Resource Activation in Difficult Times: Combining Clinical Hypnosis, Yoga, Breathwork and Somatic Experiencing Techniques: A powerful Match!

Presenter: Dr Woltemade Hartman Ph.D

The world is currently plagued by the devastating Corona virus pandemic. Many have suffered various forms of trauma including the hurtful loss of loved ones.  In such difficult and challenging times we often cannot access our strengths and resources easily and we experience diverse forms of anxiety, confusion, overload, helplessness, despair and a general feeling of hopelessness. This necessitates psychotherapists to consider new and innovative strategies to assist clients and patients to gain access to their resources and strengths in order to regain an inner sense of safety and to self-regulate optimally. The goal should therefore be to enable our clients and patients to reconnect with life and to re-establish, flow, containment, coherence and re-connectivity to others. In this workshop we will briefly introduce you to the ideas of Peter Levine as well as the Polyvagal Theory of Stephan Porges and its usefulness in explaining the human nervous system response to traumatization. We will then introduce you to a variety of new and innovative trauma therapeutic exercises for safety and stabilization as well as techniques for self-regulation and to potentiate resources and strengths. These include, amongst others breathing techniques (also referred to as Pranayama) and Asanas (also referred to as body posture exercises) all from an array of Yoga exercises as well as Soma and Somatic Experiencing exercises. Additionally, you will learn techniques from Energy Psychology which will be easy to integrate into almost all therapeutic modalities.  The training utilizes a lecture-demonstration-practise format. Hence, the training is a stimulating blend of theoretical, vicarious, and experiential learning. Participants will be afforded the opportunity to practise the techniques online in breakout rooms followed by in-depth discussion.