Workshop: Melting the Shame Freeze: Somatic Techniques to Create Safety and Build Attachment, Bret Lyon, PhD and Sheila Rubin, LMFT

MARIN COUNTY CHAPTER OF CAMFT

SATURDAY WORKSHOP

Do you ever get into have the experience of thinking you’re on track with a client and suddenly they shut down, change the subject or become very upset? As therapists, we are there to support and help the client grow, but sometimes there is a feeling that we are missing something. Often it is simply and most profoundly the emotion of shame. Shame is the embodied belief that "something is wrong with me". Many clients - and therapists - are not aware of how unhealed shame can keep body and emotions frozen.

Shame is an embodied belief that "something is wrong with me". Because shame exists in the body as well as the mind, it is helpful for therapists to work with shame somatically. Clients stuck in shame have trouble seeing anyone but themselves. It can be hard for them to receive support from another person because they are caught in the grip of shame. In this workshop Bret Lyon, PhD and Sheila Rubin, LMFT will explore how to utilize somatic techniques to connect more quickly and forge a therapeutic alliance with clients.

• Learn to use breathing and grounding to resource the client 
  
• Learn to resource ourselves as we sit with clients so we won't fall into somatic counter-transference and take the client's physical shame patterns and follow them down into a frozen shame state ourselves or follow them down the endless shame vortex 
  
• Learn to keep our clients more present in the room with us and counter the shame reactions of over-verbalization, dissociation or freezing. 
  
• Learn techniques and theory from William Reich, the father of Somatics, Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing), Ron Kurtz (Hakomi) and Eugene Gendlin (Focusing). 
  
• Discuss Porge's Polyvagal Theory to understand how frozen a person can be in shame and ways to bring the person out of the shame freeze.

In addition to the lecture and case examples, the workshop will conduct a live demonstration on a brave volunteer to show techniques that can be used in your practice.

Sheila Rubin, MA, LMFT, RDT/BCT is a Marriage and Family Therapist, a Registered Drama Therapist and a Somatic Therapist. She has integrated somatic and expressive modalities with Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) to work with couples, adults and children who have shame and trauma. She has trained in EFT with Sue Johnson, in AEDP with Diana Fosha, and in Hakomi with Ron Kurtz. She is adjunct faculty at the CIIS Psychology and Drama Therapy Program and at the JFK University Somatic Psychology Program. She is a CAMFT Certified Supervisor and has been a healing professional for 25 years. She has developed techniques to work with the all-pervasive shame that underlies eating disorders and addictions.

Bret Lyon, PhD, SEP, BCC has been a teacher of Somatic and Emotional Mindfulness for over 30 years and holds doctorate degrees in both Psychology and Drama. He is a Board Certified Coach, certified in Focusing and Somatic Experiencing®, and has trained in EFT with Sue Johnson, in AEDP with Diana Fosha and in Coherence Therapy with Bruce Ecker. Bret has also trained in Reichian Breathwork with Al Bauman, who worked directly with Wilhelm Reich. He finds his theater background very helpful with clients and especially in giving presentations.

Bret and Sheila can be reached through their website:  www.healingshame.com