Alexandra Lauterbach, Boston
Emphasizing the inclusion of the body A report on the international conference "Psychological trauma. Maturational processes and therapeutic interventions", March 22-24, 2001, Boston, Massachusetts
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Approximately 400 people attended the 12th annual conference on psychological trauma directed by Bessel A. van der Kolk, M.D., and Terence Keane, Ph.D., at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts.
The course started out on Thursday, March 22, 2001 with two all day pre-conference workshops. In workshop I (Movement and action in the transformation of trauma: The role of somatic experiences, purposeful action, and theater in the treatment of trauma) 11 presenters introduced techniques that help develop experiences of control for trauma survivors, with a strong focus on the role of the body. Workshop II was held by Albert Pesso and Diane Boyden-Pesso on psychomotor therapy.
First day: focus on research
The main conference began on Friday, March 23, 2001. The presentations on this day were research oriented and started out with a presentation by Karlen Lydons-Ruth, Ph.D., on disorganized early attachment and its relation to trauma.
Martin Teicher, MD, PhD, demonstrated his research on how the brain is organized when neglect and abuse occur in early childhood. Using his lymbic system checklist-33 (LSCL-33) he found a similar heightened score for subjects who had suffered early abuse compared with those suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Other findings in victims of early abuse included a lack of development in the left hemisphere, a 12% smaller hippocampal volume on the left hemisphere and reduction in left amygdala size by 8.4%. In terms of treatment implications Dr. Teicher pointed out that the inadequate connection, found between the right and the left hemisphere in victims of early neglect and abuse, makes it difficult to switch between logic and emotions. The underdeveloped left hemisphere furthermore suggests that it is hard for these patients to use language to express emotions.
Rachel Yehuda, PhD., presented her results studying offspring of Holocaust survivors in New York City. Amongst others she pointed out the following effects of parental experiences on children of Holocaust survivors: increase in physical and emotional abuse and neglect, increased psychiatric disorders as well as substance abuse. Additionally she presented data from Cortisol studies suggesting that a low Cortisol level, as found in patients suffering from PTSD, might actually be a risk factor for PTSD rather than a response to the trauma.
These presentations were followed by a choice of six highly informative workshops on various concepts related to psychological trauma.
The first day ended with a presentation by Bessel van der Kolk, MD, and Terence Keane, PhD, on "Integrating the lessons from basic research with clinical practice". Emphasizing the importance of knowing how the brain of PTSD patients is organized and responds to triggers. Furthermore the limits of "talk therapy" were discussed.
Second day: focus on clinical applications
The second day of the conference was focused on clinical applications, starting with a talk by Onno van der Hart, Ph.D., on "Dissociation and the fear of traumatic memories" where he presented his model on different levels of dissociation.
Peter Levine, Ph.D., author of the book "Waking the tiger" presented videos of his body focused approach for resolving trauma. He demonstrated how he helps patients to use the body to modulate affect and sensation by "pendulation" between physical states of expansion and contraction.
A remarkable application of EMDR was presented by Deborah Korn, Psy.D. Her protocol on resource installation with EMDR helps to stabilize clients and to "repair developmental deficits". The focus here is not on processing traumatic memories, but on developing and enhancing positive experiences with the support of bilateral stimulation.
James Chu, MD, gave an overview discussing "The evolution of treatment approaches to trauma and dissociation" over the past 20 years.
A choice of six outstanding workshops was offered in the afternoon, before Hamish Sinclair spoke as the last presenter of the conference about "Breaking the cycles of violence by talking, feeling and acting".
In summary, during this year´s conference a variety of clinical applications, emphasizing the inclusion of the body, were presented that help trauma survivors to develop and restore a sense of internal control. This in turn increases the capacity to focus on the present rather than being stuck in the "black hole of trauma".
It became clear that the timing of the exploration and processing of the traumatic past is crucial and can not happen safely without resources being established either before or along the way.
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Short biographical note Dipl. Psych. Alexandra Lauterbach studied psychology at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Her original focus was neuropsychology, which brought her to the US to write a thesis with Dr. Robert Stickgold, at the Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Harvard Medical School. After completing her degree, she established herself in the United States. She was clinically trained in working with addiction, major mental illness and trauma (including EMDR). Alexandra Lauterbach is currently working in Boston as a therapist in private practice as well as at the Trauma Center with Bessel van der Kolk, while writing her dissertation on predictors of EMDR non-responders (in cooperation with the University of Cologne, Germany).
Alexandra Lauterbach
Email alexlaut@hotmail.com
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Citation Alexandra Lauterbach, Emphasizing the inclusion of the body. The international conference on psychological trauma in Boston, March 22-24, 2001. In: TRN-Newsletter 2, Hamburg Institute for Social Research, June 2004.
URL http://www.TraumaResearch.net/net2/confrep2/lauterbach.htm
Copyright © 2004, Alexandra Lauterbach and TRN-Newsletter, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the trauma newsletter. For other permission questions, please contact via email the editor Cornelia.Berens@his-online.de
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