Monica Urru
Somatization
How psychological problems cause medical symptoms
About this training
The training teaches how to recognize anxiety and somatization in patients, discussing diagnostic tools for assessing symptoms of anxiety and distinguishing them from physical complaints. During the training you will learn to recognize the four main patterns of somatization and to deal effectively with resistant patients who ignore therapeutic recommendations. The training develops the ability to build a conscious therapeutic alliance and to work on the regulation of anxiety, improving both diagnostic competence and therapeutic skills. Monica Urru presents a neurobiological perspective that sheds new light on how symptoms arise in the body.
“Anxiety is not what we take it to be.”
The things we call anxiety (fear of loss, fear of criticism, fear of heights) are stimuli. Anxiety is a reaction of the nervous system. When a child in an attachment relationship feels something that provokes fear or anger in the parent, the mammalian threat detection system is triggered. The child becomes afraid and learns that feelings threaten their relationships. As an adult, that person pushes those feelings aside and the anxiety becomes unconscious. That is when symptoms appear in the body.
“Without paying attention to the physical experience of emotions, feelings cannot be brought into awareness.”
Monica Urru describes in detail the layers of fear, anxiety and somatic symptoms. Safety in the patient’s body is created by balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. If you want to help your patients more effectively, understand how the body expresses emotions that could not be put into words.
What will you learn?
- How to read somatic signals to understand what the patient is signaling and the unconscious therapeutic alliance?
- How to better shape a functioning nervous system and take better care of yourself?
- How to develop a sense of self-competence and self-awareness in patients?
What will you receive?
- 01Extensive training video on SOMATIZATION
A fragment of this training
A short excerpt from the recording itself. It is here so you can see how the material is taught, and what to expect, before you decide.
Your teacher
Monica Urru
MD, ISTDP supervisor and teacher
Dr. Monica Urru, MD, is based in Rome and has been active in the ISTDP community for over twenty years. She trained in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy with Patricia Coughlin (Philadelphia, 2002-2006) and completed a further core training with Jon Frederickson and Josette ten Have de Labije (2008-2011), followed by a training of trainers for teachers and supervisors, led by Jon Frederickson, in Norway (2010). Today she works as a supervisor and runs ISTDP core groups in Rome, teaching how to work with the neurobiological underpinnings of trauma treatment. She has led an advanced ISTDP group in Italy for the past twelve years and a further advanced group in Poland since 2019. Alongside ISTDP, she has practised REAC neurobiological modulation continuously since 2008, in collaboration with Dr. Salvatore Rinaldi at the Rinaldi-Fontani Institute in Florence, integrating the two approaches across a wide range of diagnoses. Since 2026 she has been part of Inside BlueZone, the REAC® longevity programme developed by the Rinaldi Fontani Institute, which recreates Blue Zone conditions in the body to counteract inflammaging and cellular senescence. She also contributes to the epistemological framework of the Ordinative Sciences Foundation, translating clinical processes into structured models of coherence and regulation. She has presented at psychotherapy conferences in Italy, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon, and has co-taught with Jon Frederickson across Europe from 2008 to the present, including summer schools in Italy (2012, 2014) and France (2024). She is the author of Star Seeker, based on specific studies on autism, and of We Were Born Searching (2026), and co-author with Jon Frederickson of Clinical Thinking in Medicine (Elsevier, forthcoming) and Psychoneurophysiopathology of Adaptation: A New Paradigm (forthcoming in 2027).
Why train with us?
- Experienced ISTDP teachersOur teachers are practitioners with many years of experience.
- Practical methods for immediate useAfter reviewing the material, you will return to your practice with ready-to-use ways of carrying out more effective interventions with patients.
- Knowledge that stays with youYou can replay our online courses whenever you want and as many times as you need. After purchase, you receive unlimited access, which allows you to consolidate the knowledge you have acquired effectively.
Ready to start
Somatization
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