Full Course Description

Treating Collective Trauma with Hakomi: Listening to the Body

The Hakomi Method is a multidimensional somatic approach to deep healing rooted in an understanding of the silent language of the body. In the moment-by-moment unfolding of their somatic awareness, clients learn to access the unconscious core beliefs that shape their response to trauma, even when it’s woven within the larger context of collective trauma. Discover how the therapist’s own somatic awareness can help clients untangle the complex area where individual and collective trauma meet, and learn techniques to stay attuned and somatically grounded to effectively work with trauma. In this recording, you’ll explore:

The key Hakomi concepts of applied mindfulness and somatic awareness to help clients change rigid mental models
Attachment- and compassion-based skills that facilitate a gentle inquiry into the body’s messages
How to apply gentle interventions that can yield clients’ emotional defenses and trauma identities
How to stay self-regulated, somatically grounded, and open-hearted when working with trauma-sensitive processes

Program Information

Objectives

Use the key Hakomi concepts of applied mindfulness and somatic awareness to improve outcomes when treating trauma.
Apply attachment- and compassion-based skills that facilitate the experiential process into the body-mind.
Develop an experiential mindset to hold the multilayered complexity of trauma in sessions.
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

The trauma of racism is real, and it leaves many clients with the classic symptoms of PTSD.

Join racial trauma expert Dr. Monnica Williams and change the way you work with racism and race-based experiences in therapy as she gives you the tools you need to help clients name, express, and heal from racial trauma!!

Whether you’ve never felt the traumatic wounds of racism, or have experienced racial trauma firsthand, this program will empower you to validate your clients’ pain and offer real clinical solutions.

This fiercely honest 3-hour training will provide you with:

Direction on how you can be more comfortable talking about issues related to racism in therapy
Guidance for clinicians of color who’ve experienced feelings of oppression and discrimination
Interview protocols to identify deep seated wounds from daily assaults on dignity
DSM-5 framework guidance for race-based stress and trauma
Skills and interventions to properly address racial trauma in a clinical setting

Don’t let racial trauma go unidentified or risk clients failing to fully recover because you don’t have the clinical guidance you need!

Purchase today, get the skills and techniques to work with racial trauma, and be prepared to move clients toward a better tomorrow!

Program Information

Objectives

Assess the clinical implications of racial experiences leading to trauma symptomology.
Evaluate how historical, cultural, and individual trauma may or may not fit into a DSM-5 framework.
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

Our ability to navigate hard conversations and find the courage to risk deep intimacy depends on our ability to access the brain states that foster an emotional connection. But when a brain has experienced serious trauma, it can easily be triggered into dysregulation, limiting our capacity for intimate relationships. This recording will explore the neurobiology of how trauma can affect intimacy and review evidence-based approaches to assist with a couple’s emotional re-connection. You’ll discover how to:

Identify which brain states will impede your clients from engaging in relational health and using the tools you are trying to give them 
Create a working relationship with your client’s brain to promote trauma recovery and healthy relationships simultaneously
See how applying memory reconsolidation in couples therapy can undo emotional schemas that make relationships feel scary and painful

Program Information

Objectives

Assess the states of your client's brain that impede emotional connections.
Create a working relationship with your client’s brain on multiple levels to promote trauma recovery and healthy relationships simultaneously.
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

The long-term impact of trauma and stress are more than just mental health issues: they’re at the root of almost 80 percent of chronic illnesses in our modern culture. But ancient spiritual practices involving guided imagery, chanting, drawing, and movement allow us to reconnect with the innate healing power of our bodies, minds, and spirits. Experience processes that deepen access to the imagination and the inner wisdom that can guide personal journeys of growth, resilience, and recovery in a range of clinical contexts and settings. You’ll explore:

How to use the genogram to help clients build resilience and hope, and attune to their sense of well-being
Guided imagery practices to use with clients in therapy as well as community settings to help heal the body and heighten experiences of personal growth
Practical exercises involving writing, drawing, and chanting that reestablish a connection with the heart when trauma and stress have shut off that channel to inner wisdom
How to use music and movement in sessions to get around emotional blocks without spoken words

Program Information

Objectives

Evaluate the connection between trauma, stress, and chronic illness.
Apply three writing and drawing practices in a clinical setting to heal the effects of stress.
Use the genogram as a clinical tool to deepen work with clients around health, resilience, and hope.
Demonstrate guided imagery practices to use with clients in therapy and in community settings to help heal the body and heighten experiences personal growth.
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

Can the way we use our voice actually help change a person’s nervous system? Polyvagal Theory provides a neurologically based understanding of how human vocalizations and the way we say what we say can support mental and physical health. Discover how the Safe and Sound Protocol promotes social engagement and safety in therapy.

Program Information

Objectives

Investigate the nervous system’s response to auditory signals after trauma.
Apply features of vocalization to enact desired responses changes in the nervous system.
Extrapolate therapeutic interventions from research on trauma and the auditory circuits of the nervous system.
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

Treating Complex Trauma Clients at the Edge: How Brain Science Can Inform Interventions

We often get shaken and lose confidence in our approach when a client’s trauma response edges into seemingly uncontrollable dynamics of rage, panic, or suicidal desperation.

