Specialized Psychology

To be human means to orient vertically; it is our most fundamental human orientation. We live the majority of our lives in a vertical posture, assuming the advantages and challenges of the evolutionary development of a vertical spine. From infancy on we don’t waste any time trying to get ourselves vertical. Place a baby on his stomach and one of his first movements is to raise his head. He doesn’t stop there. As soon as possible he proceeds to push up, sit up, and stand up. Yet, integrated vertical standing is not a fixed and rigid state. Rather, it is a dynamic stance that makes continual fine adjustments in gravity. This continual stable motion in our posture and internal organs rouses information in the form of emotions, memories, thoughts and sensations.

What might happen if you envisioned a second version of yourself, a personal avatar that embodied knowledge for attaining your goals, for guiding your life or for improving your tennis game?

Post-modern challenges to embodiment and human vitality: a view from the street and the therapy room with Gustl Marlock

Working with families and babies who have had overwhelming experiences requires a certain skill base. I have been working in the prenatal and perinatal realm for over 15 years, over 20 years as a body worker, and over 25 in maternal and child health. In the last 14 years, advances in the fields of interpersonal biology, epigenetics, fetal origins, trauma resolution, affect regulation, neuroscience, and attachment have created more acceptance that babies have experiences in utero, during birth, and postpartum (neonatal). My work is about healing moms, babies, and adults with early trauma; prenatal and perinatal therapeutic approaches focus on giving babies the best possible start.

In recent years, researchers and clinicians have supported advances in understanding the effects of trauma on both mind and body that have greatly expanded our range of clinical tools and opened new possibilities for dramatically improved outcomes and deeper healing. One of these tools is Dr Stephen W. Porges’ Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) a five-day intervention designed to improve social communication by regulating physiological state and enhancing our ability to process human speech. “Based on Dr. Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, the program is derived from nearly four decades of research on the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and social-emotional processes. It is designed to reduce stress and auditory sensitivity while enhancing social engagement and resilience. It stimulates nervous system regulation by exercising and systematically challenging the auditory system with specifically processed music to retune the nervous system (regulating state) to introduce a sense of safety and the ability to socially engage” (Associate Manual Safe & Sound Protocol, 2017, page 1). Initially, the program was called the Sound Sensitivity Program and was recommended as a tool for clinicians working with clients having auditory sensitivities (hypersensitivity), social/communication difficulties and/or problems with regulating behavioral state (inattention, behavioral dysregulation). With case studies and research in hand, Porges changed the name when he realized the autonomic system impact beyond auditory sensitivity—he saw SSP’s impact on anxiety, trauma and social communication. When done in the right context, SSP can enable trauma survivors to socially engage in and benefit from psychotherapy (experiencing attunement, co-regulation, etc.)

Experts in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, sociology and education say that attachment theory’s underlying assumption — that the quality of our early attachments profoundly influences how we behave as adults — has special resonance in an era when people seem more attached to their smartphones than to one another.

Hopefully, with good work and practice, with learning ‘on the job’, with learning from one’s mistakes, and by doing some ‘outcome’ studies or research, and thus getting useful feed-back from our clients, our peers, our supervisors, our mentors, etc., we will improve our skill-set. Working in different places, under different conditions, with different client groups, and with people from different cultures, we are able to hone our basic training, natural abilities, our skills: this is the ‘craft’ component of our work. We can only get better by doing more.

We believe that the origin of some problems in life can be traced back to the pre – and perinatal period. Then they can be resolved, and new patterns can be learned and integrated – the old problem disappears and new ways of living can begin. This can happen no matter how old the person is.

For over 30 years, the field of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology (PPN) has taken the dynamic understanding of human development deeper by studying how babies’ earliest experiences in the womb, during birth and bonding, and as newborns shape and set in motion fundamental life patterns. These core patterns may be life-enhancing or life-diminishing. The findings from PPN revolutionize our notions of who babies are, who we are, what is going on during this primary period of human development, and how these very early experiences form babies’ core foundations at every level–physical, emotional, mental, relational and spiritual. PPN offers a unique lens of exploring this developmental period from the baby’s point of view.

She says, "If only I could say everything I want", and tells us that lately she has begun writing a diary, despite her inner struggles. When she talks about her writing she diverges and tells how sometimes a style of writing can change and turn the most secret thoughts in her diary into what she calls "real writing", and gradually the energy in the room changes and we all feel that we are marching "into the real" with her. From the universal pain that pounds the room sprout new buds, her pale face becomes pink once again; her hands that previously froze over her mouth awaken and begin to move seemingly of their own accord in excitement, in order to add additional dimensions to the pouring words. Her body straightens up and starts swaying to the rhythm of her words, and she no longer needs support for her back, which was previously aching, and it seems that the strength of her vitality serves her and is like an internal support invisible to the naked eye, enabling her to sit straight and at the same to develop new dimensions. Gottfried, my co-facilitator for the group "Attending to the Silence" says, "Look how the energy in the room has changed". And this new recognition in transformation beyond the old standpoints is molded; another option beyond the painful dynamics of victim-aggressor-collaborator.