What is Somatic Resiliency?

Somatic Resiliency A free, open access web site to assist mental health clinicians

What is Somatic Resiliency? It is best to start off with what it is not. Somatic Resiliency is not a form of psychotherapy. It is not a method of psychotherapy. It is the distillation of what I have learned from 43 years as a practicing psychiatrist and psychotherapist. It is an overall approach which I think can help us be more effective clinicians while facilitating our patients to recover and heal from psychological trauma. Somatic is in the name to denote that the approach involves the body actively and Resiliency as the main goal which is to help the people we see have a better quality of life, improved day to day functioning, and a greater ability to navigate life’s ongoing challenges.

I see myself as what I call a large “army” of therapists all over the country and the world who are working to make this world a better place one client, one patient, one couple, one family, or one group at a time. We try to do our best with our often-flawed selves. We all put a lot of time and money into training. We continue to put in our time and money by going to conferences, obtaining CEU’s and CME’s, licensing requirements, learning and becoming credentialed in a number of psychotherapy techniques, and in consultation, supervision, and in our own personal therapy. I am so proud when I am at a conference or training and look around at all of us who are spending precious time and resources to be better at helping when there are so many other things we could be doing.

This is why Somatic Resiliency is free and open access. I want to share what I have learned. Many of the ideas are not original with me. They have come from diligent researchers and clinicians over the years. Somatic Resiliency is the way I have distilled their ideas, as well as some of my own, in a manner I hope is easily learned and easily taught. I also have taught a number of these ideas to my patients. The resiliency skills are meant for them to continue on their own.

Those researchers and clinicians who have most influenced my thinking are; Habib Davanloo, Ron Kurtz, Peter Levine, Pat Ogden, Janina Fisher, Stephen Porges, Julian Thayer, Sigmund Freud, Pierre Janet, and most of all Babette Rothschild. Three clinicians who have helped me put my ideas into real practice are Kathy Norgard, Maya Youngblood, and Moriah Stillwater, all who have mentored me along the way.

A word about language:

I will use the word patients, not clients, throughout on this web site. All of those of us who are clinicians have patients. We treat people with mental and emotional disorders. We use DSM-5 diagnoses. We have professional licenses. We have patients.