Research: Conference papers

"Somatic Experiencing as an Ethical and Practical Tool for Keeping Trauma Research Participants Safer"

Meirav Tal, Connection & Links ~ From Trauma to Resilience

Abstract: Data collecting, expecially interviews and questionnaires with traumatized population often cause participants to experience physiological reactions and arousal, feeling upset or experience other symptoms of traumatic reactions. In studying inter-personal trauma such as abuse, issues regarding relationships like trust and control are central to the relationship between the research-participant and the researcher. Thus, participating in a trauma research puts the participants at risk for re-traumatizing. therefore, minimizing this phenomenon and ensuring participants' well-being is necessary.

Ethical Research in Trauma is beneficial to participants, prevents harm and empowers particularly those of vulnerable groups. The use of neuro-psychological understanding of traumatic reactions and its practical use through Somatic Experiencing (SE), provides researchers with ability to identify participants' arousal as an indicator for distress, to regulate and stabilize them.

The use of SE enables to protect and empower the participants. In that sense this will diminish the gap between therapy and research and might serve as a beneficial therapeutic experience for the participants.

The presenter will bring examples of how she used it in her PhD thesis researching the STREAM Model of Trauma therapy combining Dance-Movement therapy and SE for older women suffering from spouse abuse.