what is psi^tm (PsychoSomatic Integration)?

PsychoSomatic Integration (PSI ^TM ) is an overall theory and approach, developed by Judy Lightstone, that is especially helpful in working with problems that tend to dissociate mind from body (e.g., eating and body image problems, anxiety, sleep disturbances, physical symptoms, etc.).  PSI approaches psychological trauma treatment by starting at the site of first impact: the body. Psychological trauma causes "bottom up hijacking," whereby any trigger to a remembered traumatic experience can be perceived as a threat to survival and automatically invoke fight/flight impulses that cascade into a form of psychological shutdown. Before any psychotherapeutic intervention can be effective, this cascade must be addressed. PSI does this by integrating bodily mindfulness approaches with ego state work and feminist relational therapy. Ego state work addresses the fragmenting effects of long-term developmental trauma, for those clients with a more chronic trauma history. And because long-term developmental trauma occurs in the context of a relationship, awareness of the therapeutic relationship is seen as the foundation for all other interventions. Relational therapy balances the study of structures or patterns of self experience with the study of persons in interpersonal process.

The therapeutic relationship provides an opportunity to work through harm from  past dysfunctional relationships and practice new healthy ways of relating.  Feminist relational  theory helps us not only understand how this occurs, but guides us in our interventions. Both Lifespan Integration and the DNMS  offer powerful techniques for repairing early attachment injuries.

EMDR combines cognitive behaviour therapy with stimulation of both sides of the brain to desensitize trauma quickly. It is most effective with adult onset trauma, and with single incident trauma.  Many off-shoots or derivatives of EMDR have since been developed to address the more long-term and complex trauma that often brings clients into therapy. The three EMDR derivatives used in PSI are Lifespan Integration (or  LI, developed by Peggy Pace), the Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy (or DNMS, developed by Shirley Jean Schmidt) and Put Your Best Food Forward (or BFF) developed by Krystyna Kinowski.

Trauma effects sense of time and development. Lifespan Integration, or LI, developed by Peggy Pace, enables you to view your whole lifespan from birth to present, or from the time of a particular trauma to the present, and to recognize adult strengths and capacities learned since difficulties in childhood.  It puts traumatic events back into the past where they belong, so that they are no longer haunting the present.

The Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy, or DNMS, created by Shirley Jean Schmidt, helps to re-parent disowned aspects of self (also called ego states) and repair internal relationships that were based on needs not having been met adequately in the past. It seeks to get ego states "unstuck" from the past, where they can be sealed off due to trauma or neglect, and help them to grow and integrate into life in the present.

Best Foot Forward, or BFF, developed by Krystyna Kinowsky, integrates bi-lateral stimulation with somatic resoursing techniques to address repetitive fear-based behaviours such as driving phobias and assertiveness issues.

Whether using it to heal or learn, PSI integrates psyche and soma, mind and body, spirit and heart.

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