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Chapter 17: Fractionating Trauma Processing: TOTEMSPOTS and Other Attenuating Tactics

DOI:

10.1891/9780826106322.0017

Authors

  • Sandra, L. Paulsen
  • Ulrich, F. Lanius

Abstract

This chapter describes different approaches to fractionating and titrating trauma processing to facilitate efficient information processing. Fractionation in the treatment of dissociative disorders specifically refers to the direction of attention to aspects of traumatic experience to attenuate the intensity of abreaction. In eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) parlance, refers to setting up a "target" for trauma processing specifying the image, cognitions, affect/emotions, and sensations associated with the traumatic memory. A strategy in somatic work involves oscillation between the traumatic state and the resourced state. Bottom-up processing is characterized by an absence of higher level direction in sensory processing, whereas top-down processing reflects higher level neocortical processes such as cognitions. TOTEMSPOTS uses channels as described in the approaches noted earlier to fractionate an intense traumatic memory, to make it more manageable. Somatosensory processing is bottom-up, as it is suggested that sensation is foundational to the experience of emotion.