Somatic Therapy for Treating Intimate Relationships: Healing disconnection, betrayal, trauma and more through the body

Credit

Handouts

Faculty

Deborah Fox, MSW Related seminars and products

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Deborah J Fox, MSW, is a Certified Imago Relationship therapist and Certified Sex Therapist in private practice in Washington, DC.  She offers individual, couples, and group psychotherapy, as well as clinical consultation. Deborah conducts seminars and consultation groups on couples therapy and sex therapy. She has presented on these subjects at the Washington School of Psychiatry, the Greater Washington Society of Clinical Social Workers, the Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and the Integrative Sex Therapy Institute and at the 2018 international Imago Relationship Therapy conference. She has studied Somatic Experiencing and wrote the chapter, The Mind Body Connection: Sex, Couples and Somatic Therapy in Integrative Sex and Couples Therapy, by Tammy Nelson, Phd. She is passionate about taking couples therapy to a deeper emotional level and enabling greater intimacy and satisfaction. 

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Deborah Fox maintains a private practice. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Deborah Fox has no non-financial relationships.

 

Additional Info

Access never expires for this product.

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Physicians
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals

Outline

Module 0: Introduction to the Course

Module 1: The Interaction of Two Nervous Systems: A new perspective on relationship work

• What the nervous system can tell us about relationship dynamics
• Three principles of the Polyvagal Theory that are critical to working with relationships
• Experiential Exercise Demonstration: Identifying the influence of polyvagal states
• Unlocking implicit memory using body-based interventions

Module 2: Incorporating Body-Based Interventions into Couples Therapy Sessions

• In-Session Demonstration: How to start a mind-body informed couples session
• How to facilitate a conversation between two nervous systems
• How to teach mirroring from a nervous system perspective
• Skill Demonstration: Mirroring
• In-Session Demonstration: How to teach Mirroring in a dyad

Module 3: Learning the Language of the Body and Mind-Body Interventions to Repair and Heal relationships

• What the body can tell us that words can’t
• Decoding the language of the body • A guide to body-based experiential exercises for relationship work
• Four interventions to facilitate regulation and avoid shut down
• In-Session Demonstrations: Three couples demonstrate body-based interventions
• Case Example: Memory Reconsolidation

Module 4: Full Session Demonstration

Module 5: Somatic-Informed Sexual Difficulties in Relationships

• What every therapist needs to know about sex and sex therapy
• Evaluation and assessment
• The impact of emotional health on sexual relationships
• Common topics in sex therapy
• Case Examples

Limitations of the research and potential risks

Objectives

1. Describe how the structure of a couple’s therapy session can support nervous system regulation.
2. Identify three nervous system states according to Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory.
3. Demonstrate how to help clients establish a ventral vagal state of nervous system regulation in a session.
4. List at least four questions that can be used for therapeutic exploration, using physiological aspects of the body.
5. Demonstrate two strategies that can be used to intervene effectively when clients are stuck in a state of hyper- or hypo- arousal to help them find their way back into a more settled nervous system state.
6. Utilize two interventions that utilize a focus on body sensations to help couples identify the vulnerable feelings that are the source of their conflict.
7. Describe a somatic-based technique for couples who are focused on improving their sexual relationship.

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