by Laura L. Lansrud-López, M.A., LPCC, LPAT, ATR-BC, CTS , & James Michael Nolan, Ph.D.
INSAM stands for “Interpersonal Neurobiology, Somatics & Action Methods.
Interpersonal Neurobiology, a relatively new interdisciplinary field, integrates our current scientific understanding of how the brain can re-wire itself in the context of a safe and secure interpersonal relationship to integrate experience and recover from trauma, with the historically rich and empirically supported practice of focusing our attention and working with the energy of our mind for greater health, balance, and well-being. Interpersonal Neurobiology is at the cutting edge of trauma-informed treatment, with an ever increasing bulk of research supporting its efficacy.
If you have an intention to work in the field of trauma (and as a psychotherapist, you probably have no choice but to work with trauma. It is what the world is offering these days), working knowledge of the fundamentals of Interpersonal Neurobiology, and a solid grasp on how to use trauma-informed practice in psychotherapy is crucial.
The “S” of of INSAM stands for “Somatics”, meaning “of the body” itself. Current understandings of trauma work posit that trauma gets “locked into”, or “frozen into” the body, the neurological system, and until “released”, the trauma response will not leave us alone. A somatic perspective to working with trauma and unresolved issues can be an essential component of therapeutic work, in both counseling and art therapy contexts.
Action Methods also incorporate (can you see the root of that word?—to bring it into the “corpus”, or body) somatic methods. Psychodrama, Holotropic Breathwork, therapeutic movement, and the like are methods for literally “moving through” trauma and other physiologically compromising psychological stressors. Action methods, of which there are a number, are intimately tied to the fields of Interpersonal Neurobiology and Somatic therapy.
The limitations of purely “left brain” talk therapy have been empirically demonstrated, especially in working with trauma, loss, PTSD, attachment issues, and relationships. For many people of different ages and different backgrounds, conversation, behavior-mapping, cognitive reframing are insufficient for lasting neurobiological integration, multi-dimensional change, and significant transformation.
Unfortunately, it is the only modality many therapists learn. That is not good. There is an old saw that goes “When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.”
INSAM puts a range of the essential tools you’ll need for effective and meaningful therapeutic practice in your back pocket so that can move beyond the “one-size-fits-all” framework of straight talk therapy.
I encourage you to speak with people who are in this program. They will tell you, to a person, that Kate Cook is a tremendously skilled instructor. This is a great opportunity for cutting edge, rigorous clinical training, and you owe it to yourself to look into it and see if it might be for you…