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A Psychotherapist Discusses Mindfulness and Trauma in the Body

by | Jun 4, 2014 | FEATURED STORIES

In this lively installment of SEPtalk, author, psychotherapist, and longtime Buddhist and yogic meditation practitioner Lisa Dale Miller explores how SE® enriches her work with patients. She's a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner and author of a new textbook on Buddhist psychology and its clinical applications.

“Any psychotherapeutic professional who thinks they're only working with the mind is barking up the wrong tree”

In this conversation, she advocates including both body and mind in the treatment of trauma and other forms of distress, saying: “Any psychotherapeutic professional these days who thinks they're only working with the mind is really barking up the wrong tree because consciousness is embodied. Our trauma is embodied … this is not just about neurons: it's a full-bodied process.”

The full discussion is 34 minutes long and explores other avenues of Buddhist meditation, trauma embodiment, and the perplexing concept of “mindless mindfulness” (?!).

Hosted by Serge Prengel, a New York City-based SE Practitioner, this is the latest of several recent SEPtalk conversations that probe the benefits of combining mindfulness practices with Somatic Experiencing. For more on this subject, you may explore additional conversations with these SEPs:

https://relationalimplicit.com/category/podcast/

Lisa Dale Miller, LMFT, LPCC is a private practice psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) in Los Gatos, CA and author. She specializes in mindfulness psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing therapy for the treatment of depression, anxiety, addiction, trauma, emotion dysregulation, chronic pain, and relationship distress. Lisa has authored a highly regarded new textbook on Buddhist psychology for mental health professionals, Effortless Mindfulness: Genuine Mental Health through Awakened Presence. Lisa is an outpatient clinician for the Veterans Administration San Jose and a teacher of Mindfulness-based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) for addiction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for depression relapse prevention, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Lisa also presents at conferences on the clinical applications of mindfulness and Buddhist psychology. She has been a yogic and Buddhist meditation practitioner for forty years.