Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T06:32:20.602Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Proximity, Defence and Boundaries with Children and Care-Givers: A Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2015

Pat Ogden
Pat Ogden*
Affiliation:
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, Boulder, ColoradoUSA
*
address for correspondence: Pat Ogden, Founder/Director, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, Boulder, ColoradoUSA. E-mail: patogden@comcast.net
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Traumatised children can be easily dysregulated by relational dynamics. These children often experience the sequential or simultaneous stimulation of attachment and defence characteristic of disorganised/disoriented attachment patterns. Expressing their relational needs for proximity and distance can be fraught with conflict, confusion, frustration and fear. Parents/care-givers are often baffled about how to balance boundaries and limit setting with closeness and proximity in a way that is effective for themselves and their children. Additionally, parents/care-givers themselves may have histories of trauma and attachment failure that impair their own ability to balance closeness and distance. Both proximity seeking or closeness and defense or boundary setting actions are organized by innate, psychobiological systems of attachment and defense, and for parents/caregivers, the caregiving system as well. Each action system has to meet particular goals to achieve proximity to and security with a trusted other (attachment system); to defend and protect when needed (defence systems) and to protect and care for offspring (care-giving system). The legacy of trauma and attachment failure, with their consequential neuropsychological deficits, can constrain and disrupt adaptive responses to the arousal of these three systems. This paper clarifies the inborn systems that drive actions of proximity and distance. A case study will explore the interactions of these systems in child/care-giver therapy. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy will be described and somatic relational techniques will be illustrated to address proximity and defence/boundaries in the context of child therapy and care-giver/child therapy.

