Shift & Stay

Having a process of learning how to pay attention to positive or neutral sensations inside of the body can be life-changing.

In EMI’s Trauma-Informed Mindfulness for Teachers course, Clinical trainer, researcher, and co-founder of Threshold Global Works Laurie Leitch and EMI’s training director Fleet Maull discuss resiliency and the Shift-and-Stay method of working with people with a history of trauma.

Countless facilitators and students are in correctional facilities, consulting, social work, and other under-resourced and fragmented settings lacking social resilience and education in trauma. In these destabilizing environments, how do we create safety both within ourselves and within the group?

The First Step

Laurie states that facilitators “can’t work on those outside settings without first working on the inside setting.” She observes that one of the challenges with mindfulness practices and meditation is that people with a history of trauma are prone to dissociation or flashbacks when sitting in meditation because people tend not to pay enough attention to what they are carrying in their bodies. There is the risk when working with some populations, of going too fast and subsequently reinforcing greater dysregulation. Many people need the first step, before meditation and other practices, of learning how to settle and notice what is going on inside.

Shift-and-Stay

Many meditation models instruct to “Be with what’s true at the moment,” but people with a trauma history can and will often experience trauma as being what’s true at the moment, and so the practice can backfire. Having a process of learning how to pay attention to positive or neutral sensations inside of the body can be life-changing. The shift-and-stay skill is one of those processes.

When guiding someone through a mindfulness exercise and something uncomfortable or distressing arises, Laurie explains that she would have them use the shift-and-stay skill, which is where the person pays attention, and then they shift their attention away to a place in the body that either has less of that distress, is neutral, or is positive, and stay there. In utilizing the parasympathetic part of the nervous system, she teaches people how to calm themselves inside. From this place of calmness, people are then able to notice what is happening and to learn to tolerate increments of fear, pain, or other distress. After learning and practicing how to shift their attention back and forth in order to maintain balance in the body, eventually, they will no longer need to use shift-and-stay. They will be able to just stay present to whatever is true at the moment.

To learn more, JOIN EMI’s online course on Trauma-Informed Teaching featuring leading trauma experts Dr. Peter Levine Bessel Vander Kolk, David Treleaven, Laurie Leitch, Pat Ogden and Stephen Porges all discussing best practices for trauma-informed teaching.

Full course ON SALE through February for $99.99. (standard price $159.99)

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Laurie Leitch, Ph.D. has been a practicing psychotherapist, clinical trainer, consultant, social entrepreneur, and researcher for over 25 years. She is the Co-Founder, of Brigadier General (ret.) Loree Sutton, MD, of Threshold GlobalWorks (TGW) and of Trauma Resource Institute (TRI). She has developed models of intervention that provide resiliency enhancing self-regulation skills via training in neuroscience-based programs appropriate with complex trauma and for use with adults and children suffering from long-term and acute trauma as well as war-zone trauma. Dr. Leitch has extensive experience providing clinical training and consultation in diverse and cross-cultural settings with a consistent focus in designing and implementing resilience-oriented approaches in which collaborative intelligence enhances and reinforces individual, organizational, and community well-being. Learn More