Full Course Description


Module 1 | Trauma and the Body

This program, the first year of a two-year certificate program, focuses on the applications of the neuroscience and attachment research to the treatment of psychological trauma.  The program content integrates traditional psychotherapy methods with newer theoretical models based on both clinical and neuroscience research.  Next, it expands on the research to describe and discuss the implications for treatment.  

The implications for treatment are not simply the instructor or program developer’s individual ideas but are concepts widely supported in the trauma treatment field or by research.  A number of widely-accepted treatment approaches are referenced and their interventions discussed in the light of the neuroscience research. The interventions cited in the seminar include: psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, cognitive-behavioral therapy, couples and family therapy, clinical hypnosis, and.

The final third of the seminar focuses on complications found in trauma treatment, including dissociation, traumatic attachment, and unresolved shame, fear and anger.  Ethical and professional standards are emphasized as they are relevant to each topic area.

Program Information

Objectives

Session I - Trauma and the Body

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of three neurobiologically-based trauma responses and articulate how this information may inform choice of treatment interventions.
  2. Appraise how the somatosensory and autonomic effects of trauma exacerbate symptoms of PTSD in clients.
  3. Assess the role and treatment implications of procedural learning and memory in client presentations.
  4. Incorporate sensorimotor interventions into treatments to decrease symptoms of PTSD in clients.

Session II - Working with the Complications of Dysregulation: Addictions, Eating Disorders, & Self-Destructive Behavior

  1. Assess the relationship between autonomic dysregulation and addictive or self-destructive behavior in relation to assessment and treatment planning.
  2. Articulate the necessity for an integrated treatment of trauma and addictive or suicidal behavior to improve treatment outcomes.
  3. Assess appropriate cognitive-behavioral techniques for treating autonomic dysregulation in clients.
  4. Specify three somatic techniques for regulating autonomic arousal traumatic reactions in clients.

Session III - Working with Traumatic Memory: Principles and Techniques

  1. Determine ‘implicit memory’ and break down its role in post-traumatic stress disorders as it relates to treatment outcomes.
  2. Determine potential complications of addressing narrative memories of traumatic events in treatment sessions.
  3. Specify three interventions that address these complications and put to practical use in session.
  4. Analyze the efficacy of these interventions and distinguish the signs that traumatic memory has been sufficiently processed.

Session IV - Disorganized Attachment and the Traumatic Transference

  1. Outline the root causes of ‘disorganized attachment’ status in children and its clinical implications.
  2. Specify difficulties associated with disorganized attachment for symptom management.
  3. Articulate the role of disorganized attachment on therapeutic transference/countertransference.
  4. Utilize clinical strategies that reduce the complications of traumatic attachment in clients.

Session V - The Role of Dissociation in Trauma-Related Disorders 

  1. Differentiate ‘dissociative states’ versus ‘structural dissociation’ as symptoms of trauma and express their treatment implications.
  2. Evaluate the role of structural dissociation in the treatment of complex trauma and personality disorders.
  3. Diagnose common trauma-related internal conflicts and determine their impact on clients as it relates to case conceptualization.
  4. Utilize mindfulness-based interventions to address resolution of internal conflicts in clients.

Session VI - Working with Shame, Fear and Anger

  1. Articulate the role of shame as an adaptation to trauma and its treatment implications.
  2. Specify the roles of fear and anger as animal defense survival responses to traumatic experiences in clients.
  3. Demonstrate use of both somatic and cognitive interventions to decrease shame, fear and anger in clients.
  4. Determine the role of re-framing in the successful treatment of post-traumatic emotional responses in clients.

