Pat Ogden

Mindfulness, Emotion and Movement: Expanding the Regulatory Boundaries of the Window of Tolerance
June 29 - July 3

In recent years, psychotherapy practice has been influenced by a variety of clinical and scientific disciplines highlighting the importance of emotion and affect regulation in the formation and resolution of psychopathology. Affect regulation includes not only dampening negative affect and reducing dysregulation, but also expanding affect array and intensity, and amplifying positive affect. The nonconscious, bodily-based nature of affect regulatory mechanisms reflects early attachment communications and calls for non-verbal approaches that directly address these implicit realms. This workshop will discuss the nature of procedural learning, implicit memory, and trauma - and attachment-related issues as they pertain to affect regulation.

The presenter will demonstrate movement interventions for working at the regulatory boundaries of the window of affect tolerance as patients' arousal begins to challenge or exceed their integrative capacity, and teach techniques that serve to expand the regulatory boundaries of the window of tolerance. The difference between body-oriented techniques that mitigate trauma-related dysregulation and those that help resolve the strong emotions, cognitive distortions and intimacy issues associated with attachment failure will be explored. The use of 'directed mindfulness' techniques that enhance positive affect, allow traumatized patients to address past events without further dysregulation, capitalize on the intersubjective field to facilitate adaptive regulatory capacities, and facilitate the resolution of attachment-based emotions will be taught. Interventions and concepts will be discussed and illustrated through power point lecture, video excerpts of sessions with patients, brief experiential exercises, and handouts.