Keywords

traumachildrenattachmentSensorimotor Psychotherapyboundariesfamily therapy
Type
Articles
Information
Children Australia , Volume 40 , Special Issue 2: CONSILIENCE IN ACTION - LESSONS FROM AN INTERNATIONAL CHILDHOOD TRAUMA CONFERENCE , June 2015 , pp. 139 - 146
Creative Commons
This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. (1963). The development of infant–mother interaction among the Ganda. In Foss, B. (Ed.), Determinants of infant behavior (pp. 67–104). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Boon, S., Steele, K., & Van der Hart, O. (2011). Coping with trauma-related dissociation: Skills training for patients and therapists. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1969/1982). Attachment (2 editions, Vol. 1). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Separation, anxiety and anger (vol. 2). Middlesex, England: Penguin.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent–child attachment and healthy human development. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Brazelton, T. (1989). The earliest relationship. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Brewin, C. R. (2001). A cognitive neuroscience account of posttraumatic stress disorder and its treatment. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 373–393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bucci, W. (2011). The role of embodied communication in therapeutic change: A multiple code perspective. In Tschacher, W. & Bergomi, C. (Eds.), The implications of embodiment: cognition and communication (pp. 209–228). Exeter: Imprint Academic.Google Scholar
Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P. (2010). Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Fanselow, M., & Lester, L. (1988). A functional behavioristic approach to aversively motivated behavior: Predatory imminence as a determinant of the topography of defensive behavior. In Bolles, R. & Beecher, M. (Eds.), Evolution and learning (pp. 185–212). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Gould, J. (1982). Ethology: The mechanisms and evolution of behavior. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Hall, J., Harrigan, J., & Rosenthal, R. (1995). Nonverbal behavior in clinician–patient interaction. Applied & Preventive Psychology, 4, 21–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kepner, J. (1987). Body process: A gestalt approach to working with the body in psychotherapy. New York: Gardner Press.Google Scholar
Kepner, J. (1995). Healing tasks: Psychotherapy with adult survivors of childhood abuse. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Levine, P. (2004). Panic, biology and reason: Giving the body its due. In MacNaughton, I. (Ed.), Body, breath, and consciousness. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.Google Scholar
Levine, P. & Frederick, A. (1997). Waking the tiger: Healing trauma. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.Google Scholar
Lichtenberg, J. D. (1990). On motivational systems. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 38 (2), 517–518.Google ScholarPubMed
Llinas, R. (2001). I of the vortex: From neurons to self. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons-Ruth, K., Bronfman, E., & Parsons, E. (1999). Atypical attachment in infancy and early childhood among children at developmental risk. IV. Maternal frightened, frightening, or atypical behaviour and disorganized infant attachment patterns. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 64 (3), 67–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyons-Ruth, K., & Jacobvitz, D. (1999). Attachment disorganization: unresolved loss, relational violence, and lapses in behavioral and attentional strategies. In Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 520–554). New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Main, M., & Morgan, H. (1996). Disorganization and disorientation in infant strange situation behavior: Phenotypic resemblance to dissociative states. In Michelson, L. & Ray, W. J. (Eds.), Handbook of dissociation: Theoretical, empirical, and clinical perspectives (pp. 107–138). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of an insecure disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern: Procedures, findings and implications for the classification of behavior. In Braxelton, T. & Yogman, M. (Eds.), Affective development in infancy (pp. 95–124). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Misslin, R. (2003). The defense system of fear: Behavior and neurocircuitry. Neurophysiologie clinique Clinical neurophysiology, 33 (2), 55–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nijenhuis, E. R. S., Van der Hart, O., & Steele, K. (2002). The emerging psychobiology of trauma-related dissociation and dissociative disorders. In D’Haenen, H., DenBoer, J. & Willner, P. (Eds.), Biological psychiatry (pp. 1079–1098). London: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogden, P., & Fisher, J. (2015). Sensorimotor psychotherapy: Interventions for trauma and attachment. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Ogden, P., Minton, K., & Pain, C. (2006). Trauma and the body: A sensorimotor approach to psychotherapy. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porges, S. W. (1995). Orienting in a defensive world: Mammalian modifications of our evolutionary heritage. A polyvagal theory. Psychophysiology, 32 (4), 301–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porges, S. W. (2001). The polyvagal theory: Phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 42, 123–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porges, S. W. (2004). Neuroception: A subconscious system for detecting threats and safety. Zero to three. Retrieved from http://bbc.psych.uic.edu/pdf/Neuroception.pdfGoogle Scholar
Porges, S. W. (2005). The role of social engagement in attachment and bonding: A phylogenetic perspective. In Carter, C.S., Anhert, L., Grossmann, K.E., Hrdy, S.B., Lamb, M.E., Porges, S.W. & Sachser, N. (Eds.), Attachment and bonding: A new synthesis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Porges, S. W. (2008). The polyvagal theory: New insights into adaptive reactions of the autonomic nervous system. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, 75 (10), 81–85.Google Scholar
Porges, S. W. (2009). Reciprocal influences between body and brain in the perception and expression of affect: A polyvagal perspective. Fosha, In D., Siegel, D. & Solomon, M. (Eds.), The healing power of emotion: Neurobiological understandings and therapeutic perspectives. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, J., Rand, M., & Asay, D. (1989). Body self and soul: Sustaining integration. Atlanta GA: Humanics Limited.Google Scholar
Rothschild, B. (2000). The body remembers: The psychophysiology of trauma and trauma treatment. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Sahar, T., Shalev, A. Y., & Porges, S. W. (2001). Vagal modulation of responses to mental challenge in posttraumatic stress disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 49, 637–643.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scaer, R. C. (2001/2011). The neurophysiology of dissociation and chronic disease. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 26 (1), 73–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schore, A. (1994). Affect regulation and the origin of the self: The neurobiology of emotional development. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Schore, A. (2003a). Affect dysregulation and disorders of the self. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Schore, A. N. (2003b). Affect regulation and the repair of the self. New York: W.W. NortonGoogle Scholar
Siegel, D. (1999). The developing mind. New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Steele, K., Van der Hart, O., & Nijenhuis, E. R. S. (2001). Dependency in the treatment of complex PTSD and dissociative disorder patients. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 2, 79–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steele, K., Van der Hart, O., & Nijenhuis, E. (2005). Phase-oriented treatment of structural dissociation in complex traumatization: Overcoming trauma-related phobias. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 6, 11–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stern, D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Tronick, E. Z. (2007). The neurobehavioral and social-emotional development of infants and children. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Van der Hart, O., Nijenhuis, E., & Steele, K. (2006). The haunted self. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Van der Kolk, B. (1987). Psychological trauma. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1960). The theory of the parent–infant relationship. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 41, 585–595.Google ScholarPubMed