Full Course Description

Understanding Trauma: Foundations

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Evaluate the impact of trauma on neurological structures and related behavioral disruptions
  2. Apply classic conceptualizations of trauma to current formulations and research findings
  3. Determine trauma treatment approaches that best match symptom presentation and client characteristics

Outline

  • New advances in trauma treatment
    • Hidden and interpersonal nature of trauma – socio-cultural context
    • Military perspectives shape trauma research and treatment in the US
    • Primary sources of trauma risk
  • Case demonstration – trauma related impairments
    • Conditional nature of trauma responses
    • Loss of purpose and meaning as result of trauma
  • Characteristics of trauma therapists and survivors
    • Neurobiology of reward systems
  • Taking a trauma history – establishing trusting therapeutic relationship
    • Demographics, physical factors, family and childhood experiences
  • Trauma impacts key structures underlying emotional regulation     
    • Research findings on the impact of child abuse and neglect
    • Ability to be self-aware and self-regulate
    • Childhood antecedents of self-destructive behavior
  • Development and utility of DSM trauma conceptualizations
    • Diagnostic limitations – complying with reimbursement demands
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences study – results and implications for treatment
    • Effects of child maltreatment on health
  • Psychological impact of childhood trauma – alterations in perception
    • Challenges and methods of assessing inner states
    • Balancing of thinking and feeling in perception and decision making
  • Childhood processing of trauma dependent on attachment environment
  • The nature of traumatic memory – sensory modalities
  • Classic conceptualizations of trauma reactions and transition into current formulations

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 09/10/2018

The Complexity of Adaptation to Trauma

Program Information

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers

Outline

  • Trauma Exposure
    • Statistics & Prevalence
    • Acute vs. Chronic Exposure
    • Types of Reactions to Traumatic Experiences
    • Contextual Vulnerability
  • Complex Trauma
    • Exposure & Impact
    • Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Study
    • Categories of Trauma Experience
    • Influence of Experience on Health & Well-being
    • Developmental Impact of Chronic Relational Traumatic Stress
  • Overview of Attachment
    • Healthy Attachment Cycle
    • Maltreatment Attachment Cycle
    • Co-Regulation
  • Survival-Based Adaptation
    • Human Stress Response
    • Chronic Dysregulation
    • Coping Strategies & Adaptations Used by Trauma Survivors
    • Case Study: Manny
  • Conceptualizing Diagnosis in Light of Complex Trauma
    • Psychiatric Disorders
    • Co-morbidity in PTSD
    • Proposal of Developmental Trauma Disorder
    • Complex PTSD

Objectives

  1. Facilitate an understanding of complex trauma as a developmental and survival-based concept to improve clinical outcomes with clients.
  2. Analyze the different types of traumatic experiences and evaluate the impact of trauma on health, well-being, and development.
  3. Propose diagnosing criteria that takes into account the impact of complex trauma on human functioning in regards to assessment and treatment planning.

Copyright : 09/19/2018

The Nature of Trauma: Developmental Neurobiology, Neuroimaging Research and Effective Intervention

Program Information

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers

Outline

  • Effects of trauma on brain organization
    • Attachment and brain development
    • Impact of developing technologies – psychopharmacology
    • Neuroimaging - implementation and limitations
  • Brain structure – sequelae of trauma
    • Limbic system structures affected by trauma
      • Fear response unconscious, not subject to logical resolution
      • Trauma affects deepest areas of brain and basic bodily functions
  • Somatic approaches to healing deep brain function
    • Effects of early trauma on disrupting brain development
    • Development of self-perception and resilience
  • Therapeutic methods for clarifying self-perception
  • Brain structures associated with fear and threat response
    • Therapeutic methods for accessing trauma related disruptions
  • Utility of varied approaches to trauma treatment, psychotheater, synchronization
  • Developmental process of synchronicity and responsiveness in children
    • Case demonstration of separation response in early childhood
  • Impact of trauma on key brain structures underlying emotional regulation            
    • Neuroimaging research findings
    • The nature of traumatic memories – loss of sequence and time sense
    • The nature of therapist response to client experience
    • Case example – central importance of movement in therapeutic intervention
    • Dissociation and alexithymia as persisting responses to trauma
    • Case demonstration – expressions of neurocognitive alterations
  • Predictors of treatment outcome – psychotherapy dos and don’ts
    • Historic antecedents of current therapeutic approaches
    • Necessity of incorporating brain-body connections into trauma therapy

 

Objectives

  1. Analyze the history of trauma theory and development of treatment interventions
  2. Evaluate the impact of trauma on neurological structures and subsequent impairments in brain development
  3. Analyze current approaches to trauma psychotherapy informed by brain imaging research
  4. Inspect the role of varied brain structures in symptomatic expression of trauma and response to psychotherapeutic interventions

