In the second video broadcast I watched last night: The Neurobiology of Trauma of the series Master Strategies in the Treatment of Trauma hosted by Ruth Buczynski (NICABM), Pat Ogden discussed how trauma can lead people who have experienced trauma to feel both victimized and empowered, and it is through the integration of these two aspects of the self that healing can take place. She described how she used her Sensorimotor approach to work with a client in order to integrate these seemingly conflicting experiences, which were stored in the left and right side of the body respectively. The client felt that the weak and victimizing experiences were stored on the left side, while the more empowering part of the self resided in the right part, as if the body were split vertically. I decided to refer to this short vignette because I realized again the huge significance and utter necessity of working with the body when treating trauma, and also, the amazing potential art has to quickly uncover lived experience and workings of our mind and its capacity to reveal material and knowing we are not necessarily conscious of and how art can complement working with trauma.

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