An introduction by Dr. Raja Selvam - ISP · 2019-04-13 · Part one: Introduction. What is Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP)? ... Working with the expansion and regulation of emotion

An introduction by Dr. Raja Selvam

Part One: IntroductionWhat is Integral Somatic Psychology?

Copyright 2018 Raja Selvam All Rights Reserved

Presentation StructurePart one: Introduction. What is Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP)?Part two: The four steps of emotional embodiment strategyPart three: The scientific basis of ISPPart four: Clinical examples with outcomesPart five: The Integral model of the psyche in ISPPart Six: The ISP professional trainingPart Seven: References


What is Integral Somatic Psychology?

• ISP offers new paradigms in body psychotherapy for improving diverse outcomes in all therapy modalities through greater embodiment of a wider range ofemotions


Why Emotional Embodiment?

• Affect tolerance in psychoanalysis. • The capacity to tolerate opposites in Jungian

psychology, alchemy, and Vedanta• ISP uses the whole body as a container to

develop affect tolerance and the capacity to tolerate opposites.


What is emotion?

The role of embodiment in affect tolerance


Part Two: The four steps of emotional embodiment strategy


The Four Steps of Emotional Embodiment

• 1. Working with the problem situation• 2. Working with the emotion

- Working with a broader range of emotions- Providing adequate psychological support - Working with innate and psychological defenses

• 3. Working with the expansion and regulation of emotion as well as brain, body, and energy- Working with body, brain, and energy defenses against emotions- Using a variety of tools that therapists can choose from- Using a model of physical body regulation based on nervous system

and blood flow- Using a model of energy body regulation based on different energy

flows- Maintaining a balance between expansion and regulation

• 4. Working with the integration, an optional step


Part Three: The scientific basis of ISP


How can emotional embodiment improve not only emotion but also

cognition and behavior?• The scientific basis of the effectiveness of

emotional embodiment• Newer findings from the new paradigm of

embodied cognition, emotion, and behavior in cognitive psychology and neuroscience

• Older findings from the literature on the physiology of emotions, body psychotherapy, and energy psychology



Variations in emotional embodiment work

• Level of emotion• Intensity (subjective difficulty) of emotion• Width and depth of expansion of emotion in

the body• Duration of experience of emotion• Emotional embodiment work has been found

to be effective when the level of all the above variables is low or high


Part Four: Clinical examples from Integral Somatic Psychology


Clinical Examples from ISP• The girl with panic attacks whose belly often

told her it was time for her to die• The woman who could not let her first love go• The woman with migraines who could not stop

crying• The woman with chronic pain• The woman with asthma• The woman with migraines who had difficulty

crying• The woman with neuralgia


Part Five: The Integral model of the Psyche in ISP


Why name the approach Integral Somatic Psychology?

• Because it integrates emotion, cognition, and behavior in the entire physiology? That is one reason.

• Why not just name it just Emotional Embodiment Therapy? Probably a better title for what it does and not as confusing as ISP!

• It is because there is more to the approach . . .




Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP)

• For more information on ISP: • Read the papers on the blog page of the ISP

website the links to which will be sent to you• View two ISP sessions by Dr. Raja Selvam and

their outcomes the links to which will be sent to you


Part six: The Integral Somatic Psychology Professional Training


Los Angeles, California

Module 1: April 5 – 8, 2019

Module 2: October 4 – 7, 2019; Module 3: March 27 -30, 2020

Contact: Nicole Quaid. Email: [email protected]

Austin, Texas

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.integralsomaticpsychology.com


Course Content Module One1. Steps, benefits, and science of emotional

embodiment2. Different types of emotions and how to support

them3. Innate, psychological, physiological, and

energetic defenses against emotions4. A model of physical body regulation and a

model for energy body regulation5. The physiology of emotions in the legs, arms,

and the head and neck areas6. The tools of embodiment including resonance


Course Content Module Two

1. The physiology of emotions in the muscles and diaphragms of the torso

2. The physiology of emotions in the organs, glands, and the blood vessels

3. A model of energy body regulation4. The role of four layers of the individual

energy body in emotional experience


Course Content Module Three1. The physiology of emotions in the brain and

spinal cord areas of the physical body2. The role of the fifth layer of the individual

energy body in emotional experience3. Working with the resources of four levels of the

collective through two higher energy centers to facilitate greater emotional embodiment

4. The spiritual implications of emotional embodiment


Part Seven: References


References

• Barrett, L. F. (2017). How emotions are made: The secret life of the brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston and New York.

• Colombetti, G. (2014). The feeling body: Affective science meets the enactive mind. The MIT Press: Boston, Massachusetts & London, UK.

• Creem-Regehr, S. H. and Kunz, B. R. (2010), Perception and action.

WIREs Cogn Sci, 1: 800–810. doi:10.1002/wcs.82

• Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York: Penguin Books.

• Damasio, A. (2003). Looking for Spinoza: Joy, sorrow, and the feeling brain. Orlando, FL.: Harcourt, Inc.


References• Duncan, S. and Barrett, L. F. (2007). Affect is a form of cognition: A

neurobiological analysis. Cognition and Emotion, V 21(6), 1184 –1211. Doi.org/10.1080/02699930701437931

• Johnson, M. (2007). Meaning of the body: Aesthetics of human understanding. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, Illinois.

• Johnson, M. (2017). Embodied mind, meaning, and reason: How our bodies give rise to understanding. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, Illinois.

• Hufendiek, R. (2016). Embodied emotions: A naturalistic approach to a normative phenomenon. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group: New York and London.

• Niedenthal, P. (2007). Embodying emotion. Science (316), 1002-1005.

• Pert, C. (1999). Molecules of Emotion: The science behind mind-body medicine. New York: Simon &Schuster, Inc.


Documents

An introduction by Dr. Raja Selvam - ISP · 2019-04-13 · Part one: Introduction. What is Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP)? ... Working with the expansion and regulation of emotion