Applications of somatic psychology: movement and body experience in the treatment of dissociative disorders

Abstract

ABSTRACT Somatic psychology is a powerful tool to address clinical dissociative disorders. Somatic modalities offer interventions to manage intense effect, offer corrective experience and build a coherent self-narrative. Using physical movement helps facilitate safety, strength and connection in dissociative disorder treatment. Clinicians can facilitate somatic regulation of dissociated experience by using somatic-based interventions with clients, therefore helping patients to re-pattern traumatic experiences and maladaptive coping strategies. Using case study examples from this author’s in-office experience treating patients with dissociative disorders using movement, this paper will address how bringing movement interventions into the treatment room addresses integration of psychological and physical systems. It will also discuss the foundations of somatic psychology and outline how somatic processing is important to the integration of insight and reconnection with the client’s sense of self as a whole.