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Words Are Not Enough:

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Interventions for


Suicidality, Helplessness, Hopelessness, & Despair
in Children & Adolescents
Pat Ogden Ph.D., Bonnie Goldstein Ph.D.
September 10, 2022
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Suicidal Ideation & Suicide Attempts


Young people and adults alike experience escalating rates of hopelessness, despair and
serious psychological distress resulting in global increases in suicidal ideation and suicide
attempts.

Children and adolescents face readjusting to return to school, camp, work and life pre‐
pandemic, yet for some there is a reluctance to go back to the way life was (e.g., pressure,
hecticness, over‐programmed, socially challenging, anxiety‐ridden, depression inducing)

Less than half of young people with a mental disorder seek treatment and only a small
minority of individuals affected with depression receive care. (Plemmons & Hall Pediatrics
2018) For adults, stigma, around mental disorders and suicide, means many people are not
seeking help.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for children, adolescents, and young adults age
15‐to‐24‐year‐olds in the US, (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2021)
and the fourth worldwide among 15‐19 year olds.
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World Health Organization
•Link between suicide and mental disorders (depression and alcohol use disorders) in high‐
income countries
•Many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis associated with inability to deal with
life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship break‐up or chronic pain and illness.
•For every suicide there are many more people who attempt suicide.
•More than twice as many males die due to suicide as females; male suicide is higher in high‐
income countries For females, the highest suicide rates are found in lower‐middle‐income
countries.
•Suicide rates are also high amongst vulnerable groups who experience discrimination, such
as refugees and migrants; indigenous peoples; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex
(LGBTI) persons; and prisoners. By far the strongest risk factor for suicide is a previous suicide
attempt.
https://www.who.int/news/item/17‐06‐2021‐one‐in‐100‐deaths‐is‐by‐suicide
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https://www.who.int/news‐room/fact‐sheets/detail/suicide

Increase in Suicide Ideation & Behavior Amongst


Marginalized Young People
Children live in a cultural climate of vast inequities, with hate crimes on the rise, climate
changes escalating and onslaught of technology causing vast shifts in relationships (e.g.,
attentional challenges, less interpersonal connection eye contact, or face‐to‐face social
engagement).

Suicide was the leading cause of death among Blacks between 15 and 24 years of age (U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services of Minority Health 2019; Forbes, 2022)

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Native American youth ages 10‐24, and
Native youth teen suicide rates are nearly 3.5 times higher than the national average.
(Center for Native American Youth)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer young people attempt suicide at nearly five times more
than their peers (Johns et al., 2019; Johns et al., 2020).

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Social Location
Socio‐Economic Political
Status/Income Ethnicity Ideology Body/Appearance
Geographic
Location
Ability Sexual Orientation/
Religion Identity
Family Status
Neurodiversity
Race Education
Gender
Age
Immigration
Status Religion
Thinking/Emotional Language
Style Communication
Style

Warning Signs of Child/Teen Suicide


Changes in eating (weight gain or loss) and sleeping habits
Loss of interest in normal activities, sports, social, etc.
Withdrawal from friends and families
Alcohol or drug use
Neglecting personal appearance
Unnecessary risk‐taking
Obsession with death and dying
More physical complaints often linked to emotional distress
Feeling bored, loss of interest in school/schoolwork
Lack of response to praise
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Additional Warning Signs
A prior suicide attempt is the single most important risk factor for
suicide in the general population. (WHO 2022)

Giving away significant possessions


Seeking access to pills, guns
Talking/writing about death and suicide
Unable to sleep or sleeping all the time
Seeing no reason for living or purpose in life
Dramatic mood changes, persistent extreme anxiety or rage
Increased alcohol/drug use
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Guidelines for Clinicians


*The clinician’s task is to reach, together with the patient, a shared understanding of
the patients care. (Aeschi, 2002)

*The clinician should be aware that most suicidal patients suffer from a state of
mental anguish or pain and a total loss of self respect.

*There is no consistently reliable and empirically validated ways to predict or treat


suicide, yet overtime mental health professionals and others in our communities
have come together and have found ways to treat patients.

*We can’t be afraid that talking about suicide will lead to or foster, or encourage
suicide.
Farbarow, N and Shneidman, E. (1961) The Cry for Help, NY McGraw Hill, P 193‐203; (LA Suicide prevention center)
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Guidelines for Clinicians (2)
Research for over a century has produced no widely agreed upon theories of
suicidality and there are no consistently reliable and empirically validated
ways to predict or treat suicide Hedges, 2019
There are many “why” suicide Q’s:
Why did he/she?
What about her family, her children…?
I saw him yesterday and there was no indication?

