Advanced Body-Focused Interventions for Trauma in Schema Therapy
(Part 2)
13-14th March, 2025 (in person)
(9:30am - 5:00pm)
The British Psychological Society, 30 Tabernacle St, London EC2A 4UE
Janis Briedis, Consultant Psychologist
Part 2 of the training builds on the introductory body-focused workshop (Part 1), going deeper with ways of bringing body focus to schema therapy. The workshop will be based on the latest research from neurobiology and attachment theory, looking at ways in which they can enrich schema therapy model. Many clients with complex trauma histories and attachment wounds will present with non-verbal aspects of the trauma which can be difficult to access through traditional methods of chair work, imagery or verbal dialogue. Unresolved traumatic past events, presenting as physical manifestations of schemas and modes, can be frightening, unpleasant and confusing both to the client and the therapist. The focus of the workshop will be, while helping clients stay within their Window of Tolerance, to help access and reprocess traumatic memories while promoting a solid sense of an embodied Healthy Adult.
Topics covered at the workshop:
- Advanced tracking skills – reorienting from spoken to somatic language - reading the client’s and therapist’s own bodies
- Framing – choosing a suitable focus in the sessions
- Guiding the client towards compassion and curiosity about the body – encouraging client to read body signals rather than fight them, taking a non-pathologizing stance
- 5-step model of accessing and working with somatic material (Ogden et al, 2006)
- Helping clients transform their relationship with their body where there are strong feelings of fear, shame, disgust and dissociation
- Using somatic interventions safely – using titration and somatic resourcing skills to access trauma safely
- Working with impulses in the body to complete stuck actions
- Working with activation of animal defences in the sessions
- Pacing when working with traumatic memories – one small step at a time
- Moving flexibly between working with trauma and non-trauma based somatic patterns
- Therapists working with their own triggers
Pre-requisite: attendance of 'Body-focused Interventions in Schema Therapy - Part 1' or an equivalent.
Training costs and to book
Cost: £325.00 for a two day workshop.
Payment may be made by bank transfer. Please email on