Course Description

Somatic therapy modalities have been supporting clients’ healing for generations and can be supportive to the success of EMDR therapy. In this presentation, clinicians will be invited to gain a deeper understanding of how to notice the story the body is holding onto and learn new ways to help that story be worked through. Discussion of implicit memory, somatic markers, and the threat response cycle will be highlighted, allowing clients to better appreciate how the body has helped them stay safe and survive. Specific strategies of pendulation, titration, and innate movement will be discussed to enhance all phases of EMDR and increase compassion for somatic cues and interoceptive experiences. Increasing the ability to notice comfortable sensations and befriend the body in new ways will be highlighted. Specific strategies for desensitization phases will be introduced. Clinicians will walk away with new strategies to help clients heal.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to identify how implicit memory, somatic cues, and patterns are held and experienced in the body to increase case conceptualization and history taking strategies.
2. Participants will be able to appraise the use of pendulation, titration, and tracking techniques to expand preparation and desensitization phases.
3. Participants will be able to include somatic strategies in desensitization, closure, and re-evaluation phases.

Presenter(s)

Alison Leslie, LCSW, SEP

Alison Leslie, LCSW, SEP, is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, EMDRIA Certified Therapist, and Consultant. Alison is also a Transforming Touch® Practitioner and has included somatic therapy and EMDR in her clinical practice for close to 10years. She runs a private practice, Empower Healing, in Bloomington, Indiana, where she works with teens and adults to heal from both developmental and shock traumas. Alison has a passion for supporting clinicians through consultation. She has a background in animal-assisted social work and includes nature and animals in her somatic and EMDR practices.