Outline

Session I: Trauma and the Body

  • How the body and brain respond to threat
  • Implicit remembering as the hallmark of trauma-related disorders
  • Triggers and triggering
  • The long-term somatosensory and psychological effects of traumatic experiences
  • Understanding trauma-related procedural learning
  • Working with the traumatized nervous system
  • Restoration of precortical functioning
  • Increasing client ability to regulate the nervous system and tolerate triggering

Session II: Working with Complications of Dysregulation

  • The consequences of autonomic dysregulation
  • Addictive behavior
  • Eating Disorders
  • Suicidal and self-harming behavior
  • Post-traumatic complications of abstinence and sobriety
  • An integrated treatment for trauma and unsafe/addictive behavior
  • Top-down approaches to regulating dysregulation
  • Bottom-up somatic approaches to regulating dysregulation
  • Differentiating unsafe versus ‘safer’ versus safe behavior

Session III: Working with Traumatic Memory:  Principles and Techniques

  • What brain science has taught us about traumatic memory
  • Recognizing and understanding implicit memory in client presentations
  • Do we treat traumatic events?  Or do we treat their consequences?
  • Remembering vs. reprocessing vs. repairing
  • ‘Telling the story’
  • Resolving the implicit memories
  • How do we know when memories have been adequately resolved?
  • Creating a healing story

Session IV: Disorganized Attachment and the Traumatic Transference

  • Attachment and trauma
  • The effect of having attachment figures who are neglectful or abusive
  • “Frightening and frightened” parenting
  • Disorganized attachment and its consequences
  • Understanding the effect of disorganized attachment on the therapeutic relationship
  • Traumatic transference challenges
  • The therapist as a trigger and a neurobiological regulator
  • Using the social engagement system to overcome the challenges

Session V: The Role of Dissociation in Trauma-Related Disorders

  • Dissociation:  normal versus pathological dissociation
  • Dissociative states versus structural dissociation
  • Understanding the structural dissociation model as a trauma model
  • Using mindfulness techniques to identify emotional and behavioral responses as ‘parts’
  • Recognizing internal conflicts as survival-related conflicts driven by structurally dissociated parts
  • Mindfulness-based interventions to strengthen client resources and prefrontal functioning
  • Developing empathic relationships to one’s parts
  • Resolving inner conflicts and healing the past

Session VI: Working with Shame, Fear and Anger

  • The role of emotion in trauma treatment
  • Shame as a survival strategy
  • Using somatic and mindfulness-based interventions to address the effects of shame
  • Fear as an animal defense response
  • Changing client relationships to fear
  • Anger as an animal defense response
  • Re-framing anger as a ‘bodyguard’ or protection
  • Using somatic and mindfulness-based interventions to address fear and anger

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 11/01/2018

Module 2 | Working with Complications of Dysregulation

This program, the first year of a two-year certificate program, focuses on the applications of the neuroscience and attachment research to the treatment of psychological trauma.  The program content integrates traditional psychotherapy methods with newer theoretical models based on both clinical and neuroscience research.  Next, it expands on the research to describe and discuss the implications for treatment.  

The implications for treatment are not simply the instructor or program developer’s individual ideas but are concepts widely supported in the trauma treatment field or by research.  A number of widely-accepted treatment approaches are referenced and their interventions discussed in the light of the neuroscience research. The interventions cited in the seminar include: psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, cognitive-behavioral therapy, couples and family therapy, clinical hypnosis, and.

The final third of the seminar focuses on complications found in trauma treatment, including dissociation, traumatic attachment, and unresolved shame, fear and anger.  Ethical and professional standards are emphasized as they are relevant to each topic area.

Program Information

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 11/01/2018

Module 3 | Working with Traumatic Memory: Principles and Techniques

This program, the first year of a two-year certificate program, focuses on the applications of the neuroscience and attachment research to the treatment of psychological trauma.  The program content integrates traditional psychotherapy methods with newer theoretical models based on both clinical and neuroscience research.  Next, it expands on the research to describe and discuss the implications for treatment.  

The implications for treatment are not simply the instructor or program developer’s individual ideas but are concepts widely supported in the trauma treatment field or by research.  A number of widely-accepted treatment approaches are referenced and their interventions discussed in the light of the neuroscience research. The interventions cited in the seminar include: psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, cognitive-behavioral therapy, couples and family therapy, clinical hypnosis, and.

The final third of the seminar focuses on complications found in trauma treatment, including dissociation, traumatic attachment, and unresolved shame, fear and anger.  Ethical and professional standards are emphasized as they are relevant to each topic area.

