Transforming Trauma-Related Resistance and Stuckness

Coming to therapy is a cry for help, requiring the ability to acknowledge vulnerability. But for those who have been abused, abandoned, or rejected, being vulnerable is associated with powerlessness, humiliation, and violence. Almost every kind of traumatic experience involves incompetence or cruelty perpetrated by other human beings. No matter how much clients sincerely want our help, they cannot control instinctive fight, flight, or submission defenses stimulated in relationships to other human beings.

Should the client commit to therapy or flee? Combat the therapist’s every effort? Or “submit” by coming but not fully participating? Seeking help may bring initial relief in a moment of crisis but also inevitably raises doubts: Is it better to trust or avoid trusting?

Whether resistance manifests as a passive aggressive ‘no’ to every intervention, chronic avoidance, or desperation for help alternating with resistance to accepting it, the underlying dilemma is the same. What we label “resistance” reflects inherent trauma-related conflicts activated by all forms of treatment and all types of therapist.

In this workshop, we will explore the complex relationships between these trauma-related conflicts and stuckness or resistance in psychotherapy. Using techniques drawn from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, and other mindfulness-based models, participants will learn how to de-code these impasses and help clients work with them as an internal conflict, not a therapeutic issue. When we help individuals “befriend” the resistance, we become part of the solution instead of part of the problem.