Pat Ogden video: Restoring Healthy Orienting and Defensive Responses

Sometimes our smallest movements speak volumes – not only about the nature of the trauma we may have experienced but also about what we might need in order to heal.

As Pat Ogden observes, “The wonder of it to me is how much we can trust the body to guide us, it’s just amazing. That impulse to grow and to heal – it’s all in there”.

In the free video above, the somatic psychology pioneer shares insights from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy that help us to track and to talk about ‘preparatory movements’ with our clients. We also hear two helpful ways of thinking about orienting responses, and how to work with action and posture to coax clients’ natural bodily impulses to fruition.

As Pat explains in this in-depth discussion, an orienting response is a natural reflex by which all animals – from human beings to the deer in her garden – assess for threat.

But because we develop habits of orienting to select elements of our environment, these responses can be particularly eloquent about the experiences of our traumatised clients.

Whatever our clients present with in therapy, from PTSD to relationship difficulties, we can observe how the issue is being manifested and sustained in their body. From there, therapy can take two directions: working through the body to resource our client for the present, or using it to access and process past traumatic experiences.

How might we spot the beginning of actions that have been interrupted by trauma?

What can we do to reinstate healthy orienting and defensive responses?

What may posture reveal about a client’s outdated and disruptive patterns, and how can changing it predispose clients towards positive action?

When might we work through the body to process the past, and when is it better to resource it for the present?

Crucially, we also hear how these somatic insights can help us support marginalised peoples and confront systemic oppression.

In therapy as in life, the body always participates. Watch this free video to help you work with all that your clients’ bodies are bringing to therapy, from their communications about past wounds to their capacity to heal in the present.