Hope for Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Sensorimotor Approach to Change

CPD

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Faculty

Janina Fisher, PhD Related seminars and products

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Janina Fisher, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and former instructor at The Trauma Center, a research and treatment center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known as an expert on the treatment of trauma, Dr. Fisher has also been treating individuals, couples, and families since 1980.

She is the past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.

She is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017) and the forthcoming book, Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma (in press).

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is an international expert and consultant on Trauma and Dissociation. She is a consultant for Khiron House Clinics and the Massachusetts Department of MH Restraint and Seclusion Initiative. Dr. Fisher receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. Dr. Fisher has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is on the advisory board for the Trauma Research Foundation. She is a patron of the Bowlby Center.

Objectives

1. Differentiate to clients depression as a somatic state, not just a psychological state.
2. Determine cognitive schemas that reinforce depressive states to improve client outcomes.
3. Appraise a Sensorimotor Psychotherapy approach to understanding depression.
4. Assess three body-centred interventions that increase energy and focus in depressed clients.
5. Evaluate Sensorimotor interventions that transform depressive beliefs.
6. Evaluate the use of the social engagement system and its role in evoking an internal sense of safety as it relates to treatment.

Outline

Explain to clients about depression as a somatic state, not just a psychological state. 

• Depression and the nervous system 
• How depression aids survival in childhood 

Identify cognitive schemas that reinforce depressive states to improve client outcomes. 

• Making meaning of depressive feelings and states 
• How negative beliefs affect the body and nervous system 

Describe a Sensorimotor Psychotherapy approach to understanding depression. 

• Teaching clients to become curious and interested 
• Studying the interaction of thoughts, feelings and body reactions 

Identify three body-centred interventions that increase energy and focus in depressed clients. 

• Experimenting with movement and posture 
• Techniques for increasing energy in the body 

Explore Sensorimotor interventions that transform depressive beliefs.  

• Beliefs condition the body 
• The body conditions and reinforces beliefs 

Discuss the use of the social engagement system and its role in evoking an internal sense of safety as it relates to treatment. 

• The social engagement system as a neural or somatic system 
• How therapists can make use of somatic communication to enhance therapeutic effectiveness

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Physicians
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals