Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: An Introduction - Dr Pat Ogden, PhD

Dr Pat Ogden is the creator of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Method, a pioneer in somatic psychology, an author, international lecturer and one of the leading voices revolutionising our approach to healing trauma.

Her books include “Trauma and the Body”, “Sensorimotor Psychotherapy”, and “The Pocket Guide to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy in Context”, which advocates for an anti-racist perspective in psychotherapy practice.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

— What sensorimotor psychotherapy is, how it was developed and the foundational principles it is built upon.

— Why the body is “a manifestation of the unconscious”, how each of our bodies tell a story and how to tune in to the story that your body might be telling you.

— How relational misattunements in early life are stored somatically, and how the developing self is defined both by who our caregivers perceive us to be, and also who they deny us to be

— The role our sociocultural context plays in our mental health and wellbeing.

— The importance of taking an experiential approach to your therapeutic education.

And more.

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Pat Ogden, PhD, is a pioneer in somatic psychology, the creator of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy method, and founder of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.  Dr. Ogden is trained in a wide variety of somatic and psychotherapeutic approaches, and has over 45 years of experience working with individuals and groups.  She is co-founder of the Hakomi Institute, past faculty of Naropa University (1985-2005), a clinician, consultant, and sought after international lecturer.

Dr. Ogden is the first author of two groundbreaking books in somatic psychology: Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy  and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment (2015) both published in the Interpersonal Neurobiology Series of W. W. Norton. Her third book in this series, The Pocket Guide to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, published in 2021, and she is working on Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Children, Adolescents and Families with Dr. Bonnie Goldstein. Her current interests include groups, couples, children, adolescents, and families; complex trauma; Embedded Relational Mindfulness; implicit bias, intersectionality and culture; the relational nature of shame; presence, consciousness, and the philosophical/spiritual principles that underlie Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.

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Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro
00:11 - Approach to Trauma and Body Awareness
10:52 - How Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Transforms Trauma
16:44 - How Early Influences Shape Somatic Experience
21:43 - Reflections on Privilege, Oppression, and Embodied Experience
28:09 - Identity and Misrecognition
32:05 - Principles of Century Psychotherapy
39:53 - How Sensory Motor Psychotherapy Addresses Depression and Body Dynamics
46:02 - Cross-Pollination in Therapy: Integrating Sensory Motor Psychotherapy and IFS
47:46 - Dr Pat Ogden’s Book Recommendation

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Interview Link:

3 Books Dr Ogden Recommends Every Therapist Should Read:

[lisasternenkind]

I have experienced extreme feministic psychotherapists, who not only made me suffer on top of having PTSD, but also literally psycho-tortured other women in group therapy, as well as male patients.
For example, another patient suffering from severe depression for years, said in the group setting that she had finally managed to prepare breakfast for her 12 yo daughter and her husband, for the first time after 8 years. So the two female psychotherapists made her apologize to the group, one patient after another, for "allowing" her husband and her daughter "abuse her as slave". She had to swear that she would never ever be a "servant" for her family, because her "false" behavior is a massive insult on all women. Then she had to stand infront of one of the 4 mirrored walls and tell herself, that she would never again do anything for her daughter or husband, that they could do by themselves.
The patient, who had initially been happy for breaking her depressive state finally and surprising her family by getting up and preparing breakfast, was crying pitifully in pain. But the two psychotherapists kept on scolding her for what they called a bad behavior and attack on all women of the world.
I stood up and asked the therapists to stop. I was then sent outside and my senseless "therapy" was brought to an end by the "therapists". Sadly, the report written by these two psychotherapists brought me lots of problems. The patient with depression later attempted to end her stay on earth, only one week after this had happened.
This happened in the clinic in Eschwege, Germany.

I had multiple similar experiences with female psychotherapists. Only one actually helped me as long as I had her.

I once had a meeting / talk with a leading psychiatrist, who was the chef of a trauma clinic in Krefeld, Germany. I was to be told when my therapy in the clinic was going to start. But the doctor gave me a totally different diagnose. He hadn't even looked at me when I entered his office. And then he addressed me with another name. When I told him my real name, he stated I was a liar. This doctor had obviously messed up the documents. He could have easily corrected this by stating he had made a mistake. But he did not do that. Instead, he changed my diagnosis, and declared that he had not made a mistake!
So now I looked up the information on this doctor online and I found out that he has been a bad chef to all the other doctors, therapists and nurses for years. He would frequently make major mistakes and then blame somebody else.

Another psychiatrist /psychotherapist was supposed to check whether I am able to get back to work. The Jobcenter Bitterfeld, Germany, wanted this information in a written report. When he got to know my history, he literally told the man at the Jobcenter, who was in charge of me, that he would only inform him via telephone, because my backstory could be considered politically incorrect as the assault was done by an islamistic youth gang. The doctor stated that he would not want to write a psychological report on a history that isn't politically correct, because this could backfire on him and then his career would be over.
I was very lucky that the man at the Jobcenter was okay with the report via telephone. If somebody else would have been in charge, I wouldn't have been treated according to my needs.

Psychotherapists shouldn't get away with such bad practices. The problem nowadays are therapists & doctors, who are woke cultists. They can literally destroy lives by bad therapy practice and by writing false reports.

[Iseeyou]

Oh I love this, guys are naturals at sensory motor psychology, back in the day we called it porn