The Blossom Method: A Somatic Psychotherapy Model for Clinical and…

The Blossom Method: A Somatic Psychotherapy Model for Clinical and Everyday Settings

Dr. Vivien Sabel DPsych, Leeds Beckett University

A baby starts to communicate with their mother in utero and from the moment an infant takes their first postpartum breath they will offer much in relation to communication. A child’s instinct for survival and human interaction drives the infant to communicate with caregivers using unique movements, facial expressions, sounds, mouth, lip, and tongue shapes. These somatic narrative characteristics are slowly being recognized in infancy but after extensive research and having a distinct background (being raised by a profoundly deaf mother, studying sociolinguistics, training as a Sign Language Interpreter, clinical training), Sabel recognizes these and other non-verbal forms can be observed across the lifespan in child and adulthood. In her early research, Sabel noted many of these somatic expressions appeared to go unnoticed by parents and after years of clinical training, teaching psychotherapy and supervising therapists in therapeutic practice and training in counselling and psychotherapy, she noted a lack of attention being paid to sensorimotor and somatic narratives. Much attention is placed upon the linguistic and theoretical content of clinical training but little emphasis is placed on the somatic narrative as observed in the therapeutic encounter. This lecture will explain the model, ascertain its development, and provide examples of use in clinical and everyday settings.

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