Western CEDAR

Mind-Body Healing: A Body-based Group Intervention for Trauma Survivors

Miller Hall

This presentation will introduce an original group therapy curriculum called Mind-Body Healing: A Body-based Group Intervention for Trauma. As a second-year Mental Health Counseling student, this project integrates the counseling techniques and theories that I have learned to provide an empirically based intervention for trauma survivors. The presentation will include a brief history of trauma treatment in the psychological field, an overview of the effects of trauma on the nervous system, and a review of the group therapy curriculum. The presentation will also contextualize the curriculum as particularly relevant today, given recent neuroscience research on the biology of trauma. The curriculum reviewed is a body-based group intervention for trauma survivors that educates survivors on the impact of trauma and focuses on a “bottom-up” approach by helping participants to create embodied experiences of safety and control to counteract feelings of helplessness and fear. The specific goals of the group will include providing participants with psycho-education on trauma, experiences of body safety and ability to tolerate difficult emotions, as well as experiences of social connectedness and attunement.