VIDEO: The Self-Compassion Approach to Trauma Treatment

It’s important to honor all of your client’s inner parts in therapy. But accessing them to fully engage in healing work isn’t always easy, especially when they've been through unimaginable trauma and feel lingering shame, as is especially common with trauma survivors.

As therapist Lisa Ferentz explains in the short video below, since trauma is stored in the visual parts of the brain, and the body, the therapist's best bet is to use creative, body-oriented strategies that counteract this shame. Here's what this looks like in practice:

Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, DAPA, is founder of The Ferentz Institute. Her books include Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Trauma Survivors: A Clinician’s Guide, Letting Go of Self-Destructive Behaviors, and Finding Your Ruby Slippers: Transformative Life Lessons from the Therapist’s Couch.

As Lisa mentions in her Networker article, working creatively energizes many of her traumatized clients, "in part because they were already creative, having invented all kinds of strategies for safety and survival." Working with a sexual assault survivor, Melissa, she explains how she used journaling to help her move beyond her pain and even find ways to make meaning from the horror she experienced.

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Topic: Trauma

Tags: 2019 | IFS | inner parts | internal family systems | Lisa Ferentz | mental trauma | Networker Symposium | post-traumatic stress disorder ptsd | PTSD | ptsd symptoms | ptsd treatment | self-compassion | severe trauma | Symposium | therapy for trauma | Trauma | trauma therapist | trauma therapy | trauma treatment | traumatized | traumatized clients | traumatizing childhood