’.
Supervisees report that clients who initially present with circumscribed single-event trauma either cannot or do not respond well to standard trauma techniques like finding a safe place, body scans, mindfulness, or learning techniques for self-soothing. Many clients, although apparently desperate, fail to cooperate or exhibit active resistance. Some push and test the boundaries of therapy (e.g. demanding contact in between sessions), question or criticise the therapist, and generally create an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust. Or they just fail to get better in terms of the reduction of trauma symptoms.
In response to these unexpected problems, therapists report confusion or incompetence, shock or frustration, or - when more intense - feeling powerless, used or worthless. Occasionally therapists make sense of their response in terms of vicarious traumatisation.

This paper is a collaboration between Morit Heitzler and Michael Soth from our shared vantage point as supervisors. Morit has been practising a variety of trauma therapies since the mid-1990s, integrating Babette Rothschild’s Somatic Trauma Therapy, E.M.D.R, Sensorimotor Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Trauma Constellations and various other trauma therapies. Michael is known for integrating humanistic and psychoanalytic traditions to bring a more comprehensive embodied understanding to the relational vicissitudes of therapy (Soth 2005a).

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Working with Sadism – an embodied relational approach (Morit Heitzler 2014)

Michael - Articles & Papers — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Based on a presentation at CONFER in December 2014, this paper explores the complex identifications which occur in the therapist's countertransference when working with a horrifically traumatised client who had been on the receiving end of life-threatening sadism for a prolonged period in her teenage years. Morit questions her identification with the victim, and how she processes the trauma that she identified with as the therapist in and through her own body.

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Broken Boundaries, Invaded Territories (Morit Heitzler 2013)

Michael - Articles & Papers — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

One of the most excruciating aspects of trauma is the invasion or collapse of boundaries, not just in the moment of trauma, but as lasting damage. Traumatised clients usually bring to therapy an ongoing background feeling of threat: both to physical and emotional survival and to their sense of identity. Not knowing where 'I' end and the 'Other' begins, creates chaos and confusion in the client's inner world, which echoes strongly in the therapeutic relationship. Therefore, most methods of trauma therapy are highly concerned with re-building and establishing safe, containing boundaries as the foundation of any therapeutic work. However, is it really possible to by-pass the client’s embodied experience of shattered safety by introducing safe therapeutic boundaries? Can we, as therapists, contain the impact of trauma without engaging with chaos, confusion and vulnerability in the consulting room? This paper explores the paradoxical nature of boundaries and containment and their role in trauma therapy.

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Using EMDR with Various Types of Developmental Trauma (Morit Heitzler 2011)

Michael - Articles & Papers — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Complex trauma is based on underlying developmental trauma. However, developmental trauma is a very broad, non-specific category. There are several typologies and classification systems of developmental trauma available, with various degrees of usefulness to EMDR practitioners. Having researched and assessed these different theories, in this workshop I will offer an integrative synthesis relevant to EMDR practitioners. An understanding of the different types of developmental trauma can enhance our work both in terms of faster and more accurate diagnosis of developmental issues and also in eliciting relevant material and designing interventions. To establish key features of the client’s developmental issues, we can use a holistic spectrum of physical, affective and cognitive factors, including the client’s posture and body language, habitual cognitions and attitudes and modes of relating and expression. Most developmental theories share a common view of the key factors of developmental trauma: the child’s developmental stage, the intensity of the traumatising event, the available resources etc. But they vary greatly in terms of underlying meta-psychology and techniques and interventions.

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Crowded Intimacy – Engaging Multiple Enactments in Complex Trauma Work (Morit Heitzler 2010)

Michael - Articles & Papers — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

My aim in this paper is to introduce relational Body Psychotherapy and its relevance to working with trauma. The term 'relational' is now widely used; it has recently become fashionable and most practitioners accept that “it is the relationship that matters” (title of BACP conference 2006, London). However, what being 'relational' actually means in the context of trauma treatment is a more complex question than many trauma specialists have considered (see Dworkin's (2005) book: EMDR and the Relational Imperative).

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The processing body – integrating EMDR and Body Psychotherapy (Morit Heitzler 2008)

Michael - Articles & Papers — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:00:00 +0000

The processing body - integrating EMDR and Body Psychotherapy: The paper presents a model for integrating EMDR with Body Psychotherapy principles and techniques. The model will be illustrated by clinical material from work with a patient who suffers from complex PTSD as a result of a recent traumatic event which evoked her early developmental trauma.Based on a shared understanding of the body as the carrier of trauma and its symptoms, Body psychotherapy and EMDR offer different and complementary ways of utilising the body during the processing phase of the work. Drawing also on recent neuro-biological research, the paper will explore some of the similarities and differences of the two approaches. It also offers insight into the work of some of the leading experts in the field of Body Psychotherapy and their approaches to trauma work.

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