In this module, we will explore what happens when someone experiences trauma and lay out a general road map to how we can heal. We will also introduce basic somatic concepts and skills relevant to trauma treatment, including fractionation, full-octave experiencing, orienting, the “felt sense”, tracking sensation, resonance, the window of tolerance, and the three phase and three boards models of trauma treatment.

Prior to embarking on any treatment of trauma, it is important to identify and reliably install resources into the person’s experience. In this module, we demonstrate how to help clients identify and access resources from a range of perspectives, including Full-Octave, Attachment-based, and Polyvagal Approaches. We introduce the techniques of Polyvagal Resource Mapping and Attachment-based Bilateral Resource Installation. We also explore the neurobiology of trauma including polyvagal theory, and its implications for trauma treatment.

Our nervous system sometimes fools us into thinking that a past trauma is happening in the present. We cannot rely simply on explicit memories to understand trauma history, because many trauma memories are implicit, i.e., embedded in our nervous system, beneath the level of conscious awareness. In this module, we explore how to help clients rewire their nervous system’s response to trauma by working with implicit memory through titration, pendulation, dual awareness, assessing and regulating traumatic arousal, and stabilization.

When someone experiences trauma they frequently dissociate from their bodily experience and fragment from themselves. In this module, we review the Structural Dissociation model of trauma treatment, and how to help a person recover from a sense of inner fragmentation. In particular, we will learn how to help clients befriend their inner parts, repair their past, and restore their connection with their younger selves.