Trauma Treatment State of the Art:
Understanding Phasic Nervous System Process Presented by Steven Hoskinson

Web Conference Description

Somatic awareness, or interoception, is an increasingly popular tool for psychotherapy and research, and trauma therapy in particular. Peter Levine Ph.D. remains the most seminal figure in this burgeoning field, and his approach is called Somatic Experiencing® (SE). Recent developments in the articulation and teaching of SE include the importance of recognizing primary phase transitions, based on the clinical assessment of moment to moment shifts of nervous system states. These states include the primary emergency systems of fight, flight and freeze, as well as the more stability-based neural architecture of the orientation/engagement system. These phases are embedded within the understanding of self-organizing biological systems, ranging from naturally occurring rhythms of the firing of a single neuron to their aggregation in larger circadian patterns. These rhythms are characterized by patterns of activation-deactivation which, in the appropriate conditions, will organize and synchronize. This organization is either supported or distorted by therapy. Unfortunately, too many traditions in the field of psychotherapy, in failing to appreciate the subtlety of emerging organization, unnecessarily promote catharsis, or work with too highly activated states. SE sees that the degree to which clients are trending toward physiological organization (known as coherence) is the degree to which they experience well-being and goodness. This is our aim.

   Steven Hoskinson has mentored directly with Peter Levine, and has successfully trained professionals in this complex process in the US, Europe and the Middle East. Breaking down the non-linear complexity in his model called “Organic Intelligence”, Hoskinson educates, entertains and entrains incoherence toward coherence with mindfulness and compassion. His warmth, didactic style, stories, humor, diagrams and video demonstrations create a learning environment that invites an experiential understanding of  the essential simplicity of this healing work. His students are successfully working for the common good with efforts in India, China, Congo, Uganda, Veterans Administrations, with homeless San Franciscans, and in schools and therapy offices around the globe.