Copyright : 09/10/2018

Neurobiology of Trauma Treatment: EMDR and New Research Directions

Program Information

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers

Outline

  • Brainstem, attachment & self-regulation
    • Trauma is lived out in the body
    • Infant attachment and differentiation
  • Stress and extraordinary demands associated with child development
  • Parasympathetic nervous system and role of polyvagal nerve
    • Regulation of basic body functions, maintaining stasis
  • Sympathetic nervous system – activation and movement
    • Harmonizing body routines with social surroundings
  • Role of verbal and facial communication in effective engagement with others
    • Utility of varied approaches to trauma treatment, theater, voice and facial training
  • Brain-body integration: assessment and intervention
    • Role of heart rate variability, respiration – impact of trauma
    • Differentiating between distress and PTSD
  • Methods of training heart rate variability – Yoga, religious practice research results
    • Challenges of acceptance into traditional care models
  • Processing traumatic memories
    • Iatrogenic effects of traditional exposure therapies
  • Development of EMDR interventions
    • Assessing client response and level of distress – posture, breathing, muscle tone
    • Case demonstration – MDMA administration and war trauma
    • Challenges to research and acceptance of novel therapies
    • Therapy outcome comparative research findings
  • Mechanism of action for EMDR – neural networks
    • Cortical pathways associated with eye movements
  • Psychedelic agents and trauma processing
    • Case demonstration – terminal cancer and life perspective

 

Objectives

  1. Evaluate the impact of trauma on neurological structures for self-regulation and interpersonal engagement
  2. Implement treatment interventions informed by current trauma research findings
  3. Distinguish areas for future research and the limitations of current evidence-based treatments 

Copyright : 09/20/2018

Adult Attachment Relationships

Program Information

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Nurses, Psychologists, Social Workers

Objectives

  1. Facilitate an understanding of the complexity of ongoing interpersonal interactions in the lives of adult trauma survivors (including peer, romantic, therapeutic, and parent relationships)
  2. Analyze the progression of attachment styles throughout the lifespan and its clinical implications.
  3. Propose an effective role for therapists in the building of healthy attachment as it relates to treatment outcomes

Outline

 

  • Attachment Overview
    • Protective Parent-Child Bond
    • Role of Environmental Danger Cues
    • Impact of Caregiver Successes and Failures
    • Healthy & Maladaptive Attachment Cycles

 

  • Attachment Styles
    • Secure
    • Avoidant
    • Anxious-Ambivalent
    • Disorganized/Disoriented

 

  • Impact on Developmental Pathways
    • Secure attachment as a critical developmental task
    • Emotional Regulation
    • Self-Esteem
    • Interpersonal relationships

 

  • Implicit Relational Knowing
    • How to be with others
    • Language based knowledge
    • Verbal and nonverbal
    • The development of Conflicts/Defenses
    • Development throughout the lifespan
    • Observable relational behaviors

 

  • Adult Attachment
    • Childhood-Adult Corresponding Classifications
    • Adult Attachment Inventory
    • Attitudes toward attachment
    • Adult attachment patterns

 

  • Interpersonal Regulation
    • Required Skills for effective interpersonal regulation
    • Influence of attachment insecurity bias
    • Interpersonal Competencies
      • Expressiveness
      • Sensitivity
      • Conflict Management
         
  • Professional Reflection
    • Personal Interpersonal Challenges
    • Connection strengths & pitfalls

 

  • Therapeutic Relationship
    • Trust as goal and prerequisite
    • Trauma therapist techniques
    • Establishing a trustworthy relationship
      • Available
      • Responsive
         
  • Reframing Relational Goals
    • Impact of Insecure Attachment in Therapy Relationships
    • Attachment-Informed work with couples
      • Emotion Focused Couples Therapy
      • Internal Family Systems
      • Attachment-Focused Family Therapy
      • Attachment-Based Family Therapy
         
  • Optimal Couples Therapy Outcomes

 

Copyright : 09/19/2018

The Roles Intersectionality & Cultural Humility Play When Working with Diverse Client Populations

Gary Bailey, DHL, MSW, ACSW, discusses Race, Class, and Context in working with trauma.

