Transforming Touch and Somatic Resilience and Regulation

Transforming touch, or TEB (Transforming the Experience-Based Brain), and Somatic Resilience and Regulation (SRR) are attachment-focused, neurophysiological trauma treatments designed by Dr. Stephen Terrell and Dr. Kathy Kain to heal developmental, attachment, shock, or complex trauma by building resiliency in the nervous system. In addition to a non-judgmental, warm, supportive therapeutic relationship, TEB offers a timed-touch protocol designed to support specific areas of the body impacted by the stress response and trauma (fight/flight; freeze/collapse). This form of bodywork can gradually increase regulation in the mind and body, improving one’s capacity to metabolize trauma that is often locked in one’s nervous system and carried for extended periods of time, even trauma that may have happened before language (preverbal trauma).

TEB can also incorporate primitive reflex integration work. Retained primitive reflexes have been known to impact neurological and psychosocial development, learning and cognition, and overall health. After a sense of safety has been established and enough regulation is in place, exercises for integrating retained primitive reflexes can decrease symptoms even further, including, but not limited to, anxiety, depression, sensory challenges associated with autism spectrum disorders, and ADHD-like symptoms.