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First Posted on July 27, 2010 by alisonball
Suddenly as the neurological effects of trauma can be validated and it is becoming “mainstream” to think that psyche and soma are inseparable, the name of our therapeutic approach that we coined in Melbourne in 1986- Somatic Psychotherapy- is becoming fashionable and is being used far and wide. Members of the helping professions are enrolling in courses that offer a theory and useful techniques for working with people who have suffered trauma and particularly Developmental Trauma.
Surprisingly, for the members of my original association, the Australian Association of Somatic Psychotherapists (AASP) these courses of say a total of about 12 days over one year, are being called courses in somatic psychotherapy. Our members had a basic training for a minimum of 3 years of about 540 hours each year. And after those three years they had to participate in years more of personal therapy, further learning and weekly supervision. And the basic course itself, was of university standard in its theoretical requirements and also included much personal experiential work so that the concepts became embodied.
The new courses being offered do not demand that the people training are involved in their own personal psychotherapy journey either before, during or after the training. It is my contention that a psychotherapy training takes time- a lot of it- and intrinsic to the training of a psychotherapist is having been involved in your own psychotherapy journey. I am sure most participants in these courses are building on other knowledge and other theory and practice that they have so that is a plus. And I am sure that the theory and techniques they will learn in the new shorter courses will be most useful but- without that immersion in their own process over a number of years that brings about a “gut” learning about transference and countertransference- I do not believe, the courses can turn out real psychotherapists and particularly real psychotherapists able to adequately work with deep seated trauma issues.