Contributed by Janina Fisher

19 Results

Janina Fisher explores how to help your clients heal the parts of self-hatred and treat attachment trauma. Read more

Janina Fisher reflects on the beginning of her career and how differently we've viewed trauma in psychotherapy through the years. Read more

Open Book November 30, 2022

Is Our Culture Making Us Sick?

Gabor Maté on Stress and Disease

Gabor Maté's newest book is a reminder of the many ways in which we are not our symptoms. Read more

We’ve put together a video reel of therapists sharing some of the playful moments they’ve had with clients... Read more

The Perpetual Student

A Trauma Treatment Journey

A long-term client leads a therapist to discover that maybe the hard way is how we learn best. Read more

It isn’t easy to learn self-care. Sometimes, you need to go through a fiery furnace to arrive at a place of centeredness. Read more

What Four Decades of Practice Has Taught Me

Janina Fisher’s Lessons for Every Beginning Therapist

If you could go back in time and give advice to yourself as a beginning therapist, what would you say? Worry less? Train harder? Practice more self-care... Read more

Nine Simple Interventions for Depression

During COVID-19 and All Challenging Times

During COVID-19 and all challenging times, these simple sensorimotor interventions for depression can be easily adapted for teletherapy. Read more

Symposium Highlight June 3, 2020

VIDEO: Nine Sensorimotor Strategies for Depression

Trauma Expert Janina Fisher Breaks Down Her Key Interventions

What strategies do psychotherapy's most effective therapists use to treat depression? Trauma expert and bestselling author Janina Fisher breaks down nine... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 13, 2020

VIDEO: Janina Fisher on How Trauma Gets Stored in the Body

What It Can Teach Us About Navigating Covid-Related Stress

Research shows us that trauma is stored in the body. But how does this happen, and why? Here, trauma expert Janina Fisher explains, and shares how this... Read more

Nine Simple Interventions for Depression

Help for Challenging Times

Here are some simple Sensorimotor Psychotherapy interventions that can help those who are feeling depressed and alone. Read more

For many traumatized clients, even beginning to explore a traumatic event can be an act of bravery. According to therapist and trauma expert Janina Fisher, in... Read more

Case Study May 1, 2015

Rediscovering Happiness

The Use of Positive Childhood Triggers in Psychotherapy

To create deep change, we need to help people mine the sources of intense pleasure in their lives, wherever they may find them. Read more

VIDEO: Who Should You Talk To?

Janina Fisher on how and when to speak to a client’s “child part”

When an adult is in your consulting room, it’s understandable if you use adult language and logic. But at certain points in the healing process, you may need... Read more

Putting the Pieces Together

25 Years of Learning Trauma Treatment

Twenty-five years ago, we believed that helping trauma survivors dig into dark and unspeakable horrors would set them free. But in this new age of trauma... Read more

VIDEO: The Inevitability of Challenging Clients

Janina Fisher on Seeing the Cracks in the Foundation

In this clip Janina Fisher talks about how years of experience do not guarantee easy clients and how she reacts when faced with a challenging case. Read more

Case Study July 1, 2012

The Anatomy of Self-Hatred

Learning to Love Our Loathed "Selves"

With stalemated cases in which the task of self-acceptance feels impossible, the therapist needs to offer more than compassion and encouragement. Read more

Case Study March 1, 2011

Breaking Free

A Mind-Body Approach to Retraining the Brain

Putting the power of neuroplasticity to work in the consulting room. Read more

Brain to Brain: January/February 2010

The talking cure goes beyond words

As we learn more about the brain, it becomes apparent that therapists need to pay at least as much attention to the body and nervous system (both their own and... Read more

Janina Fisher

Janina Fisher, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and former instructor at The Trauma Center, a research and treatment center founded by Bessel van der Kolk.  Known as an expert on the treatment of trauma, Dr. Fisher has also been treating individuals, couples and families since 1980.

She is past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.

She is author of the bestselling Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma: A Workbook for Survivors and Therapists (2021), Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017), and co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma.(2015).