Why is the wrong Question!

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“Tell Me Where It Hurts”; “How may I help You”


Psycheache: Shneidman’s term for unbearable pain‐hurt, anguish.
“Tell me where it Hurts” Shneidman’s intersubjective inquiry, and “How May I
Help You” These two questions are now the bywords of suicide workers
everywhere because if asked persistently, these questions will inevitably lead to
the epicenter of the individual’s suicidal urge Hedges, 2018, Shneidman, 1998)
However: the answers to these questions may not be verbal, but are told
through the arousal patterns, movements, and posture of the body,
moment to moment. For children especially, who often are unable to
find the words to answer to such questions, these non‐verbal indicators
are paramount. Ogden & Goldstein in press

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The difficulty of applying only verbal interventions in
treatment of suicidality
People actively experiencing some form of suicidality cannot give a clear or intelligible
account of what is going on for them at the moment. (Hedges, 2019)

Contributing Factors:
•Children may have limited vocabulary to describe their experience
•Child and adults may feel shame, inherently “bad” or that things are their fault
•Child (and adults) may fear that they will get in trouble or be blamed if they tell of
abuse/trauma
•Traumatic events are not available for verbal recall if they are not encoded verbally
•Traumatic events may be dissociated (split off from conscious awareness) and stored as
sensory perceptions rather than as verbal narrative
• Intergenerational and historical trauma do not lend themselves to verbal description
•White‐centered narratives may cancel out stories and experiences of others
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The “Somatic Narrative”: Recognizing


helplessness, hopelessness, and despair
Reflects trauma, attachment and
sociocultural history, related beliefs,
expectations, emotional biases, and affect
regulation capacities
Continuously anticipates the future and
powerfully determines behavior

Communicates implicitly to self and to


others Ogden et. al 2006, Ogden and Fisher, 2015; Ogden & Goldstein in press
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Possible Physical Correlates
Related to Themes Linked to Suicide
Posture: assertion vs. helpless, active vs. passive, anger vs.
well‐being; self‐esteem vs. hopelessness/depression

Proximity seeking actions (reach, eye contact, move closer):


social connection vs Isolation, support vs aloneness/loneliness

Boundaries: preferences, relationship, differentiation, identity,


conflict Ogden et. al 2006, 2015, Ogden, Goldstein & Fisher 2012; Ogden & Goldstein in press
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“Integrated actions are


abandoned or distorted when
they are persistently ineffective
in producing the desired
outcome." Ogden 2021

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Posture: an Indicator of Assessment & Rx
•Postures are positions from which only select emotions
and behaviors can be possible
(Barlow, 1973).
•Habitual postures, such as a chronically slumped spine or
“military” posture, influence our emotions, relationships,
self image how we think.
•Head down, collapsed posture, pulling inward, limp
muscles or a compensatory, mobilized posture may all be
signs of helplessness, hopelessness and despair.
•Different postures are adaptive in different contexts
(familial, cultural, professional, etc.).
Ogden 2014

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Proximity Seeking
Proximity‐seeking
actions are based on
predictions of whether
attachment figures are
accessible and how
probable it is that they
will be empathic &
supportive if needed.
Ogden 2014

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Boundary Actions go Hand in Hand
with Proximity‐seeking Actions
Say “No” Verbally Fight
Facial Expression Move Away
Turn Away Let Go
Push Away Look Away
Posture Refuse
Stay “small” Contact/Comfort
Ogden et al 2006; Ogden 2011, 2021
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Suicidologists around the world have identified trauma (abuse,


neglect and abandonment) as contributing to suicidality.
Hyperarousal Symptoms
FEEL IN DANGER: Accelerated heart rate, rapid breathing, hyperstartle response (jumpy), anxious,
nightmares, panic, rage, terror, trembling, hypervigilant, hyper‐defensive, hyperactive, high
intensity, circular thinking or unable to think.
A
R
FEEL SAFE: Present, relational, eye
O contact, initiates and follows through on
U “Window of Tolerance” * action, spontaneous, aware and
S responsive to environment

A
L
Hypoarousal Symptoms:
FEEL THREATENED: Flat affect, low energy, low vitality, difficult to reach, numb, little facial
expression, passive, “spacey,” poor eye contact Ogden 1992; Ogden & Minton 2000; Ogden et al 2006;
Ogden
© Sensorimotor Psychotherapy® Institute& Fisher 2015; Ogden & Goldstein in press
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Somatic Resources to regulate the arousal of intense
emotions and maintain arousal within a
Window of Tolerance Body awareness
Hyperarousal:
Grounding
Boundaries
Breath
Containment
Window of Tolerance Self‐Soothing
Optimal Arousal Zone
Movement
Reaching
Alignment
Hypoarousal: Centering
Ogden (2000)
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Tommy, age 13, Intergenerational Trauma


After an assessment at UCLA’s emergency room for suicidal ideation (pediatrician’s concerns
led to Tommy being evaluated), Tommy began individual and family outpatient treatment
addressing sadness, hopelessness, despair, suicidal thoughts, frequent dissociative
moments/“spacing out”
• Somber, Morose, moody, Increasingly Reclusive after Covid, Trouble shifting states
• Tommy’s distress, sense of overwhelm and silent internal struggles were evidenced by
frozen, rigid body, stocky build, lumbering gait; took short quick breaths
Interventions
• Address helpless/ lack of empowerment by mobilizing movement (swinging, kicking‐off‐
wall, hammock)
• Capitalize on emerging feelings in the present moment (feelings arising during session)
• Find meaning by identifying and addressing the ensuing intrusive thoughts and feelings that
come up (e.g.," I'm no good”, “I can’t do anything right”); working together to integrate any
new, positive, self‐affirming thoughts, as they arise.
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Transformative Moments in Treatment:
Embodying a New Way of “Living in his body”
Through the use of directed mindfulness, embedded in our therapeutic relationship, we were able
to:
• Capitalize on the neuroplasticity of the brain, helping Tommy to notice the internal somatic
indicators that compromise his well‐being (e.g., triggers his freeze, causes upset)
• Redirect Tommy’s attention to something that he might not typically notice (e.g., his breathing,
posture, or changes in the way he holds his body—especially changes that originate all on their
own); create a new or novel experience/ new neural pathways
• Develop a collaborative understanding about the ways that we hold our body influences how we feel
about ourselves. Introduced a somatic understanding of the body as a vehicle for communication
• Foster safety & connectedness/support, while noting the emergence of positive self‐thoughts
• Paradigm Shift: Tommy came to understand that the moments where he would freeze or dissociate
were his body’s way of self‐protecting, numbing the pain (e.g., not feeling anything in response to
his self‐loathing, shame, overwhelm); Shift from feeling helpless‐to‐empowered

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Immediate Results
Hopeful sign‐‐Tommy wanted to come to therapy whereas initially mom
bribed him to come
• Mom reports that he seems more hopeful and has moments of joy—
something she missed over the past few years—and feels more a part of
the family (e.g., more engaged, communicative, offering stories of his
day).
• School reports more interactions with classmates (e.g., returned to
playing sports with classmates rather than reading book in solitary; picked
a partner during school project rather than insisting to work solo)
• Physical changes include: Arms moved more freely and playfully replacing
his rigid, frozen stance, opening of his chest allowing for deeper full‐
bodied breathing
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Family Work: Multiple Windows of
Tolerance/Windows of Optimal Arousal
Hyperarousal
Child’s Arousal
Caregiver’s Arousal

Caregiver’s
Child’s Window Window of
of Tolerance Tolerance

Interpersonal neurobiology helps us understand how via attachment


relationships we regulate and dysregulate each other’s ANS with facial Hypoarousal
gestures, actions, expressions and vocal communication. The
experience‐dependent immature networks of children’s social brain
are sculpted within the dynamic interplay of states of arousal Ogden 2006, Westcott, 2014,
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A Paradigm Shift:
Embedded Relational Mindfulness:
Mindfulness has its roots in Eastern practices and spiritual traditions and has been
widely appropriated by Western cultures. It serves a different purpose when
applied to psychotherapy than it had in the original contexts.
Ogden, Taylor, Jorba, Rodriguez & Choi 2021
•Prioritize mindful awareness of present moment organization of Thoughts
experience instead of talking about, problem solving, interpretation & Beliefs
• Shift the focus from conversation Shift the focus from Emotion
Sensory
conversation about the past and narrative to mindful awareness of Perception
the building blocks of present experience.. Movement
• Conduct experiments (“what happens when…”) to discover the Sensation
organization of experience
• Track & name how the organization of experience changes in
response to a particular stimuli © Sensorimotor Psychotherapy® Institute Ogden et al 2006; Ogden
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2021

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A Paradigm Shift:
Embedded Relational Mindfulness™
Work with the meta level of how experience is organized
instead of content

A stimulus is
an experiment”
“What happens
Present Experience when…..”

Therapist & client together mindfully study the elements of the client’s
present experience (the building blocks) that emerge spontaneously in
response to a selected stimulus.
Ogden
© Sensorimotor Psychotherapy® Institute& Minton 2012

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Embedded Relational Mindfulness Skills


Support the Therapeutic Relationship
1. Track by observing the clients present experience (building blocks)
2. Make contact statements that empathically name what you track
3. “Frame” by collaborating with the client to determine a focus for mindful
exploration
4. Ask mindfulness questions that clients can only answer from awareness of
internal present experience. (When they can’t answer, use more contact)
5. Create little “experiments” (verbal and somatic) to evoke curiosity and study
the organization of experience (“what happens when…?)
6. Obtain mindful report: Request that clients share their present moment
experience with the therapist (when they easily can).
Ogden, Minton & Pain 2006; Ogden 2002; Kurtz 1990
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New actions, like new
words, can be viewed as
threatening and adversarial
by other parts or self states
whose reality is challenged
by such actions. Ogden 2014

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Celia, age 13
Somatic Presentation and Interventions
• Body tight, pulled inward, head tilted dramatically to one side
• Spoke in very soft, mumbled voice (often refused to speak at all)
Interventions:
• Discover what part holding her head to the side represents (lack of confidence)
• Empathically contact the part of her that held her head to the side; find out what that part needs;
experiments to facilitate communication between parts; track and contact results.
• Experiment with a change in posture by bring head on top of shoulders
• Track and contact the results (anxiety)
• Experiment with a gesture that reassures the anxious part so as not to override that part
• Return to experiment with the change in posture and track results
• Throughout, the therapist attends to the therapeutic
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Immediate Results
Celia’s Mom:
“I got my daughter back. She is doing much much better. I will let her tell you.”

Celia:
“I’ve, how to say, been practicing, and my mom’s been reminding me. I’ve been
increasing my voice level. I’m holding my head up more. That’s been going good,
and I’m increasing my confidence in myself. I’ve been socializing more with my
family. I’ve been feeling better about myself and wearing nicer clothes. I’m
wearing dresses, and I was self conscious about that too. School had been OK.
It’s been easier……I’m talking to my family.”

Physical Changes:
Head aligned on top of shoulders; posture lengthened, eye contact, audible
speaking voice
© Sensorimotor Psychotherapy® Institute

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Connectedness: Being there with someone


who has thoughts of suicide is life‐saving
• David Klonsky and Alexis May, 2014 theorize that “connectedness” is a key
protective factor, not only against suicide, but in terms of the escalation of
thoughts of suicide to action. Their research has also shown connectedness
acts as a buffer against hopelessness and psychological pain.
• Post 9/11 research suggests the witnesses to the collapsing building, and those
who lost loved ones were less likely to be diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, 6 plus months later, if they had someone that they could reach out to,
connect with a friend or loved one.

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Case Presentation: Sally Embracing the
Connectedness of the Group experience
Presenting Issue
• Hopelessness, suicidal ideation, immobilized (homebound, stopped going
to school, etc.)
• Adoption/identity issues: Bi‐racial parents (Sally is African American &
First Nation) questioning of identity, feeling that she doesn’t fit in, not
feeling accepted by her white mother, excluded from peers
• Older brother is a bully to her, threatening and menacing
• Even when resting, Sally’s body continues to stay "on alert,”
hypervigilance, etc.; difficulty sleeping, easily agitated, tired all the time
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Sally: Embodying a New Way of “Living in her


body; The Organization of Experience
• Suicide intervention included Group and individual therapy through the lens of
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
• Transformation over time was fostered by the connectedness and support of the
group and by noting the emergence of positive self‐thoughts throughout
sensorimotor psychotherapy interventions such as:
“Pushing” exercise: client had an experience of feeling empowered and supported;
she exchanged passive hopelessness for active defense and boundary
• Treatment clarified the physical changes accompanying this feeling of being
empowered, (how these changes “lived in her body”, inviting new postures)
Contrasting new posture with old (going back to the negative cognitions to sense
accompanying physical sensations, emotions, etc.)
• Embodying her new awareness through walking; Words that accompany this
somatic shift
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Sally reported, one month later:
The group ‘pushing’ exercise “felt like the moment everything
changed”; Therapy is relational and experiential
• Sally identified shifts in her thoughts (e.g., from isolation and
hopelessness towards hope, playing with possibilities)
• She became more engaged in and connected with others,
returned to school, took steps to self‐protect from her brother’s
hostility (e.g., insisted on a lock on bedroom door, learned somatic
ways to assert her new power)
• Physical changes: Head held high, appeared less exhausted, less
agitated, appeared calm during sessions (e.g., settling into the
couch vs. sitting up anxiously, less jumpy‐‐looking around the
room)
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Movement Vocabulary
We underuse, distort, or abandon altogether
certain actions (push, reach, lengthened posture)
that might mitigate suicidality when the action
repeatedly leads to a negative outcome.

