Welcome to IOPT Stavanger!
About Us
IOPT Stavanger specializes in Identity-oriented Psychotrauma Therapy (IoPT), helping individuals reconnect with themselves and process traumatic experiences through individual and group therapy.
English-Speaking Groups
We are now open to starting therapy groups in English. If you're interested in joining, please contact us to express your interest.
Contact Us
Use our contact form or reach out directly to show your interest. You can find phone number and more contact information here: Kontakt
What is IOPT?
IoPT (Identity-Oriented Psychotrauma Therapy) is a trauma therapy method developed by Professor Franz Ruppert. It helps people reconnect with themselves, process traumatic experiences, and restore contact with their feelings and memories, using the intention method, IoPT explores how early trauma creates splits in the psyche—dividing us into a healthy self, survival parts, and trauma-carrying parts.
How IoPT Relates to Leading Trauma Experts
IoPT shares a foundational understanding with other major somatic and trauma-focused therapies: that trauma is not just a memory, but a lived experience in the body and mind. However, each approach has a unique focus:
While Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing primarily focuses on regulating the nervous system and releasing stored survival energy through physiological discharge, IoPT goes a step further by specifically targeting the fragmented identity structures that result from severe or complex trauma. It uses a structured "self-encounter" method to integrate these split-off parts.
Similarly, while Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry emphasizes emotional presence, relational attunement, and the social roots of addiction and stress, IoPT provides a more systematic framework for mapping the psyche's division. It builds upon the systemic insights of Bert Hellinger’s Family Constellations, adapting them to address individual trauma and identity fragmentation.
This approach also aligns closely with the research of Bessel van der Kolk (author of The Body Keeps the Score), particularly regarding how unprocessed trauma affects relationships, health, and identity across generations.
IOPT builds on Dan Siegel's Interpersonal Neurobiology and Stephen Porges' Polyvagal Theory. All recognize that trauma causes fragmentation; healing involves creating safety within the window of tolerance, reintegrating parts into a coherent self, and restoring relational capacity.
IOPT uses the concept of "resonance field" to to externalize and map split-off trauma parts. Other therapies that include the use of resonance are Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Family Constellations, although there are important differences between these methods.
Why Choose IoPT?
Works with individual therapy and individual therapy in group
Helps identify hidden connections between past experiences and current behaviors
Addresses intergenerational trauma and attachment wounds
Combines psychodynamic depth with somatic awareness