How to Introduce Somatic Work to Skeptical Or Resistant Clients
Live Event

How to Introduce Somatic Work to Skeptical Or Resistant Clients

Sat, Jan 9th, 2027
10:00am – 1:15pm US Eastern Time
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About the Event

Many clients come to therapy expecting to talk. When a clinician asks them to notice their breath or feel their feet on the floor, the answer may be polite hesitation or a firm “this isn’t for me.” Clinicians new to somatic methods often read this as a lack of readiness. They either drop body-based work altogether or push past what the client can tolerate. This three-hour training offers another option. Drawing on Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing, Stephen Porges’s concept of neuroception, and Pat Ogden’s sensorimotor approach, participants will learn to see skepticism and resistance as potential protective responses that carry useful clinical information. The training covers common sources of client doubt, including cultural messages, past therapy experiences, and trauma-related fear of internal sensation. Participants will practice spotting somatic cues of hesitation before the client says anything. They will also learn language that links somatic concepts to frameworks clients already trust, such as CBT, faith traditions, and the medical model. Finally, the training presents a graduated sequence of entry points, from environmental orienting to direct sensation tracking, so clinicians can pace the work to each client’s capacity.

Live Event
This live online event will be held as a Zoom Webinar. Attendees will have the option to interact through features such as the Chat and Q&A, but cameras and microphones will not be enabled.

Live Event Instructor

Christine Baker

Christine Baker

Dr. Christine Baker is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Supervisor. She has been a licensed counselor in private practice for over 13 years, where she has specialized working with trauma recovery and people struggling with sexual compulsivity and their loved ones. She is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and EMDR trained, and she has also completed the Traumatic Stress Studies certificate through The Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute under Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. Dr. Baker has also served as an adjunct professor at Richmont Graduate University for many years in their Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program, and she has provided support to many organizations and non-profits through training and education programs.

Target Audience

This live interactive is intended for Behavioral Health and Addictions professionals, including psychologists, social workers, counselors, marriage & family therapists, art therapists, school psychologists, psychoanalysts, music therapists, behavior analysts, school counselors, and addiction counselors. It is appropriate for all levels of knowledge.

Learning Objectives

After taking this activity, you should be able to:

  1. 1 Identify five common sources of client skepticism toward body-based interventions.
  2. 2 Explain client skepticism and resistance as potential protective nervous system responses, using the concepts of neuroception and survival responses.
  3. 3 Identify five somatic markers that may signal client hesitation before it is expressed verbally.
  4. 4 Differentiate between sustain talk and discord as described in Motivational Interviewing, and apply one clinical response to each.
  5. 5 Develop language bridges that connect somatic concepts to four frameworks clients already use.
  6. 6 Apply a six-level sequence of graduated entry points to match somatic interventions to client capacity.

Cooper, M., Di Malta, G., Knox, S., Oddli, H. W., & Swift, J. K. (2023). Patient perspectives on working with preferences in psychotherapy: A consensual qualitative research study. Psychotherapy Research, 33(8), 1117-1131. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2022.2161967

Harwood‐Gross, A., Elias, S., Lerner, K., Nacasch, N., Lawi, C., Brom, D., & Barak, A. (2025). Veterans' experiences of somatic experiencing and prolonged exposure therapies for post‐traumatic stress disorder: A qualitative analysis. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 98(1), 175-192. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12570

Levine, P. A. (2010). In an unspoken voice: How the body releases trauma and restores goodness. North Atlantic Books.

Miller, W. R. (2023). The evolution of motivational interviewing. Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy, 51(6), 616-632. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352465822000431

Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2012). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change. Guilford press.

Ogden, P., Minton, K., & Pain, C. (2006). Trauma and the body: A neurobiologically informed approach to clinical practice. WW Norton & Company.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. WW Norton & Company.

Sariahmed, K., Alshabani, N., & Morone, N. (2025). The acceptability of somatic therapy for PTSD among patients at an urban safety net primary care clinic. Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health, 14, 27536130251366942. https://doi.org/10.1177/27536130251366942

Siegel, D. J. (1999). The developing mind: Toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience. Guilford Press.

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Event Agenda

Agenda times are listed in US Eastern Time. That is 3 hours later than US Pacific Time. The event starts at 7:00am US Pacific Time.

11:00 – 11:15 AM | Welcome and Opening (15 min)

  • Overview of training objectives and agenda
  • Brief orienting exercise so participants feel the first entry point themselves

 

11:15 – 11:55 AM | Understanding Skepticism and Resistance (40 min)

  • Where client skepticism comes from: talk-therapy expectations, cultural messages, the medical model, and past therapy experiences
  • Traditional views of resistance and the cost of pathologizing it
  • The nervous system lens: Levine's survival responses, neuroception, and the window of tolerance
  • Motivational Interviewing's shift from "resistance" to sustain talk and discord
  • Five types of client skepticism and four types of somatic resistance (developed from clinical practice)


11:55 AM – 12:10 PM | BREAK (15 min)


12:10 – 12:45 PM | Recognizing Somatic Markers of Hesitation (35 min)

  • Body cues that show up before verbal skepticism: breath, muscle tone, autonomic signs, micro-movements, posture
  • Sympathetic and dorsal vagal states underlying resistance
  • Using the clinician's own body as a resonance tool
  • Interactive Exercise: Case vignettes for identifying markers

12:45 – 1:25 PM | Speaking Their Language (40 min)

  • The Bridge Approach: linking somatic concepts to CBT, faith-based, medical-model, and practical frameworks
  • MI-consistent responses to sustain talk and discord
  • Language for common pushback: "This feels woo-woo," "I don't want to feel my feelings," "Meditation made me more anxious"

 

1:25 – 2:05 PM | Graduated Entry Points (40 min)

  • Six levels, from environmental orienting to direct sensation tracking
  • Titration and pendulation as pacing tools
  • Case examples: the intellectualizing client, the "nothing works" client, the people-pleasing client

 

2:05 – 2:15 PM | Q&A and Closing (10 min)

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