Clinical Track

Knowledge and Skills Building Workshops

2 - Addressing Trauma with Trans and Gender Diverse Clients: a Case for Using Exploratory Movement and Somatic Approaches to Engage Embodied Connection

Poster Presenter(s)

• 

  Sean Baker, LMFT

  Licensed Clinician
  The New Beginnings Center

  Nothing to disclose

This workshop will address methods to treat attachment trauma and ACE as it relates to trans and gender diverse clients. Gender dysphoria and body dissatisfaction contribute to the challenges for clients to experience life as an embodied self. Exploratory movement, with an emphasis on physical sensation, can bypass the critical thinking brain and its inhibitory reactions. This allows for changes to occur sub-cortically, thus facilitating organic self-regulation. The results include: release of chronic muscle tension and chronic pain patterns, decrease of hyper- and hypo- arousal symptoms, facilitating the client’s ability to connect to self and others. This presentation will engage participants in experiential tools to explore somatic awareness, focused attention, affect tolerance, and expanding self-image through movement. Step-by-step techniques for expanding interoceptive awareness with ease and somatic techniques to treat trauma will be demonstrated.

 

Learning Objectives:

• develop an internal awareness of their own process of nervous system regulation and felt sense of their embodied experience, so as to better attend to the client’s nervous system dysregulation.
• intervene with exploratory movement and somatic approaches to stabilize the client’s nervous system arousal and reduce occurrance of trauma symptoms and consequent addictive behaviors.
• facilitate working with and releasing highly charged traumatic material in a way that reinforces the client’s resilience and inner sense of well being.

1. develop an internal awareness of their own process of nervous system regulation and felt sense of their embodied experience, so as to better attend to the client’s nervous system dysregulation.
2. intervene with exploratory movement and somatic approaches to stabilize the client’s nervous system arousal and reduce occurrance of trauma symptoms and consequent addictive behaviors.
3. facilitate working with and releasing highly charged traumatic material in a way that reinforces the client’s resilience and inner sense of well being.