Program Information

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 11/01/2018

Module 4 | Disorganized Attachment, Borderline Personality Disorder, and the Traumatic Transference

This program, the first year of a two-year certificate program, focuses on the applications of the neuroscience and attachment research to the treatment of psychological trauma.  The program content integrates traditional psychotherapy methods with newer theoretical models based on both clinical and neuroscience research.  Next, it expands on the research to describe and discuss the implications for treatment.  

The implications for treatment are not simply the instructor or program developer’s individual ideas but are concepts widely supported in the trauma treatment field or by research.  A number of widely-accepted treatment approaches are referenced and their interventions discussed in the light of the neuroscience research. The interventions cited in the seminar include: psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, cognitive-behavioral therapy, couples and family therapy, clinical hypnosis, and.

The final third of the seminar focuses on complications found in trauma treatment, including dissociation, traumatic attachment, and unresolved shame, fear and anger.  Ethical and professional standards are emphasized as they are relevant to each topic area.

Program Information

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 11/01/2018

Module 5 | The Role of Dissociation in Trauma-Related Disorders

This program, the first year of a two-year certificate program, focuses on the applications of the neuroscience and attachment research to the treatment of psychological trauma.  The program content integrates traditional psychotherapy methods with newer theoretical models based on both clinical and neuroscience research.  Next, it expands on the research to describe and discuss the implications for treatment.  

The implications for treatment are not simply the instructor or program developer’s individual ideas but are concepts widely supported in the trauma treatment field or by research.  A number of widely-accepted treatment approaches are referenced and their interventions discussed in the light of the neuroscience research. The interventions cited in the seminar include: psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, cognitive-behavioral therapy, couples and family therapy, clinical hypnosis, and.

The final third of the seminar focuses on complications found in trauma treatment, including dissociation, traumatic attachment, and unresolved shame, fear and anger.  Ethical and professional standards are emphasized as they are relevant to each topic area.

Program Information

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 12/19/2018

Module 6 | Working with Shame, Fear and Anger

This program, the first year of a two-year certificate program, focuses on the applications of the neuroscience and attachment research to the treatment of psychological trauma.  The program content integrates traditional psychotherapy methods with newer theoretical models based on both clinical and neuroscience research.  Next, it expands on the research to describe and discuss the implications for treatment.  

The implications for treatment are not simply the instructor or program developer’s individual ideas but are concepts widely supported in the trauma treatment field or by research.  A number of widely-accepted treatment approaches are referenced and their interventions discussed in the light of the neuroscience research. The interventions cited in the seminar include: psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, cognitive-behavioral therapy, couples and family therapy, clinical hypnosis, and.

The final third of the seminar focuses on complications found in trauma treatment, including dissociation, traumatic attachment, and unresolved shame, fear and anger.  Ethical and professional standards are emphasized as they are relevant to each topic area.

Program Information

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 12/19/2018

Learning to Safely Inhabit Your Body

Now we can help people recover from trauma and reclaim ownership of their lives. We can now bring them in synch with their lives today, to feel alive and here in the present moment.

How? By teaching clients to safely live in their bodies.
And through connecting neuroscience, trauma research and clinical practice when we do our work.
Join keynote speaker Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., NY Times bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score, for this conference opening session. Dr. van der Kolk is world-renowned for his skill and effectiveness in connecting the two worlds of research and clinical practice. 
In the words of Peter A. Levine, PhD, developer of Somatic Experiencing and author of In an Unspoken Voice:

"Dr. van der Kolk’s work unites the evolving neuroscience of trauma research with an emergent wave of body-oriented therapies and traditional mind/body practices that go beyond symptom relief and connect us with our vital energy and here-and-now presence."

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Investigate the impact of trauma on the various parts of the brain, body and nervous system.
  2. Articulate ways to restore proper balance between the rational and emotional brains, that can help clients re-establish ownership of their bodies and minds.
  3. Propose methods that re-establish connection and synchrony with others to overcome trauma.

