Somatic Therapy Training in Canada
Where Somatic Therapy, Attachment Theory, & Relational Psychodynamic Practice meet
Somatic Therapy and Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy
Somatic Therapy allows clinicians to work directly with the body and through the right brain and right hemisphere, to access, process, regulate, and integrate traumatic material that is often difficult to access through more traditional talk therapy or left hemispheric practice. This way of working brings the body into clinical practice, offering an orientation that attends to the neurophysiological underpinnings or framework that the psyche is built upon. It is a potent clinical orientation that accesses material embedded and unprocessed in the body, the residue from traumatic experience, incident, relational, developmental, or intergenerational.
Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy is a body-centered approach to therapy, that recognizes how trauma, attachment wounds, and emotional experiences are held in the body, affecting nervous system regulation, self-perception, and relational patterns. The Bringing the Body into Practice Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy trainings expand upon traditional somatic therapy training and practices, focusing on working with insecure attachment, uniquely combining somatic practice with attachment theory and application to practice, affect regulation, embodiment practices, the Polyvagal Theory, and psychodynamic relational practice.
The Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy trainings are unequalled for the reparation of early attachment injuries and insecure attachment.
Attachment Theory and Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy
Attachment Theory helps therapists understand how the legacy of intergenerational transmission of trauma, through the early caregiving relationships (attachment relationships), unfolds and impacts the development of the self, psyche and the body, throughout the lifespan and across generations. In applying this theoretical knowledge clinicians can identify and work with long held patterns of relational injury including insecure attachment.
We know that insecure attachment has several features associated that makes therapy for both client and therapist more complex. Clinically, we know that insecure attachment: distorts the Internal Working Model(s) of the self (the self-concept and relational dynamics), dysregulates the Autonomic Nervous System and inhibits self-regulation capacity, impairs affect identification and regulation, distorts the narrative, and there is a lack of integration capacity, with the psyche and bodyself thwarting processing in order to preserve homeostasis or prevent the unbearable tsunami of affective material that previously threated the stability of the self.
This is our expertise, training psychotherapists to work with the complexities of insecure attachment in clinical practice.
The heart of the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy trainings is the reparation of insecure attachment, uniquely and boldly combining attachment theory and application to practice with somatic therapy, and relational psychodynamic practice.
Psychodynamic practice
Psychodynamic practice attends to the relational dynamics showcased in the content material clients bring to therapy, as well as the dynamics in therapeutic relationship. These relational patterns, often replications of early relational dynamics wired and learned through the attachment caregiving dynamics, are often embedded in ways of being, doing and thinking.
Because relational dynamics are wired in concert with the developing self, the body and psyche are impacted, therefore both must be attended to in order to process, integrate, and reorganize attachment trauma, and support development of the self. In combination with the embodied therapist, psychodynamic processing through the therapeutic relationship can offer disruption, recognition, and reconfiguration of patterns operating outside of awareness.
The training program understands the necessity of working in tandem with the narrative and the body, with specific attending to the relational dynamics in the here and now, in order to offer clients embodied witnessing, embodied relational meeting or contact, and novel relational experience to disrupt early and distorted relational experience and consequentially distorted self-concept.
This unique combination of somatic therapy, attachment theory and application to practice, and relational psychodynamic practice makes Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy a distinctly bold and potent orientation for the reparation of early attachment injuries, including insecure attachment.
Created & Taught by
Lisa Mortimore, PhD
As an educator, I am dedicated to the education and evolution, not only of psychotherapists, but to the expansion and deepening of psychotherapeutic practice. Teaching offers me an opportunity to translate and apply sophisticated and diverse theoretical and conceptual clinical frameworks into psychotherapeutic practice. I continue to be deeply engaged in my own evolution, and I bring rigour and clarity to my curriculum development, and an easygoing and approachable presence to my teaching. As a community builder and activist at heart, I work to offer transformational professional development for psychotherapists.
Stacy Adam Jensen, MEd
As an educator, I offer an approachable, down-to-earth application of complex material into clinical practice. My expertise revolves around working with insecure attachment, specifically the dynamics of working with chronic shame across the lifespan. In my clinical orientation, I lean into the fields of: trauma, attachment, emergent neuroscience, embodiment and somatic therapies, and relational psychodynamic therapy. Although the work that I do, and teach, is complex and sophisticated, I endeavour to make it accessible and applicable without losing the nuance necessary for relational, somatic practice.
Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Trainings
Created and Taught by Lisa Mortimore, PhD, and Stacy Adam Jensen, MEd
STAY TUNED,
WE ARE RE-VISIONING…
This distinctive clinical orientation and training weaves together diverse clinical knowledge to attend to and address the significant and long-standing implications of attachment injuries, including insecure attachment.
Our trainings are rigorous and offer expansive learning programming for clinicians who want to deepen and sophisticate their clinical knowledge, understanding, and therapeutic practice.
Online Somatic Therapy Trainings
~ Stay Tuned, we are Re-Visioning…
Who Should Attend our somatic therapy trainings?
Our trainings are designed for psychotherapists with a graduate degree in a clinical discipline. It is ideal for clinicians seeking a sophisticated and nuanced orientation to clinical practice.
Somatic Therapy Training FAQ
What is somatic therapy?
Somatic therapy is a body-centered therapeutic approach that explores the connection between the mind and body to treat trauma of all kinds, (attachment, incident, relational, complex), stress, and physiological and affective dysregulation. In bringing the body into practice, therapists are able to attend to injuries of the bodyself, the psyche and the neurophysiological body.
How does this training differ from Somatic Experiencing (SE)?
The SAP training has a focus on the reparation of relational injury (insecure attachment), by processing through the body, leaning into psychodynamic relational process and attachment theory. In addition, the training works with incident trauma. This unique foundation makes it distinct from Somatic Experiencing (SE) and similar body-based therapies.
Who can enroll in our trainings?
Our offerings are suited for psychotherapists/clinicians already practicing within their regulated scope of practice and looking to deepen their somatic therapy skills.
How are these trainings grounded in evidence-based practice?
Somatic therapy draws on research in neuroscience, attachment theory, and trauma studies — including Polyvagal Theory and Interpersonal Neurobiology — to inform clinical practice. Many approaches used in somatic therapy are grounded in well-documented psychological and physiological frameworks.
What’s the difference between somatic therapy and traditional talk therapy?
While traditional talk therapy primarily engages cognitive and left hemispheric processes, somatic therapy, specifically somatic attachment psychotherapy, weaves both right and left hemispheric processes. By working right brain to right brain and using the body, somatic therapy is able to access, process, and integrate trauma. This approach enables clients to access and process experiences that are held in the body, often preverbal or without words, and supports a reorganization of the neurophysiological body and psyche.
Somatic therapy is beneficial for anyone experiencing the effects of trauma, anxiety, chronic stress, or relationship challenges. It’s especially effective for individuals with trauma of all kinds – complex trauma, incident trauma, and relational trauma. Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy is specifically oriented to working with the injuries of insecure attachment.
Can I become a somatic therapist through your trainings?
No. Our trainings are stand-alone offerings designed for clinicians who already hold a graduate degree in a mental health discipline. They provide advanced somatic therapy training with a strong clinical foundation in attachment, trauma work, and relational practice.
Deepen Your Somatic Therapy Knowledge
Join the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Training and embark on an unparalleled learning journey into the clinical worlds of Somatic Therapy, Attachment Theory and application to practice, and Relational Psychodynamic Practice.