Group Psychotherapy Informed by the Principles of Somatic Experiencing: Moving Beyond Trauma to Embodied Relationship

Taylor, Peter J.; Saint-Laurent, Roger

doi:10.1080/00207284.2016.1218282

Cited by 7 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…These very same responses occur in the daily lives and experiences of group members, in relationships, in the workplace, as well as in the therapy group. The group setting affords a container where members can discover or recover the opportunity for self-regulation ( 45 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As well, the primary group facilitator works at tracking the nervous system at multiple levels, that of individuals, and that of the collective nervous system of the group. The facilitator provides support for the group and individuals, as the capacity to tolerate more intense experiences increases, within the range of resilience ( 45 ). An optional second care provider could be a student or intern from a social work, mental health, or bodywork background.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a body of literature that indicates increased skills in self-regulation leads to increased resiliency and coping. In the interpersonal process of an SE™ informed group setting, the survival physiology and activation patterns related to fight, flight, or freeze responses can be re-worked in vivo , allowing for the alteration of interpersonal symptoms often created from these responses ( 45 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, a group setting can also represent resources that provide a sense of safety and so can replicate the protective factors afforded by a herd, group members can resonate on the senses and resolution of the threat response, can find support among fellow group members, and so can collectively operate in the healing process. Group members can recover their innate sense of what is and is not safe and can vicariously learn for themselves through bearing witness to, resonating with, and managing distress evoked by the shared experiences of others in the group ( 45 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Somatic Experiencing® Informed Therapeutic Group for the Care and Treatment of Biopsychosocial Effects upon a Gender Diverse Identity

Briggs¹,

Hayes²,

Changaris

2018

Front. Psychiatry

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BackgroundSomatic Experiencing® (SE™) is a resiliency-based treatment for autonomic nervous systems dysregulation syndromes, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and physical syndromes like chronic pain, migraines, and fibromyalgia. “Transgender/gender non-conforming/gender variant” describes people whose gender identity/expression is different, at least part of the time, from the sex assigned at birth. Research indicates transgender individuals have a higher incidence of depression, anxiety, victimization, and discrimination. SE™ tools may support transgender/gender non-conforming individuals to increase resilience in the face of discrimination and social injustice.MethodsThis study is a pretest posttest within group (N = 7) pilot study assessing the impact of a 10 session SE™ based group treatment on depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), somatic symptoms (PHQ-15), quality of life (QoL) (WHOQoL-BREF), and coping with discrimination (CDS) for a cohort of seven individuals identifying as transgender/gender non-conforming. Materials were created in collaboration with members of the LGBTQIA community. Care was taken to be inclusive of gender non-conforming identities and culturally responsive in design.ResultsParticipants described their gender identities as: non-binary, female to male, male to female, and gender fluid. Participants had significant increase in psychological QoL (psychological well-being) (WHOQoL-BREF) p = 0.004, SD = 2.31, with a modest effect size of d = 0.71. Some likely impacts of historical effect discussed. No other clinical or QoL outcomes were statistically significant. However, one outlier was identified in the dataset. When this outlier was excluded there was a trend toward significant reduction in depression symptoms (PhQ-9) p = 0.097, SD = 3.31 and a modest effect size of d = 0.68; somatic symptoms (PhQ-15) p = 0.093, SD = 3.52 and a modest effect size of d = 0.72.ConclusionThese data indicate that a brief 10 session intervention of SE™ could have a meaningful impact on symptoms of depression, somatization, and QoL for gender non-conforming individuals. Further research is warranted.LimitationsFirst, this study has a small sample size limiting statistical power and generalizability. Second is a history effect. Less than 1 week prior to final data collection, there was a significant hate-motivated act in Florida targeting the LGBTQIA community.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Somatic Experiencing® Informed Therapeutic Group for the Care and Treatment of Biopsychosocial Effects upon a Gender Diverse Identity

Briggs¹,

Hayes²,

Changaris

2018

Front. Psychiatry

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“…Non-verbal neurophysiological activation plays a central role in traumatic experience, underpinning emotional distress, and fear in child victims of ongoing violence and war (Van Der Kolk, 2014). During this session, the children learned both individually and collectively to master embodied emotions through somatic experiencing of their emotional states and physiological responses to expressive activities proposed by the facilitators (Taylor & Saint-Laurent, 2017). The pupils’ appraisal of their bodily reactions to emotional states helped them to perceive their bodies as narrative instruments with the capacity to enact strategies of resistance and resilience (Osborne et al, 2017; Phili & Carleton, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healing stories: An expressive-narrative intervention for strengthening resilience and survival skills in school-aged child victims of war and political violence in the Gaza Strip

Veronese

Barola

2018

Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry

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Within a preventive framework, we outline a school-based intervention aimed at strengthening skills of survival and psychological functioning in children who have experienced war and political violence in the Gaza Strip. In accordance with a socio-ecological perspective on wellbeing and resilience, the pilot study aimed at evaluating the outcomes of a psychosocial narrative school-based intervention with a group of school-aged children in the aftermath of war. The intervention was oriented at empowering positive emotions, life satisfaction, and optimism in children as protective factors in preventing posttraumatic reactions after war. Findings showed the efficacy of the intervention in favoring life satisfaction in different ecological domains. Children in the intervention group showed greater appreciation for friends, school, family, themselves, and their living environment. At the end of the activity, children were increased the level of positive emotions, but negative feelings were stronger than before the narrative intervention. Clinical implications and future direction or community work are, then, discussed.

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‘We are all in this together’: Coping with stress during uncertain times through somatic experiencing

Özel

2023

Group Analysis

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on all countries and induced excessive stress and anxiety among many who are dealing with this invisible danger. Stress and anxiety originate from a threat, and chronic exposure to stressors results in feeling overwhelmed. When the coping strategies are not effective in a certain situation, the person might demonstrate conditioned reactions like fight, flight, or freeze. Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a resiliency-based approach that focuses on these conditioned responses of the nervous system to support the innate regulatory capacity of the body through interoceptive awareness and bodily sensations. This study aims to increase resiliency factors through a SE-based group counselling process. Two groups, an intervention and control group, each consisting of nine individuals, attended a group process for eight weeks. In addition to these groups, a waitlist control group was formed consisting of 31 people. In addition to pre-and-post individual interviews, The COPE-Revised and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale were administered to both experiment groups and the waitlist control group. An ANCOVA analysis found that the group process was statistically significant for both reducing stress and developing coping strategies. Furthermore, as a result of the qualitative content analysis of the interviews, five themes emerged: hope, universality, cohesiveness, insight, and interpersonal output (new behaviour).

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Group Psychotherapy Informed by the Principles of Somatic Experiencing: Moving Beyond Trauma to Embodied Relationship

Cited by 7 publications

References 4 publications

Somatic Experiencing® Informed Therapeutic Group for the Care and Treatment of Biopsychosocial Effects upon a Gender Diverse Identity

Somatic Experiencing® Informed Therapeutic Group for the Care and Treatment of Biopsychosocial Effects upon a Gender Diverse Identity

Healing stories: An expressive-narrative intervention for strengthening resilience and survival skills in school-aged child victims of war and political violence in the Gaza Strip

‘We are all in this together’: Coping with stress during uncertain times through somatic experiencing

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