Outline

The imprint of trauma on the brain, body and nervous system

The keys to overcoming trauma

Body-based clinical practices

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Physicians
  • Psychotherapists
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 09/24/2020

Onno van der Hart, Ph.D. on Treating Dissociative Disorders

In this intimate interview, Bessel van der Kolk interviews one of the pioneers in the field of trauma and dissociation - a world-renowned expert whose has written extensively on understanding and treating chronic traumatic stress, and helped guide trauma treatment worldwide.

Listen to Drs. Van der Hart and Van der Kolk in a captivating exploration of the nature of trauma and dissociation and learn how dissociation has often been under-diagnosed and poorly treated in mental health circles. They cover issues of the history of the field, recognition, assessment and effective treatment techniques.

With case studies to illustrate the reality of dissociation, and enriching commentary, this continuing education moment will enhance your understanding of the clinical presentation of dissociation and trauma and the challenges of treatment.

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, Addictions Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, and Other Mental Health Professionals

Outline

  • DSM and defining PTSD
    • The work of Pierre Janet: current contexts
    • PTSD as a Dissociative Identity Disorder vs. an Anxiety Disorder
    • Implications of seeing trauma as DID
    • Understanding people with “parts” - how to become a different therapist.
    • ”Befriending self, allowing yourself to know what you know” - Bessel van der Kolk
  • Dis-association: a non-connection of parts
    • The confusion of nomenclature
    • Clinical implications involved in the assessment and treating “shutting down” of personality from dealing with DID
  • Traumatic memories
    • The recommencements of actions that happened at the time of the trauma - actions that require completion - Janet
    • What does this signify for contemporary therapy.
    • Dealing with “knowing when it’s over” in practice
    • Facilitating completion of the action: Somatic and Sensorimotor therapy
    • Evidence based treatment methods and their limitation for trauma
    • Retraumatizing the client
  • Psychological tension: high and low mental energy & efficiency
    • The need to incorporate psychological tension in evaluation process
    • Helping the client explore enhancing this tension

Objectives

  1. Critique the DSM’s categorization of PTSD as an anxiety disorder versus Dissociative Identity Order.
  2. Explore how the work of Pierre Janet is relevant for current therapy models in evaluating trauma
  3. Critique the nature of evidence-based treatments relative to trauma and the possibility of retraumatizing the client.

Copyright : 04/20/2017

Bessel van der Kolk Trauma Interview Series: Frank Putnam, MD, Pioneer & Researcher in Attachment & Trauma

Recently I was fortunate to engage in a personal interview with my colleague and pioneering researcher, Frank Putnam, MD, who is without question one of the world’s foremost scientists in the field of trauma, dissociation and attachment.

His remarkable research reveals findings that are of significant relevance to trauma treatment today. And in this video interview, you’ll hear first-hand about his dutiful and passionate studies on sexual abuse, transgenerational trauma, and dissociation and multiple personality disorders (DID).

As Frank describes the arc of his discoveries from one intervention project to the next, and our conversation moves from one question to another, you’ll gain an understanding of the impact of trauma on the mind and brain that will immediately inform your trauma treatment.

I invite you to delve into this journey with me to learn of this man’s important work, impact and contributions to the field.

Bessel van der Kolk

February 2017
 

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, Addictions Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, and Other Mental Health Professionals.

Objectives

  1. Discuss the clinical implementations of the longitudinal study on childhood abuse as designed and conducted by Dr. Frank Putnam.
  2. Summarize the trans-generational aspects of trauma and abuse as it informs the therapeutic approach.
  3. Specify treatment methods that induce a state of change in the trauma client.
  4. Provide psychoeducation on Dissociative Identity Disorder to improve client understanding of the disorder and the rationale of treatment methods used.
  5. Articulate clinical strategies to assist the client out of their dissociative state and return their awareness back to the present.
  6. Summarize the various results of the ACE study as discussed between Dr.’s van der Kolk and Putnam.