Program Information

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Other Helping Professionals

Objectives

  1. Analyze the impact of culture-related trauma on treatment outcomes
  2. Develop a framework for exploring the intersection of trauma, racism, and oppression
  3. Examine the impact of racial oppression as a trauma exposure and cumulative stressor

Outline

Stereotyping Across Intersections of Race and Age

  • Police Shootings & Mental Health of Black Americans
  • The Vicarious Trauma of Racism

Defining Cultural Diversity

  • Cultural Competency
  • Cultural Humility
  • Cultural Dignity

Intersectionality Theory

Cultural Humility

  • Self-Evaluation & Critique
  • Fixing Power Imbalances
  • Partner with Advocates

Microaggressions & Micro-inequities

  • White Fragility
  • Equality vs. Equity

Counteracting Micro-Inequities with Micro-Affirmations

  • Reversing Effect
  • Blocking Effect
  • Witness Effect

Power & Empowerment

  • Advocacy
  • Strategic Discussion

Copyright : 09/28/2018

Trauma Assessment of Children and Adults

Alexandra Cook, Ph.D., takes you through the ins and outs of conducting trauma assessments with children and adults.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Demonstrate effective trauma evaluation by creating an understanding of trauma exposure, post-traumatic adaptation, and case formulation.
  2. Analyze the difference between clinical and forensic trauma evaluation and differentiate how to evaluate children versus adults for trauma.
  3. Analyze the factors to consider when making a trauma evaluation referral, taking into account the impact of trauma in regards to assessment and treatment planning. 

Outline


Introduction & Case Example

Trauma Evaluation

  • Traumatic Exposure
  • Child Trauma Evaluation
    • What Happens During the Evaluation
    • Objective Measures
  • Adult Evaluation
    • What Happens During the Evaluation
    • Objective Measures
  • Dissociation
    • Case Examples
  • Psychological Testing
Case Formulation & Presentation
  • Case Formulation
  • Therapy Goals
  • Clinical vs. Forensic Evaluation
Trauma Evaluation Referrals
  • Factors to Consider
  • Case Examples

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 09/28/2018

Childhood Trauma: Impact and Long-Term Consequences

Program Information

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers

Outline

  • Prevalence of trauma in clinical treatment settings
    • Iatrogenic consequences of current treatment approaches
  • Scope of childhood trauma – prevalence and type
    • Case demonstration and exercise – Still Face paradigm
    • Threat and fear messages from the limbic system
    • Patterns of developing distress tolerance
  • Childhood processing of trauma dependent on attachment environment
  • Normative responses to trauma – fight or flight, social connections
  • The role of the body in response to trauma
  • Varied approaches to trauma treatment, psychodrama, movement, synchronization           
  • Limbic responses to stress and threat
  • Protective social responses to trauma
  • Sensory nature of trauma experience
  • Differential responses from sexually traumatized children
  • Case demonstration – attunement and synchronicity
    • Balancing pleasurable experiences with trauma processing
  • History of DSM-IV development – DESNOS research
  • Complex trauma sequelae – disrupted affect, attention, self-image, impulse control
  • Developmental Trauma Disorder – definition and research findings
  • National Child Traumatic Stress Network – trauma and learning research
    • Effects of early trauma on emotional regulation, peer relations and psychopathology
    • Developmental timing of trauma experience
    • Benefits of public health intervention into early childhood and parenting
  • Psychobiological effects of sexual abuse – longitudinal research findings
  • Child trauma history – frequency and type
  • Developmental Trauma Disorder – criteria and research support
  • DSM-5 and politics

 

Objectives

  • Evaluate the impact of trauma on behavior and processing of attachment experiences
  • Characterize nonverbal interventions that reduce the severity of symptom experience and expression in traumatized children
  • Critique and contrast current DSM-5 criteria for trauma disorders with current developmental trauma research findings

Copyright : 09/20/2018

The Scope of Trauma Treatment: From Acute Interventions to Restoration of Self-Experience

Program Information

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers

Outline

  • Essential aspects of overcoming trauma
    • Action, community, self-regulation, processing traumatic memories
    • Centrality of social relationships to recovery – Yehuda research findings
      • Intergenerational transmission of PTSD
      • Influence of stress hormones, physical resonance with caregiver
  • Synchronicity – physical attunement with others
    • Methods of improving connection and experience of reciprocity
    • Case example – developing rhythmicity
  • Active response to threat – LeDoux research
    • Brain systems that generate active coping
    • Necessity and utility of movement in recovery process – treatment approaches
  • Affect regulation – self regulatory systems - purpose and motivations
    • Role of medications
    • Brain systems underlying affective response and regulation – polyvagal theory
    • Heart rate variability – useful interventions and relationship to mental/physical health
    • Mindfulness and yoga demonstration video
  • Accessing the emotional brain – knowing one’s self
    • Structural effects of meditation and physical approaches
    • Limitations of mindfulness interventions – MBSR research findings
  • Being able to tell the truth – uncovering secrets
    • John Bowlby and attachment research
    • Alexithymia and psychosomatic illness
  • Story telling and writing – advantages and potential negative aspects
  • Getting in touch with parts
    • Alterations in brain integration and stimuli response post trauma           
    • Importance of multimodal interventions
      • Neurofeedback case illustration
  • Selection of therapeutic interventions

