Two experiences of "Amniotic Therapy" in training and clinical settings

The primary aim of this symposium is to show the potential of “Amniotic Therapy” (AT), a psychodynamic informed group-therapy, as an effective approach in psychosis treatment. AT integrates non-verbal and verbal strategies... [ view full abstract ]

The primary aim of this symposium is to show the potential of “Amniotic Therapy” (AT), a psychodynamic informed group-therapy, as an effective approach in psychosis treatment. AT integrates non-verbal and verbal strategies in order to promote balanced processes of self/other identification and self/other differentiation, which are crucial for developing psychic well-being, and appear to be dysfunctional, in schizophrenic patients

AT is a sensory-motor group-therapy. By supporting patients while immersed in warm water, therapists are holding them on a physical and psychic level. As visual and acoustic input is reduced in water, communication is mainly of an affective-tactile and motor type: alternating contacts - unions and separations with other body surfaces - and tactile stimulations by means of affiliative/affective touch stimulate the insula, interoception, the cerebral areas and circuits correlated with encoding the boundaries of the bodily self. Subsequently, photos and videos of non-verbal interactions are watched and verbalized within the therapeutic group to promote positive self-other identification and to elaborate possible emotional deformations and negative transferences among group participants.

A preliminary study about the effectiveness of AT in a group of psychotic patients showed a qualitative improvement in interpersonal social functioning. These encouraging data prompted a deeper investigation relying on clinical and neurophysiological indexes which is conducted on a larger sample of schizophrenic patients recruited in three Italian Mental Health Departments.

In this symposium two different experiences of AT, emphasizing its effectiveness both in a training and a clinical setting, will be discussed.

The research group will first report about AT group-training with ten psychiatric rehabilitation technicians who will be starting an AT group-therapy project with schizophrenic patients in 2017. The second part concentrates on the case study of a schizophrenic patient who took part in four weekly sessions of AT group-therapy for four years.