“Somatic Experiencing: Working Intra-Somatically ..."

“Somatic Experiencing: Working Intra-Somatically to Enhance Containment and Holding for Posttraumatic Dissociation”

David Levit, PhD

Friday, November 15, 2024

6:30PM – 8:30PM (EST)

PPSC

Live Webinar on Zoom

$60 Regular Admission and $40 Student

*This talk provides 2 hours of continuing education credits for LCSWs, LMSWs, LPs, LMHCs, LCATs, LMFTs, and licensed psychologists.

This presentation is about interweaving somatic approaches from outside of psychoanalysis into psychoanalytic treatment, especially for patients suffering from early developmental trauma and severe dissociation. Somatic Experiencing (SE) developed originally as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. SE is rooted in neurophysiology, biology and ethology. As its name suggests, SE focuses on the body, but it introduces ways of working in the body that are quite different from psychoanalytic modes. Levit will provide an overview of the SE model, but the focus of the presentation will be on illustrating how somatically based approaches from SE can enfold into, and enhance, psychoanalytic treatment by working intra-somatically. He will present clinical process illustrating forms of responsiveness based on SE. In discussing each vignette, he will invoke Ogden’s notion of looking at any clinical process from multiple conceptual vertices. Levit will consider each vignette from the perspectives of SE, of holding (as variously defined), and of containing. In so doing, he hopes to illustrate the synergy when interweaving SE into psychoanalytic treatment.

David Levit, Ph.D., ABPP, SEP is a Diplomate in Psychoanalysis and in Clinical Psychology. He is a Fellow at the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis and at the American Academy of Clinical Psychology. He is an SEP (certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner).  His current faculty positions are: Faculty and Supervising Psychoanalyst, Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis (MIP); Co-founder, Chair, and Faculty, MIP Postgraduate Fellowship Program-West; and Instructor in Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is former Associate Clinical Professor in Psychiatry, Tufts Medical School, and former Adjunct Associate Professor, Smith College School for Social Work. He has written about the interweaving of Somatic Experiencing into psychoanalytic treatment, and has presented extensively on this subject regionally, nationally, and internationally. He is in private practice in Amherst, MA, where he provides individual psychotherapy and psychoanalysis for adults and consultation for colleagues.

Learning Objectives

After attending this presentation, participants will be able to:

• name and describe two of the principles that are central to therapeutic approaches in Somatic Experiencing.
• formulate an example of an intervention from Somatic Experiencing and explain how its use can constitute Holding as defined by Winnicott.
• demonstrate an example of an intervention from Somatic Experiencing and explain how its use can facilitate the patient’s capacity for reverie and containment.

Agenda

6:30 – 7:00: Introduction of Somatic Experiencing (SE) and contextualizing its approaches in relation to psychoanalytic approaches in work with posttraumatic dissociative states.

7:00 – 7:30: Presentation of clinical material to illustrate interweaving of SE to enhance holding and containing with a patient suffering from an episode of early sexual abuse.

7:30 – 8:00: Presentation of clinical material to illustrate interweaving of SE in order to enhance holding and containing with a patient suffering from early severe and chronic sexual and physical abuse.

8:00 – 8:30: Q & A.

*For a refund to a PPSC Annex event, we must receive a cancellation notice 24 hours prior to the event. Please contact [email protected] if you want to cancel within this timeframe or if you have any other questions or concerns.

*Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P-0040, licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0166 and licensed creative arts therapists #CAT-0083, and licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0119. We are recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0054 and by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0118. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center maintains responsibility for its programs and its content.

*PPSC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, sexual preference, gender, gender identity, marital status, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its admissions and educational policies.

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