Full Course Description

Treating Collective Trauma with Hakomi: Listening to the Body

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Use the key Hakomi concepts of applied mindfulness and somatic awareness to improve outcomes when treating trauma. 
  2. Apply attachment- and compassion-based skills that facilitate the experiential process into the body-mind. 
  3. Develop an experiential mindset to hold the multilayered complexity of trauma in sessions. 
  4. Demonstrate the essential Hakomi personhood skills that help therapists stay grounded and self-regulated while in therapeutic engagement. 

Outline

  • Implement the key Hakomi concepts of applied mindfulness and somatic awareness to improve outcomes when treating trauma. 
    • Applied mindfulness is an integrated skills set by the Hakomi therapist to facilitate an in-depth process 
    • Learning to ask targeted questions to facilitate a safe somatic awareness for clients 
    • Not all somatic or mindfulness interventions are suitable for trauma clients, learning to differentiate what tool fits which client is essential for treatment success 
  • Apply attachment- and compassion-based skills that facilitate the experiential process into the body-mind. 
    • Hakomi holds the value of loving presence of the therapist as essential to convey compassion to the clients traumatic experience 
    • Applying attachment theory informed interventions to regulate clients internal somatic states 
  • Develop an experiential mindset to hold the multilayered complexity of trauma in sessions. 
    • Learn what it means to be an experiential therapist by trying out present moment and safe experiments that include play, breath and movement 
    • Recognize that trauma clients don’t fit one treatment approach size fits all 
  • Explain the essential Hakomi personhood skills that help therapists stay grounded and self-regulated while in therapeutic engagement. 
    • The role of the therapist is not just about a skill set but how they embody themselves and stay curious about their own process 
    • Developing a somatic repertoire to stay grounded in the body when clients trauma feels overwhelming or triggering  

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 02/16/2021

Racial Trauma: Assessment and Treatment Techniques for Trauma Rooted in Racism

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Assess the clinical implications of racial experiences leading to trauma symptomology.
  2. Evaluate how historical, cultural, and individual trauma may or may not fit into a DSM-5 framework.
  3. Employ interventions that address traumatic experiences with racism in trauma treatment sessions.

Outline

Racial Trauma Assessment:

  • Start the Conversation and Uncover the Trauma of Racism 
  • How to start the conversation
  • Race-related traumas and DSM-5 criteria
  • Validated measures for racial trauma
  • Assessing related cultural constructs
  • Clinical Interview Assessment tool
  • UConn Racial/Ethnic Stress & Trauma Survey
Clinical Techniques:
Practical Interventions for Addressing Racial Trauma in Treatment
  • Culturally-informed case conceptualizations
  • How to validate experiences of oppression 
  • Identify your clients’ strengths and supports
  • Strategies to build ethnic and racial pride
  • Adapting validated PTSD treatments
  • 5 techniques to help clients of color cope with stress
  • Group treatment for race-based trauma
  • Research and limitations
Growth as a Therapist:
Become More Comfortable Working with Issues Related to Race
  • Personal growth questions answered
  • What can well-intentioned people do about racism
  • How to become more comfortable talking about issues related to race
  • Guidance for clinicians of color 
  • Homework exercises

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Psychologists
  • Physicians
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses

Copyright : 08/27/2020

The Neurobiology of Healing Relationships: Trauma Work Meets Couples Therapy

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Assess the states of your client's brain that impede emotional connections.
  2. Create a working relationship with your client’s brain on multiple levels to promote trauma recovery and healthy relationships simultaneously.
  3. Apply memory reconsolidation principles to couples therapy.

