In this class, we explore the interactive dynamics of alcoholic, dysfunctional, and under-resourced families which results in the formation of unmet developmental needs and adaptive survival strategies.

• Explore the interactive dynamics of alcoholic, dysfunctional, and under-resourced families that can result in the formation of unmet developmental needs.

• Identify the impact of unmet / under-met / inconsistently met dependency needs upon character formation, self-organization, and the adoption of adaptive survival strategies.

• Identify common family systems within which developmental needs are more likely to be unmet / under-met / inconsistently met.

• Apply psychoeducation on trauma adaptation to support a strengths-based clinical practice.

• Apply interventions: complete the stress response cycle, the practice of self-compassion, seeking healthy connection and co-regulation.

Many of us needed to be silent in order to survive. Many of us learned that there was no one there. This class explores the sequalae of disrupted early attachment experiences of withholding the voice upon the neuromuscular patterns and character structures.

• Demonstrate self-holding practices for regulation and containment.

• Analyze the impact of caregiver behaviour upon the child’s development of attachment strategies, with focus on the truncated attachment cry.

• Understand the history of somatic psychotherapy.

• Demonstrate an understanding of how one’s attachment history reflects in the neuromuscular skeletal patterns of the body and informs the development of character structures.

• Evaluate oral armouring and oral collapse as protective defences that inform the development of character structures, which emphasis on resourcing and regulating strategies.

• Engage in an experiential to practice the basics of soliciting implicit body wisdom.

In order to maintain a connection with the caregivers in our early lives, many of us had to learn to inhibit or have fearful expressions to certain developmental actions of attachment - pushing, reaching, grasping, pulling, and having. These actions of attachment form the basis for embodied asking, receiving, giving, and letting go that underscores our worthiness in our relationships.

• Engage with non-verbal mirroring and attunement exercises.

• Identify implicit body memories and their relevance in somatic psychotherapy through experiential application of the developmental actions of attachment (yield, push, reach, grasp, pull, yield).

• Develop an understanding of over-coupled and under-coupled somatosensory memories, as it pertains to trauma, in order to develop a trauma-informed somatic practice.

• Engage experientially with the Oral Collapse and Oral Armoring character structures.

• Interventions for resourcing the developmental actions of attachment that accompany the Oral Collapse and Oral Armoring character structures.

• Engage with somatic practices and somatic elicitations around receiving support.

In order to survive neglectful and/or threatening early childhood environments, many children needed to adapt by creating a nourishment barrier.

• Describe the action-sensitivity cycle, common difficulties experienced by our clients, and its barriers (insight, response, nourishment, completion).

• Identify how early relational and systemic under-resourcing shapes the formation of the nourishment barrier.

• Apply strategies to cultivate the expansion of integrative capacity through a foundational relationship with physiological needs.

• Techniques for re-shaping clients’ autonomic nervous systems towards safety through co-regulation.