Outline

Attachment and States of Change: Trauma Clients from Childhood to Adulthood

  • Bessel van der Kolk, MD introduces Frank Putnam, MD author of The Way We Are: How States of Mind Influence our Identities, Personality and Potential for Change
  • Dr. Putnam’s early work and studies in rapid-cycling Bipolar and Dissociative Identity Disorder.
  • Physiology of DID
  • State Changes - the transitioning point between the state changes we make as children and adolescents
  • Attachment and attunement as children
  • 4-generation longitudinal study conclusions of abused and normal children

Early Disrupted Attachments

  • Disorganized Attachment “Type D” as a pre-cursor of adulthood physiological and psychological illness
  • The mother’s critical role: early patterns and intervening with a mother’s first child

Childhood Abuse: The Adolescent Female

  • Cortisol levels
  • FSH levels
  • Biological versus behavioral aspects of trauma
  • Attachment as generational and reverberational qualities
  • The “Strange Man” study

Development and States of Change

  • Multiple layering of states
  • Moving in and out and transitions
  • Stuck states or slippery states

Meta-Cognitive Function & Executive Function

  • Functions of healthy attachment
  • Validation: the critical need to “be seen”
  • Genetics versus Trauma as effecting behavior
  • Implications for Treatment

The Ohio Home Visit Program Study: Working with Children and Mothers

  • 2,000+ families in the study
  • Maternal depression
  • Substance Abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Help mothers with state change
  • Games, mirroring
  • Role for therapist
  • Effectiveness of the study and public health
  • PCIT: Parent/Child Interaction Therapy

Neuroplasticity

  • Brain changes
  • Hyper-arousal states “burn out” leaving shutting down

Inducing A State of Change

  • Hypnosis - viable treatment that has fallen off the radar but still successful with trauma processing
  • The stages of stabilization
  • Intrusive states: not seen in PTSD alone
  • ACE Study, addiction and maladaptive temporary solutions
  • Basic training in the military: the classic state change success story
  • Self-compassion: a required element of Mindfulness

Latest Research and Evidence for Drug-Induced State Change

  • MDMA: PTSD and combat trauma, initial study results
  • Psilocybin - Frank’s personal experience in a study

Language, Meaning and Context

  • Creating a coherent narrative
  • DSM III to DSM-5
  • Developing the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES)

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Story of the Scientist and the Study

  • The cyclical nature of studying trauma and dissociation of time
  • Lack of literature
  • Developing the longitudinal robust study
  • The DES

Discussion on the Brain Functions

  • Pre-frontal area
  • Anterior cingulate
  • Intrusive states

How do you help the client get out of the dissociated state?

  • Decrease triggers
  • Create safety
  • Substitute other behaviors
  • Self-monitoring: how to build that in the treatment
  • How to build stronger meta-cognitive functioning
  • Sensory integration: drumming, rhythm

Trans-generational Aspects of Trauma & Abuse

  • The predatory personality
  • Results of the longitudinal study over generations
  • Bethany Brand’s (Towson University) online longitudinal study for client and clinician
  • The importance of “telling the truth”
  • Value of the histories the professional asks
  • How far to dig into the specifics of the trauma

Copyright : 01/31/2017

Transforming The Living Legacy of Trauma

Traumatic experiences leave a “living legacy” of effects that often persist for years and decades after the events are over. Historically, it has always been assumed that re-telling the story of what happened would resolve these effects.

However, survivors report a different experience: Telling and re-telling the story of what happened to them often reactivates their trauma responses, overwhelming them rather than resolving the trauma. To transform traumatic experiences, survivors need to understand their symptoms and reactions as normal responses to abnormal events. They need ways to work with the symptoms that intrude on their daily activities, preventing a life beyond trauma.

Dr. Janina Fisher, international expert on trauma, has spent over 40 years working with survivors, helping them to navigate the healing journey. In Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma, she shows how the legacy of symptoms helped them survive and offers:
 

  • Step-by-step strategies that can be used on their own or in collaboration with a therapist
  • Simple diagrams that make sense of the confusing feelings and physical reactions survivors experience
  • Worksheets to practice the skills that bring relief and ultimately healing