Outline

  • Identify the states of your client's brain 
    • Define the locations and functions of the subcortical and cortical systems
    • Identify integrated and disintegrated states in the brain
    • Define the relationships between these systems and why working with a subcortically lead brain state (disintegrated) is so difficult
    • Assess disintegration vs integration.
    • Use tools that work with the brain to end this state and come back to regulation and connection
      • 2nd consciousness 
      • Time outs 
      • Relational jujitsu 
  • Create a working relationship with your client’s brain on multiple levels to promote trauma recovery and healthy relationships simultaneously 
    • Your client’s ability to choose an integrated brain state is essential to them utilizing skills that will help them to heal.
      • Using inner child work in couples’ sessions 
      • Use the witnessing of personal work to shift relational dynamics 
  • Apply memory reconsolidation principles to couples therapy 
    • Define and explain memory reconsolidation 
    • Identify emotional schemas that are problematic 
    • Learn couples interventions that bring the ability to rewire these emotional schemas home with your couples. 
      • Core negative image 
      • Dead stop contracts 

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/21/2021

Ancient Wisdom for Today’s Ailments: Connecting the Body, Mind, and Spirit

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Evaluate the connection between trauma, stress, and chronic illness. 
  2. Apply three writing and drawing practices in a clinical setting to heal the effects of stress. 
  3. Use the genogram as a clinical tool to deepen work with clients around health, resilience, and hope. 
  4. Demonstrate guided imagery practices to use with clients in therapy and in community settings to help heal the body and heighten experiences personal growth. 
  5. Assess how to help clients access inner strengths through creative processes that tap into the imagination. 

Outline

  • Explain the connection between trauma, stress, and chronic illness. 
    • Participants will increase their understanding of the current chronic illness incidences in the US population, and their understanding of the physiology of the stress response.  
    • The didactic portion of this objective will include a review of the current research on intergenerational trauma, stress perception, and health 
  • Apply three writing and drawing practices in a clinical setting to heal the effects of stress. 
    • Participants will explore the current research on the impact of journaling on stress perception and chronic illness.  
    • They will engage in writing exercises to address their own health challenges, along with those of their patient population.  
  • Use the genogram as a clinical tool to deepen work with clients around health, resilience, and hope. 
    • Participants will create a "theme-focused" genogram around a current symptom or challenge in their lives 
    • The research from this module of the training is based on the work of McGoldrick and the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. 
  • Use music and movement in sessions to get around emotional blocks without spoken words. 
    • Participants will deepen their understanding of the use of music as a tool for parasympathetic dominance and creativity.  
  • Assess how to help clients access inner strengths through creative processes that tap into the imagination. 
    • Participants will be guided in the appropriate application of personal and professional use of imagery, music, chanting, and journaling as tools for accessing innate wisdom.  
  • Describe guided imagery practices to use with clients in therapy and in community settings to help heal the body and heighten experiences personal growth. 
    • Participants will deepen their understanding of the use of imagery for trauma healing, managing stress, and understanding their own physiology.  

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 01/07/2021

Safe and Sound: How Your Voice Can Contribute to Healing Trauma

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Investigate the nervous system’s response to auditory signals after trauma.
  2. Apply features of vocalization to enact desired responses changes in the nervous system.
  3. Extrapolate therapeutic interventions from research on trauma and the auditory circuits of the nervous system.
  4. Demonstrate 3 ways to use the auditory and vocal systems during trauma treatment.

Outline

  • How trauma “re-tunes” the auditory system in trauma survivors  
  • How to apply the specific features of vocalizations and vocal music that can help create a sense of calm and safety for clients  
  • How to utilize the voice to support the regulation of clients’ nervous systems and support healing 

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2021

Neuroscience-based Trauma Treatment: How to Maximize Your Efficacy

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Assess the five areas of the brain impacted by trauma, and how each contributes to post-trauma symptoms. 
  2. Evaluate what neuroscience tells us about the recommended “order of operations” of trauma treatment, and why evidence-based therapies are often initiated at the wrong time. 
  3. Determine the difference between “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches to therapy, and when to use each during treatment. 
  4. Use four techniques that can help prepare clients’ brains for the often intense, cognitive-heavy trauma therapies. 

