Embodying Emotions

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Speaker

Raja Selvam, PhD Related seminars and products

Integral Somatic Psychology, LLC

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Raja Selvam, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist, is the developer of Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) of which the practice of embodying emotions is the core clinical strategy. Dr. Selvam is also a senior trainer in Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing (SE) Professional Trauma Training Program. He has taught for twenty-five years in nearly as many countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the middle east, and the far east. His successful 2022 book The Practice of Embodying Emotions: A Method for Improving Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Outcomes, available in English and German, is currently being translated into eight additional languages.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Raja Selvam has employment relationships with the Integral Somatic Psychology and the Foundation for Human Enrichment/The Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. He receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Selvam receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Raja Selvam is a member of the American Psychological Association, the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy, the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health, the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, and the International Society for Research on Emotion.

 

Objectives

1. Describe the approach of embodying emotions and list its eight diverse clinical benefits.
2. Investigate the evidence base of embodying emotions.
3. Implement the four steps of embodying emotions in clinical practice to meet diverse clinical goals.
4. Implement the practice of embodying emotions in a simple seven-step protocol, of particular value in working with clients with complex traumas and psychophysiological (psychosomatic) symptoms.
5. Identify the three important determinants of affect tolerance in clients.
6. List the three categories of emotions with examples from each category.
7. Implement the three strategies for working with the face-and-throat physiology in the practice of embodying emotions.
8. Implement somatic strategies for working with existential themes (existential terror, fragmentation, rage, and shame) often encountered in working with severe traumatic experiences.

Outline

The Practice of Embodying Emotions

• How it can help you in therapy now
• The science behind improved outcomes
• New research, clinical examples, and therapy implications
• How to work with complex trauma and psychosomatic symptoms

The Four Steps of the Practice of Embodying Emotions

• Get to know the uniqueness of emotion-focused work
• Detailed guidance for what to do in each step
• Innovate strategies to help clients regulate
• Specific methods to integrate somatic work into other modalities
• How to customize therapy for each clients, therapy situations & other complexities
• Video Demonstration: Working with anxiety around taping an educational video for posting online

The Physiology of Emotions

• Understand the somatic relationship between body and emotion
• Compare and contrast theories on the physiology of emotions
• The Social Engagement System from Porges’ Polyvagal Theory
• The specialized role of the face and throat in emotion
• Video Demonstration: The practice of embodying emotions with recurring anxiety in the workplace, a focus on the face and throat physiology

The Seven-Step Protocol for Embodying Emotions

• Step-by-step instructions for each of the 7 phases
• What to do when clients have low affect tolerance 
• How to work with highly dysregulated clients
• Video Demonstration: How to implement the 7-step protocol  

Inter-Personal Resonance and Embodied Emotional Attunement

• What is embodied emotional attunement?
• Why embodied emotional attunement is important
• What is interpersonal resonance & how to use it in therapy
• The scientific basis of inter-personal resonance
• How to manage counter-transference with inter-personal resonance
• Four steps to incorporating inter-personal resonance in clinical settings

Working with Shame with Different Types of Emotions 

• Different types of emotions 
• Sensorimotor emotions
• Working with existential shame with different types of emotions
• Video Demonstration: Working with existential shame

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Psychiatrists
• Psychologists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counsellors
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Psych Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals