Persons living with posttraumatic conditions often struggle to form coherent narratives of past trauma. Haunted by fragmentary remnants largely encoded in nonverbal domains, the narratives of trauma are nonverbal as well as verbal. Active approaches to reshaping trauma narratives utilize experiential and imaginal processing of trauma-related personal and cultural narratives. Such active integrative approaches address the whole person and invoke action stories for transformative future-oriented change. This workshop will describe the role of rhythm, the body and therapeutic musicality in trauma treatment. We will demonstrate how body, arts and narrative approaches address dissociative processes. A whole person integrative bio/psychological/spiritual/social approach to care for the traumatized will be presented didactically and through experiential exercises. Participants will gain knowledge and practical experience on how a comprehensive viewpoint on storytelling can facilitate healing narratives.
Annual Conference of the International Society of Trauma and Dissociation, San Francisco, March, 2020.