VOLUME 1

Working with Somatic Components to Overcome Trauma Related Fears of Feeling Good
“M” is a 45-year-old woman who feels ready for a relationship but paralyzed by an inability to express positive feelings. Years of talking therapy have given her insight into this pattern as a legacy of early childhood trauma-without resolving it. During the session, client and therapist notice M’s shoulder twitching each time something positive is mentioned. Assuming that the shoulder is communicating specific beliefs or fears that can be addressed through internal dialogue, we ‘befriend’ the shoulder and explore the fears it warns her about. M experiences a relaxation in her guardedness-until a clinical error by the therapist triggers her at the very end of the session.

VOLUME 2

Steps Toward Healing Traumatic Attachment & Borderline Personality Disorder

“KW,” a 22-year-old mother of two, diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, wants to work on stabilizing a volatile relationship to the father of her children and learn to manage her rage and impulsivity. Adopted at 18 months after being removed from her abusive parents’ care, she has always exhibited classic signs of traumatic attachment: separation anxiety, fear of abandonment, rejection sensitivity, fight and flight responses to disappointment or betrayal-and equal difficulty tolerating distance and closeness. In this session, healthy attachment to her children is used as a resource to help her gain insight, develop control over impulsive behavior, and facilitate internal compassion and self-soothing.

VOLUME 3

Overcoming Suicidality, Addictive and Unsafe Behavior

“CP,” a client with Dissociative Identity Disorder, is working on changing her relationship to chronic suicidal ideation and impulsivity. In this session, she is helped to re-frame the wish to die as an expression of a suicidal part of her personality trying to control flashbacks and overwhelming emotions. This helps her more clearly differentiate the wish to live despite the self-destructive impulses. She speaks frankly about the shame evoked by traditional approaches to suicidality and how it fuels the suicidal part to desperate measures. By understanding the suicidal ideation as a communication from the suicidal part, she reports a growing ability to keep herself safe, no matter how intense the suicidal impulses.

VOLUME 4

Trauma & Relationships: When Intimacy Feels Unsafe

“J” and “S” are a couple in their 40s. In their two years together, health problems have undermined S’s functioning, increasing pressure on J. to be the breadwinner and caregiver. In this session, the couple is asked to mindfully notice their interaction: he speaks glowingly of his hopes for their future; she pulls away; he feels crushed and withdraws. Both feel alone and unhappy. In this session, they are asked to attend to their physical and emotional responses to each other without attributing blame. When they can stay connected to their bodies and focused on describing their own experience, the emotional walls come down, and they feel closer to one another.