Outline

  • List five areas of the brain impacted by trauma, and how each contributes to post-trauma symptoms. 
    • Amygdala – smoke alarm 
    • Hippocampus – timekeeper 
    • Insula – interoception center 
    • Cingulate – self-regulation center 
    • Prefrontal cortex – executive functioning center 
  • Explain what neuroscience tells us about the recommended “order of operations” of trauma treatment, and why evidence-based therapies are often initiated at the wrong time. 
    • Build alliance first 
    • Help clients develop felt sense in a safe manner 
    • Utilize bottom up techniques 
    • Utilize top down techniques 
    • Incorporate behavioral techniques 
    • Most evidence-based therapies start with #4 or emphasize #4 instead of emphasizing bottom-up, somatic, stabilizing approaches. 
  • Describe the difference between “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches to therapy, and when to use each during treatment. 
    • Bottom-up: Working with the body to change the brain, especially lower areas of the brain such as the amygdala and insula. 
    • Top-down: Working with the mind to change the brain, especially upper areas of the brain such as the cingulate and prefrontal cortex. 
    • Start bottom-up when treating trauma, before integrating top-down techniques. 
  • Use four techniques that can help prepare clients’ brains for the often intense, cognitive-heavy trauma therapies. 
    • Mirror neuron activation in emotional centers to build therapeutic alliance 
    • Sensory awareness techniques, including grounding techniques, to increase felt sense and enter the body safely 
    • Vagus nerve activation through breathing-based techniques such as the 5-5-8-2 breath 
    • Body-based techniques such as autogenic training to increase heart rate variability, decrease amygdala activation, increase insula activation 
    • Lifestyle habits, and behaviors outside of session that can build brain-derived neurotrophic factor for hippocampal regeneration 

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2021

The Misattuned Family: Techniques for Healing Attachment Trauma

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Practice activities that increase a sense of well-being and connection between family members.
  2. Facilitate active dialogue between parent and child using PACE to get at the dyad’s core issues.
  3. Practice recognizing escalation in child and parent and employing strategies for de-escalating the situation.
  4. Employ techniques to calm and refocus a parent’s energy and communicate messages in a constructive manner.

Outline

  • Implement face-to-face between parent and child to create a sense of well-being, connection and joy 
    • Watch and practice activities that increase warm facial expressions, synchronized movement and rhythm 
    • Learn activities that work to calm a dysregulated child and engage a withdrawn child 
  • Learn to facilitate active dialogue between parent and child that is both safe and gets at the dyad’s core issues.    
    • Practice using PACE-Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy 
    • Learn techniques to discern underlying motives/feelings underneath a child’s behaviors 
  • Practice scenarios for de-escalating child and parent dysregulation optimal arousal and affect regulation,  
    • Detect and manage parent/child signs of escalation before they  sabotage the session 
    • Learn techniques for reducing intensity of content to allow child to stay with difficult content 
  • Learn gentle ways to intervene and redirect a misattuned or critical parent  
    • Observe techniques for calming and refocusing parent’s energy 
    • Observe techniques for helping parent convey messages in a constructive manner 

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/20/2021

Bringing the Body into Therapy: Clinical Tools from Somatic Experiencing

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Assess how implicit memory shapes our physiological and psychological responses to trauma and recovery.
  2. Apply the psychobiology of trauma and the survival responses of fight, flight, freeze as it relates to clinical treatment.
  3. Apply three skills to work with the autonomic nervous system to increase resilience and rebound from trauma and overwhelm.

Outline

  • The science and skills of Interoception
  • How awareness of sensation (interoception via the Insula) can read ANS states
  • Introduction to stabilization skills based on interoception
  • Introduce multiple somatic tools that re-wire implicit traumatic memory in the body

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2021

The Body as Healer: Working from the Bottom Up

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Integrate the clients’ awareness of their internal experience and your observations of their nonverbal behaviors, including involuntary gestures, posture changes, and external indications of shifts in their autonomic nervous system.
  2. Develop your capacity to read your own somatic cues as a means of resonating and connecting with the client’s experience.
  3. Assess the often-fleeting physical cues of their internal states that indicate crucial resources clients can access as they move toward healing.

Outline

From Trauma to Awakening & Flow

  • Trauma Vortex & Counter Vortex
  • Emotions & Touch

Core Regulation: Working from the Bottom Up

  • The Roots of Traumatization
  • Terror & the Freeze Response
  • Neuroception & the Activation of Arousal
  • Unsafe Touch

Target Audience

  • Psychologists
  • Physicians
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Nurses
  • Other Behavioral Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/19/2020