Touch Skills Practise Workshop

With Barbara Collier

Touch Skills Practise Workshop

With Barbara Collier

Touch can be one aspect of Somatic Experiencing (SE), a type of therapy developed to treat trauma and regulate the autonomic nervous system. The SE therapist uses touch to more directly intervene with the client’s nervous system. The table provides the best access to the client’s body while ensuring comfort for the SE touch therapist.

So how does SE touch work? Think of it like this. You’ve probably seen a caregiver picking up a crying infant. If the caregiver is calm, the baby inevitably quiets fairly quickly (barring, of course, specific needs like feeding or changing). But if the caregiver is anxious or upset, the infant struggles to calm down.

So, in much the same way, the SE therapist uses her regulated nervous system to help bring regulation back to the client’s nervous system. This happens through an entrainment process between the two nervous systems via touch. With support from the outside, the client’s nervous system can again regain regulation that is responsive to the environment, rather than staying “stuck” in dysregulation.

This “stuckness”, frequently a result of trauma, can be on the sympathetic side of the nervous system (e.g., anxiety, panic, etc.), on the parasympathetic side (e.g., depression, shut-down, etc.), or occurring on both sides (e.g., bipolar, medical syndromes, etc.). The goal is flexible and flowing regulation – which is the way the nervous system is designed to work.

So what does an SE touch session look like?

After a short time of checking in at the beginning of the session, the client is invited to lie down (fully clothed) on the table face up. The therapist ensures the comfort of the client, allowing the client’s body to relax (a necessary component of moving toward regulation). So pillows, bolsters, and blankets are frequently used. Once the client is feeling comfortable and the SE therapist is feeling settled, the SE therapist asks for permission to touch the client.

So when is touch especially useful?

According to Kathy Kain, MA, SEP, senior faculty with the Somatic Experiencing Training Institute, touch is particularly useful:

In working with early shock trauma that has a primarily physical origin (particularly when this occurs in the child/infant’s pre-verbal development phase). This is especially true when the client’s symptoms are manifesting as primarily somatic complaints.
In working with developmental disturbances that have a primarily physical origin, such as extended hospitalizations, particularly if the client’s symptoms are manifesting somatically.
When it is helpful to the client to learn to differentiate between appropriate, caring touch and inappropriate, harmful touch.
When touch helps the client integrate his or her change process more fully through all layers of self.
When touch helps the client remain resourceful in managing his or her activation levels.
When the use of verbal language is limited, either due to disability or language barriers.

In this 3-days workshop, we shall be learning the basic skills of touch work from the SE perspective.

Join us again in Casa Maya for another deep dive into this universe of self…

Barbara Collier

Guest Facilitator

Trained as a nurse and worked in the Intensive Care Unit in the early and mid-nineties, she has a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and several post-graduate three-year training certificates, such as:

Post-graduate studies in Dr. Stanley Greenspan’s DIR/Floortime model
Collaborative Counseling Social Inclusion and Bullying and Teasing certification
Attachment across a lifespan certificate
Biographical counseling certificate
Infant mental health
Sensory processing challenges certificates
Somatic Experiencing® Fascia

For years she has been working with children, adults, and families to build resilience and capacity within their systems, partnering with the wisdom that animals have taught her over five decades to join with and support clients in deepening and broadening their connection with Nature in honor of our mammalian heritage.

Touch Skills Practise Workshop

With Barbara Collier