When the Body Speaks: Ego State Therapy & Hypnotic Applications for Somatic Symptoms including FND & Chronic Pain (Lemke Counseling & Consulting)
Organization: Lemke Counseling & Consulting
Website: https://www.wendylemke-psy.com/estforfndsomatic
Event Title: When the Body Speaks: Ego State Therapy & Hypnotic Applications for Somatic Symptoms including FND & Chronic Pain
Agenda: Nov_FND_schedule_
Dates: November 10, 2026
Location: Virtual
CE: 6.5
Contact : Wendy Lemke, wendylemkelp@gmail.com
Description: This training is designed for clinicians who wish to deepen their clinical skills when working with somatic symptoms such as functional neurological disorder (FND) or other somatic symptoms including pain. This course, grounded in Ego State Therapy theory conceptualizes somatic symptoms as meaningful messages from the body and the system of self. These symptoms may have unconscious explanations that can assist in identifying origin, maintenance, or even a solution for complex somatic presentations. Somatic symptoms can reflect internal conflicts, adaptive reasoning, or other survival strategies. Ego State Therapy provides several ways to communicate with the body and/or ego states to explore unconscious causes, contributing factors as well as potential solutions for somatic symptoms.
Participants will learn how to access and communicate with states to elicit information about safety, function, contributing factors, and potential pathways for resolution of somatic symptoms such as ideomotor signaling. Emphasis is placed on therapeutic intention, hypnotic suggestions, interventions, and internal negotiations that are respectful of the whole self within a trauma-informed, phase-oriented framework.
Demonstrations and case examples will be incorporated to enhance participants’ learning.
Learning Objectives:
By the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Summarize research that demonstrates the effectiveness of clinical hypnosis in treating somatic issues such as FND and Chronic Pain.
- Apply Ego State Therapy concepts including Lemke’s adapted P-Principles, to clinically conceptualize and work with the voices of the body by recognizing the multiplicity of self.
- Identify three different ways to access ego states for gathering useful unconscious information about the body to assist in the treatment of somatic symptoms.
- Develop an ego state trauma informed hypnotic approach for a somatic symptom presentation that integrates therapeutic intention and incorporates EST strategies such as Lemke’s ‘Playing with the Space’ strategy.
- Demonstrate the use of ideomotor signaling as a tool to work with the system of self to identify purpose/function, and/or other contributing factors to somatic symptoms.
Speaker info: Wendy Lemke bio_wendy_2026