Course 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. Learn more in this presentation by Craig Penner, LMFT.

Learning Objectives

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.
2. Participants will be able to describe 3 ways to track resiliency somatically, and implications for pacing the sessions from that data. This includes acute assessing of when to use bilateral stimulation, and when not to, in order to stabilize the therapy.
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.
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.

Presenter(s)

Craig Penner, LMFT

Craig Penner, LMFT, has been in private practice in Santa Barbara, CA since 1982, avidly using EMDR since 1993. His experience that EMDR naturally facilitates our drive to completion and resolution inspires his commitment to this work. Craig has been a Facilitator with the EMDR Institute since 1995 and is an EMDRIA Approved Consultant and Therapist. Craig brings a process-oriented approach to therapy, with a strong somatic focus. He is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and is also a Somatic Experiencing Touch Therapy Practitioner. He has lead 4-day trainings on “Integrating Somatic Psychotherapy with EMDR Therapy” for the past 5 years.