It’s as if we have implicitly lost all hope in the


possibility that the action, if executed fully or at all,
could induce a positive experience.
Ogden 2021 Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute

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Tessa:
Her goal in therapy is to not want to kill herself
• I am a mistake, I don’t deserve to live, every day I wish I’d get hit by a bus.
• I regret that I didn’t die when I tried to.
• Alcohol abuse, night terrors, insomnia, impulsivity, racing thoughts
• 7‐8 hospitalizations for suicide attempts/gestures
• Variety of medications with mixed success
If a bus hit me today, I would not mind. Nobody should shed a tear. I am in so
much pain I do not need to be on this earth.
The body memories are really bad…. and the emotional pain that sits right
here (points to stomach). To know I have no value….and being raped is very
sad to me because it shows you just how powerless you are. I’ve known how
powerless I am for a very long time.
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Tessa
•Therapist: So, feel the tension, and then just bring your hands up and start to push
and see what happens…. (client smiles as she starts pushing) It feels good….
• Tessa: Yes…(pushes hard)
• Therapist: Feel that power…feel your body
• Tessa: It is, it’s power, like I’m able to finally get away
• Therapist: Push as hard as you want and feel your strength (Tessa pushes harder)
Yeah, that’s right, that’s right, it feels t feels good huh
Tessa: Yeah but it also makes me want to cry, it’s such a powerful feeling……it’s so
powerful…..
• Therapist: It is, that’s right.
• Tessa: I wish so much, you know I…. could have gotten away…
• Therapist: Do it now, you can do it now, you couldn’t do it then, but you can do it
now… . Feel that power in your body…
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Tessa
• (Tessa lets up on the pushing )
• Therapist: Do you want to keep doing it, or do you want to a pause for
a moment….(Tessa pushes hard) you want to keep doing it…(laughter)
• Tessa: Yes!! (Pushes hard, smiling)
• Therapist: Yeah, feel it, there is a real power there
• Tessa: Thank you (stops pushing and brings her arms down)
• Therapist: Now sense your body, to feel that capacity that you have
• Tessa: (smiling and crying) My heart, my arms….A HOPE ….. That felt
like hope!!

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Immediate Results:
Physical Changes:
Head lifted instead of pulled into her shoulder girdle. Spine more upright (but
still quite collapsed)

In Tessa’s words:
I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the pillow. It was different for me because I was
emotional afterwards. It felt like grief. It was coming from my heart and
tummy. I haven’t had any body memories. That is new. Before I got them
about once a week. The pushing on the pillow was amazing. It was awesome.
I felt that sense of hope, like a little kid, I’ve never had that before.
But it’s hard to sustain it.
I’m so glad I felt it, even a little bit, it is so nice to remember.
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Summary: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for
Hopelessness, Helplessness, Despair and Suicidality
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy with child and adolescent clients is
relational and experiential.
• We target posture, proximity seeking and boundary actions that
contribute to helplessness, hopelessness, despair and suicidality.
• We help children and adolescents feel better by exploring new postures
and actions that support well being and connection.
• Thus, although Aeschi (2002) suggests that we must reach a shared
understanding of suicidality with our clients, changes in the body can
© Sensorimotor Psychotherapy® Institute

mitigate negative emotion and suicidality without understanding.


Ogden & Goldstein in press

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Expanding Movement Vocabulary


Instills Hope
“Hope is a necessity for normal life and
the major weapon against the suicide
impulse.”
– Karl A. Menninger

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Resources in the United States
• Crisis Text Line, inspired by teenagers’ attachment to texting but open
to people of all ages, provides free assistance to anyone who texts
“help” to 741‐741.
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
• The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in
distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones,
and best practices for professionals.
• 1‐800‐273‐8255

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For info about online


trainings for professionals,
free and sliding‐scale webcasts, go to:
https://sensorimotorpsychotherapy.
org/curriculum/online‐programs/
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