Woman self hug - sketched art
CPD Credits
3
Event Type
Live Online Event
Location
Zoom & Recording
Time (UK)
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Standard
£80.00
Trainee/NHS
£68
Book Tickets
Woman self hug - sketched art
Friday, September 18, 2026

Psychoanalysis and Somatic Trauma Treatment Models

Treatment for patients suffering from early developmental trauma 

With Dr David Levit & Dr Zack Eleftheriadou (Chair)

In this seminar, Dr David Levit, psychoanalyst and certified Somatic Experiencing® practitioner, explores how insights from somatic trauma therapies can be thoughtfully integrated into psychoanalytic treatment while remaining grounded in core psychoanalytic principles.

Drawing on Winnicott’s concept of holding, Bion’s theory of containment, and Ogden’s multiple theoretical vertices, Dr Levit will examine how somatic interventions can be interwoven with psychoanalytic thinking in work with patients experiencing dissociation, embodied states of fear and terror, post-traumatic stress, and the enduring effects of developmental trauma.

Clinicians may be familiar 'fight or flight' states, but our responses to threat are much more complex. They also include fawn, freeze, attachment and orienting responses. For people experiencing post-traumatic stress, these ordinarily adaptive systems can become “stuck”. A person may become overwhelmed and overactivated, or they may collapse, shut down and enter profound dissociative states.

A somatic perspective offers clinicians ways of working directly with these bodily responses. A key part of this work is learning to notice not only a patient’s dysregulation, but also the very subtle signs that their system is attempting to move towards regulation. By recognising, attending to and facilitating these responses, the clinician may help the patient develop a greater sense of agency and a more centred self.

The seminar will offer both a theoretical framework and practical clinical perspectives for practitioners interested in bringing greater attention to the body into their psychoanalytic or psychodynamic work.

Programme

14.00 Introductions
14.05 Introductory remarks about somatic trauma therapies

Contextualising their contribution to psychoanalytic treatment through a brief overview of psychoanalytic modes of working with the body in treatment and working with posttraumatic dissociative states. Including an outline of human psychobiological responses to felt threat/danger.

14.30 Q&A
14.45 First patient: “Sue”

This session includes two clinical vignette interweaving intervention from somatic trauma therapies into psychoanalytic treatment. Followed by a discussion of clinical process from three vantage points: somatic trauma therapy perspective, holding, and containing.

15.30 Q&A
15.45 Break
16.00  Second patient: “Ellie”

This second case study will include multiple clinical vignettes along with discussion from the same three vantagepoints: somatic trauma therapy perspective, holding, and containing.

16.45 Q&A
17.00 End

Zack Eleftheriadou

Dr Zack Eleftheriadou is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist and Fellow of the British Psychological Society (HCPC reg). She has trained as a child and parent-infant psychotherapist (CPJA/UKCP) and as an adult psychoanalytic psychotherapist (CPJA/UKCP & Tavistock Society/BPC). Zack runs the consultancy service ‘Noema Psychology and Psychotherapy’, providing psychotherapy, supervision and teaching. She lectures in the following areas: developmental issues, trauma/complex trauma, migration/cross-cultural work and the ‘replacement child’ psychodynamics. She has published widely, including the text ‘Psychotherapy and Culture’. She is member of The Bowlby Centre and is a visiting external examiner for Doctoral projects across the UK. She feels passionate about early intervention and regularly presents on ‘the psychology of the baby’, for health professionals and psychotherapists. She has previously worked in several London NHS Hospitals and charities, such as Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre and Freedom from Torture. She is also currently an honourary psychotherapist of the Tavistock Complex Trauma Service.

Dr David Levit

David Levit, PhD, ABPP, SEP is a board-certified Diplomate in Psychoanalysis and Clinical Psychology, and a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. He is a Fellow of both the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis and the American Academy of Clinical Psychology.  Dr. Levit is Faculty and Supervising Psychoanalyst at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis (MIP), where he also serves as Co-founder, Chair, and Faculty of the MIP Postgraduate Fellowship Program–West. He is an Instructor in Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and formerly held academic appointments at Tufts Medical School and Smith College School for Social Work.  His work focuses on drawing upon the somatic trauma therapies in psychoanalytic treatment. He has presented widely on this topic nationally in the US and internationally.  He maintains a private practice in Amherst, MA, offering psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and professional consultation.

Book Tickets