Utilization of Presence Awareness in Trauma Therapy
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Client Specific Mindfulness Meditation
3. Presence Awareness
3.1. Presence Orienting
3.2. Presence Prompts
- ▪
- “As you bring your awareness to ____ (fill in the blank with the focus of the previous mindfulness meditation practice), tune to any subtle qualities, feelings, sensations you are aware of as you bring your attention to (depending on what mindfulness practice was facilitated) perhaps a sensation, color, temperature, movement, in or around your body”.
- ▪
- “Let me know what you are aware of as you tune in …”.
- ▪
- “Rest and Reside in _____ (repeat the client’s sensory words)”.
- ▪
- “Take a sensory picture of yourself as (repeat the client’s words) ______ in this moment”.
- ▪
- Reflective View: “Sense who you are as ____” (repeat the sensory words the client named).
4. Reflective View
4.1. Shifting Identification to Provide Symptom Relief Early in Treatment
4.2. Presence Orienting and PPTP
- The PPTM Protocol:
- Presence Orienting with Reflective View
- Including
- Felt sense of the suffering part of the mind in or around the body viewed by the client in bigger, wider field of Presence Awareness.
- Zooming In
- Bringing awareness to the specific feelings, sensations, negative beliefs, images of trauma within larger container of any of the Four Dimensions of Presence.
- Turning the View
- Facilitates clients’ awareness of various vantage from which to view and process and resolve trauma. Examples include client viewing trauma from Presence Awareness, Part of the mind in a trauma scene orienting to Presence Awareness facilitated at the beginning of the session, clients simultaneous awareness of Presence and trauma induced feelings, beliefs and symptoms.
- Case Example:
4.3. Zooming in and Broadening Awareness
5. Discussions
5.1. Shifting Identification to Provide Symptom Relief Early in Treatment
5.2. Utilization of Presence Awareness in Various Settings and within Other Treatment Models
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Type of Mindfulness Practice | Client Reported Experience after Presence Prompts with Reflective View |
---|---|
Grounding | I am Calm; Strong; Capable |
Spaciousness | I am Expansive; Horizontal; Clear |
Compassion/Love | I am Warm; flowing from heart (and often arms) |
Transcendent Presence | I am Connectedness; Oneness; Boundless |
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Lepak, M.M. Utilization of Presence Awareness in Trauma Therapy. Trauma Care 2022, 2, 589-599. https://doi.org/10.3390/traumacare2040049
Lepak MM. Utilization of Presence Awareness in Trauma Therapy. Trauma Care. 2022; 2(4):589-599. https://doi.org/10.3390/traumacare2040049
Chicago/Turabian StyleLepak, Michelle M. 2022. "Utilization of Presence Awareness in Trauma Therapy" Trauma Care 2, no. 4: 589-599. https://doi.org/10.3390/traumacare2040049