Do you use Presence and Verbal Communication as a Healing Modality?
Psychotherapist, Psychologist, Clinical Social Worker, Counselor, Coach, etc.
Unresolved Trauma Complicates Our Therapeutic Process
Trauma is ubiquitous in our patient population. However, many patients do not offer up this information easily. Yet, their nervous system never hides and is telling you their history at the very first visit. My passion is to educate all who have a therapeutic practice or have a license to touch to identify nonverbal signs of trauma in their patients and to educate the practitioner to modify their interventions to avoid re-traumatizations. In doing so, the practitioner will increase the efficacy of their interventions and broaden the complexity of their patient base. They will become trauma-informed practitioners.
Meet Marcus Kurek
Marcus has been in practice for the past 40 years. He began his journey studying physical therapy at Northwestern University. Most of his post-graduate studies focused on integrative manual therapeutic techniques. While studying craniosacral therapy, he became aware of the connection of emotions in the healing process. (Instruction of the needs of the practitioner to create a safe healing space for such exploration was absent at that time.) Marcus then shifted his focus to studying contemplative psychotherapy at Naropa University to acquire a foundation in developing a “therapeutic container” for the safe practice of techniques where emotional abreaction may be a byproduct of touch.
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After graduation, he was employed at Boulder Community Hospital Mapleton Center where he was instrumental in bringing the principles of Somatic Experiencing into the chronic-pain program. His collaboration with Dr. Robert Scaer, the medical director at the time, became the practice foundation for two of Dr. Scaer’s most popular books, “The Body Bears the Burden” and “The Trauma Spectrum.” Marcus lectured with Dr. Scaer from 2007 until Bob’s retirement in 2015.
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Marcus is now the director of the Vermont Sports Medicine Center in Rutland, Vermont. He moved to Vermont in 2022 after working for twelve years at the University of Colorado Hospital (UCHealth) bringing trauma informed care into an outpatient-rehabilitation setting. While at UCH, he has worked at the Center for Dependency, Addiction, and Rehabilitation (CeDAR) and the UCHealth Integrative Medicine Center.
My Specializations
Trauma
PTSD
Addiction
Traumatic Stress
Chronic/Sustained Pain
Substance Abuse
Lectures Series
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The Art of Creating a Therapeutic Container in Your Clinical Practice
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Awareness Interventions: Pitfalls Along the Path of Using Mindfulness Interventions in Therapy
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The Somatic Manifestations of Trauma in Rehabilitation
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Trauma-Informed Physical Therapy
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The Parasympathetic Nervous System: Much More than Rest and Repose
Demonstrations of NeuroHarmonics©, Energy Resonance Therapy
Through touch and other modes of subtle communication, I find the underlying pattern of the physiology I’m treating. The healing occurs when I allow the homeostatic pattern to shift. The homeostatic pattern is simply the environment in which the patient/client feels safe. That safety is not functional, it’s simply what the person is familiar with. I join with the resistance I feel in the body: joining with the pattern I feel/perceive. In so doing, I’m able to accentuate the pattern which decreases or eliminates the resistance to change. This process builds momentum to support the person to allow themselves to return to balance. Releasing the held pattern or trauma happens within this safe space due to the collaboration between the trusting patient and facilitator.
Individual/Group Supervision
Supervision provides an objective perspective that is removed for the emotional underpinnings of a therapeutic relationship. It helps the therapist navigate the emotional panorama of the therapeutic process.
Supervision is inherent in the practice of psychotherapy. The process of exploring emotional information often triggers or activates one’s own historical past. This jeopardizes the therapeutic process as it may alter the focus of therapy to address one’s own wounding as opposed to the patient’s needs.
In the process of any type of body therapy, emotions may be liberated leaving the practitioner in uncharted waters. In working with patients with a traumatic past, emotions may be repressed or somatized. These supervision sessions are designed for somatic or body practitioners who may have limited experience with emotional processing.
“The body has been designed to renew itself through continuous self-correction. These same principles also apply to the healing of psyche, spirit, and soul.”