Watch Frank Anderson, colleague of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and Dr. Richard Schwartz, as he provides an essential road map for treating relational trauma cases. Explore the neurobiological processes of hyperarousal and parasympathetic withdrawal and the underlying symptoms.

Watch now and you will also learn various therapeutic techniques and interventions that can be integrated with psychotherapy practices to help soothe your clients’ trauma.

Program Information

Objectives

Evaluate the extreme symptoms of trauma by determining if they are rooted in sympathetic activation or parasympathetic withdrawal to inform clinical treatment interventions.
Articulate methods by which neuroscience can be interfaced with psychotherapy practices to improve clinical outcomes.

Outline

Experiential Treatments - Integrating neuroscience and psychotherapy

Necessity of utilizing physical, emotional and relationship aspects in therapeutic intervention

Problems with traditional phase oriented treatment

Negative evaluation of symptoms - ignoring their protective function

Internal Family Systems

Understanding symptom presentation as positive efforts pushed to extremes
Welcoming and integrating all parts of an individual
Identifying intent of symptomology, importance of avoiding shaming

Redefining trauma related diagnoses and integrating overactive protective mechanisms

Disorganized attachment
Borderline Personality Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder

Therapist factors - vulnerabilities

Impact of therapist parts acting as separately as the clients we work with
Responding effectively to personal triggers

Symptoms of post trauma

Hyperarousal, hyperarousal, psychic wounds
Importance of obtaining permission before addressing psychic wounds

Experiential exercise - self-awareness, response to triggers
Mind-brain relationships

Neuroplasticity, neural integration
Neural networks associated with trauma
Implicit nature of trauma memories

Autonomic nervous system

Role of cortisol
Sympathetic hyper-arousal
Characteristics of extreme symptom activation and mixed states

Therapeutic responses

Choosing compassion or empathic responses
Providing auxiliary cognition
Strategies to avoid contributing to hyperarousal
Top down strategies to separate or unblend

Case presentation - example of permission seeking, direct access and unblending
Polyvagal Theory

Dorsal and ventral branches
Activating strategies, responding to hypo-arousal, blunting

Target Audience

Psychologists, Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Behavioral Health Professionals

The Misattuned Family: Techniques for Healing Attachment Trauma

Too many children feel hurt, angry, and disconnected from their parents; and too many parents feel discouraged that their child-rearing approaches aren’t working. Many parent-child therapies focus on improving behaviors without looking at the core issues underneath—attachment and trauma. This recording offers an approach that focuses on the physiologic, nonverbal connection between parent and child to improve the relationship. Using two attachment-based modalities—Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and Theraplay—learn how to enhance regulation, connection, and joy between parents and children as well as guide parents to do reparative work around family trauma. Discover how to:

Get to the heart of a child’s deeper thoughts, feelings, wishes, and beliefs without relying on the child’s ability to verbalize feelings
Facilitate active dialogue between parents and children that’s both safe and gets to their core issues
Practice scenarios for optimal arousal, affect regulation, and de-escalating child-parent dysregulation
Learn gentle ways to intervene and redirect a misattuned or critical parent

Program Information

Objectives

Practice activities that increase a sense of well-being and connection between family members.
Facilitate active dialogue between parent and child using PACE to get at the dyad’s core issues.
Practice recognizing escalation in child and parent and employing strategies for de-escalating the situation.
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

Bringing the Body into Therapy: Clinical Tools from Somatic Experiencing

It’s now widely acknowledged that the body can be an ally in healing and psychotherapy, and one of the keys to helping clients move beyond trauma and embody resilience. In this recording, featuring experiential exercises, you’ll learn to apply powerful clinical tools from Somatic Experiencing (SE), an approach developed by Peter Levine to treat trauma and other stress-related disorders by gently facilitating the release of thwarted survival physiology bound in the body during a traumatic or overwhelming event. You’ll explore:

How to create a vibrant experience of resilience and wholeness in your work
How implicit memory shapes our physiological and psychological responses to trauma and recovery
Three skills to work with the autonomic nervous system to rebound from trauma and overwhelm

Program Information

Objectives

Assess how implicit memory shapes our physiological and psychological responses to trauma and recovery.
Apply the psychobiology of trauma and the survival responses of fight, flight, freeze as it relates to clinical treatment.
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

The Body as Healer: Working from the Bottom Up

One of the keys to helping clients move beyond trauma into empowerment and mastery is to help them learn how to access safety and positive embodied resource states. This contrasts with reliving traumas and repeatedly experiencing threats that no longer exist. Learn specific tools from Somatic Experiencing for reading clients’ physical and emotional cues, while using their natural instincts to rebalance their physiology and inner feelings. You’ll discover how to:

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

Program Information

Objectives

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.
Develop your capacity to read your own somatic cues as a means of resonating and connecting with the client’s experience.
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