Therapist Willing To Integrate Ogden's New Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Book

[SabrinaB]

I was diagnosed with PTSD 2.5 years ago when I couldn't pull myself back together after being retaliated against by my boss and betrayed by the senior HR exec for raising concerns about workplace bullying and patient safety. This trauma (and probably loss of my mother prior to all this) triggered a few remnants of a repressed early childhood incident. I was stunned when I realized I had blocked this out, including the devastating PTSD aftereffects, along with chunks of my childhood, essentially creating a "new and improved" split off version of myself. I'm in my early 50s and had been living a full life with a family and challenging career before all this. Now, I can't work and am plagued with about every type of symptom, with a heavy prevalence of emotional and somatic body responses.

I loved my first therapist, who had personal experience with PTSD and was validating, but needed the expertise of someone more skilled to get well, so started seeing my current psychologist weekly in December. She uses a more psychodynamic approach and set a goal to use graduated exposure to decrease my response to triggers, but it's been very slow going because even simple acts such as providing an overview of my work-related history exacerbate my symptoms. I have pretty solid stabilizing skills, so that's not really an issue.

About 2 months ago I started dissociating during the sessions, which was new for me. I generally experience physical anxiety/ panic symptoms prior to appointments but have been reasonably grounded during therapy. Then we hit a rough patch where I felt myself getting defensive and feeling invalidated by her responses. In a follow up session I suddenly found myself turned sideways away from her, my legs were shaking and I couldn't respond when she was speaking to me, though I didn't recall moving my body or what was said. Next time it felt like my head was floating right off into space and we needed to spend time getting me back into my body. During all this I had a strong urge to drop her but recognized this may be some type of transference reaction and I needed to re-learn how to navigate interpersonal conflicts, so have been working through it.

I cry at the drop of a hat and have very strong physical reactions, but cannot connect these to specific thoughts because my mind is usually clear and calm. This has become a point of frustration because my T's trying to elicit my thoughts, feelings etc. but the information isn't accessible to me. I've read up on the somatic therapies and even attended a workshop to learn more about this type of approach (met Peter Levine!), but there are few practitioners in my area and the ones I found were't accepting new patients or my insurance.

I ordered Pat Ogden's new book Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Interventions for Trauma and Attachment soon after it was published this spring and was blown away by the depth of the content. Was surprised to find it presented in a workbook type of fashion. After reading the first few chapters and skimming through it I raised the idea of integrating the content and worksheets into therapy. My T agreed to order the book and then read the first chapters. We discussed this last week and she agreed to give it a try. At first she felt unqualified and was looking to find a more somatically based therapist to refer me to, but now that she's validated the theoretical basis of the content and can integrate this approach with her own, she feels more at ease and in fact is actually excited to give this a go.

I'm reassured to now have common ground to work from and a clearer direction, but am wondering what I've gotten myself into. Therefore thought I'd post this to get other's perspectives. Here are some of my questions:

1. Does anyone have experience with Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and can they share it? There's some mention on previous threads, but not a lot of specifics.
2. Has anyone read and/or worked through this book, either on their own or in concert with therapy?
3. Has anyone else raised and gotten their therapist to agree to a new approach?
3. Are there any other comments or suggestions to this topic in general?

Thank you in advance and also for reading this post, which is longer than I anticipated!

 

[Chava]

I don't feel like I can really answer your questions. But a couple things I can maybe add: I am doing body psychotherapy and it is a much better fit for me. I think body-psych and sensorimotor methods are really helpful tools for addressing somatic symptoms and early trauma.

Having a therapist just try on a totally new approach might be scary, but any serious professional is always adding to their repertoire. If she is able to use those tools and connect to what she already knows or does well, it could be helpful. For me it probably matters most that my therapist comes from a sort of process perspective and is willing to learn from me. She's has a good basis in different forms of body psychotherapy relevant to early trauma, but she's also creative and willing to consider ideas I bring in. We've been using sound some lately because it helps me stay grounded and connected.

Good job recognizing possible transference stuff or points to work through versus quit...and bringing some new ideas back to your therapy. That's all empowering stuff. Hope some of the sensorimotor tools work well for you.

 

[lido]

I've been using this text with my T and found it very helpful! Wonderful grounding exercises and clear approach. I don't feel that it requires much additional expertise from the T, but can't say for sure. I'm very lucky to have a wonderful, experienced T who recommended this approach. Good luck!

 

[StellaBlue]

Like you, I feel like I've reached a "stuck" point in therapy...I think there's a lot of misattunement with my therapist regarding goals and how to safely reach them. I've done a lot of research on somatic work and have incorporated some of it into my "self-help" but I haven't been able to find a body-based therapist.

After reading your post and the reviews of this book elsewhere, I ordered it and, like you, I read the first couple of chapters and skimmed the rest - it's a lot of information (I didn't expect to receive a 4-lb textbook!) I also like that it is in a "workbook" format. So (taking your lead again :)), I lent it to my therapist to see if she would be comfortable incorporating it into the work we're doing. She was clear that she is not a "somatic" therapist, but has agreed to take a couple of weeks to look it over and think about it.

2. Has anyone read and/or worked through this book, either on their own or in concert with therapy?

I think, because the book is so new, there aren't going to be many folks who have worked through the book. I'll be curious how you are doing with it and hope you post more information as you progress.

 

[Summer Ava]

My new trauma therapist is trained in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. I'm finding it helpful so far. After 6 sessions with her, I have felt back in my body -- for a long time I was cut off from it. Previous therapy didn't help. So this is definite progress.

That's great you met Peter Levine.

 

[falling_wave]

I would check to make sure she is getting supervision by someone who is experienced with the new approach. If she has never been supervised by someone with this approach and is not currently then it goes against their professional code of ethics and could cause hard to you.