 

Objectives

  1. Evaluate current approaches to trauma treatment and select interventions that most effectively address specific symptom presentations
  2. Inspect treatment factors that can produce symptom exacerbation in post trauma clients
  3. Integrate findings from brain imaging research to inform clinical treatment interventions

Copyright : 09/25/2018

Introduction to ARC: The Attachment, Regulation, and Competency Model

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Analyze the role of routines in the caregiving system to enhance a child’s felt safety and stability, and specify why this is important in treatment.
  2. Characterize how the core attachment targets of ARC apply to the participant and/or providers within the participant’s system.
  3. Determine how caregiver ability to identify their own responses to trauma reactions is critical to the recovery process in children who have experienced trauma.

Outline

Applicability of ARC Interventions Across Life Span

Case Example James, 13-Year-Old Seventh Grade Student, Diagnosed with ADHD and ODD

  • Tends to quiet, isolated style, argumentative in class, anxious, can be explosive when provoked
  • Challenged by academic performance, bright with concomitant learning disability
  • Family history of exposure to violence, disrupted attachments, physical abuse in the home

Complex Experience of Trauma – Layers of Adversity

Understanding Childhood Trauma – Overwhelming Experience, Sense of Loss of Control and Vulnerability

  • Multiple layers lead to complex outcomes

ARC Framework of Intervention - Implementation Challenges

  • Applying interventions across varied service provision systems – trauma informed practice

Intervention Approach – Dual Caregiver/Child Focus, Three Core Strategies

  • Factors that affect engagement in trauma treatment
  • Strategies to support child, caregiver, and provider engagement
  • Skill development targets – building in layers

Trauma Experience Integration (TEI) – Capacity for Distress Tolerance and Active Engagement in Experience

  • Impact of trauma experience on development
  • TEI is embedded in the child’s larger world – ability to curiously observe others

The Observe-Modulate-Do Cycle

Addressing Safety, Reflective Capacity and Present Engagement

  • Building safety, internal and external

Attributes of Provider Attunement – Continued Case Example

  • Observing client states – continuation of case example of James when overwhelmed
    • State 1:  Survival
    • State 2:  Adequate internal/external resources, developing reflection
    • State 3:  Ability to take action
  • Effectively sequencing the progression of trauma treatment

Formulation-Driven Treatment – Making Sense of Client Behavior and Context

  • Integrating information to structure treatment choices – key questions

Case Application Exercise – History and Formulation

Attributes of Safe Attachment Relationships

The Trauma Impacted System – Disruptions in Curiosity, Modulation and Safety

  • Foundation of the regulated, reflective self
  • Video case example – interaction drivers

Parallel Processing in Caregiver-Child Interaction

  • Cycle of cognition-emotion-coping behavior

Attachment Goals – Building an Influential Caregiving Syste

  • Caregiver affect management, attunement, effectively responding to behaviors
  • Factors that interfere with treatment engagement

Basic Requirements for Trauma-Focused Intervention

  • Initial engagement principles – caregiver and child
  • Continued case example – application of principles

Ongoing Engagement Issues – Skills, Stake, Goals, Potential Barriers

  • Case application – engagement
  • Empathic engagement with caregivers

Caregiver and Therapist Affect Management

  • Improving ability to self-regulate affect
  • Skill toolbox – dealing with routine and unexpected stressors
  • Case example and application

Attunement - Observation and Language

  • Approaching youth behaviors from a foundation of curiosity

Effective Responding to Youth Behaviors – Observe, Co-Modulate, Act

  • Fluid phasic application of skills to meet child needs
    • Connection, control, containment, regulation

Therapist Resources

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 10/04/2018

ARC & Supporting Regulation in Childhood

Program Information

Objectives

  • Characterize at least two patterns of youth dysregulation, including function of the adaptation.
  • Establish how strategies for teaching children to identify physiological responses to stress can help them understand and regulate the arousal response.
  • Employ exercises to help traumatized children identify arousal states and develop effective communication skills.
  • Articulate at least one aspect of self and identity that may be impacted in trauma-exposed youth.

Outline

Supporting Regulation in Children and Adolescents

  • Check in tool for self-evaluation – matching energy and comfort to circumstance

Presenting Reasons for Treatment

Developing Affective Regulation

  • Influence of early attachment/caretaking disruptions
  • Impact of trauma stress response – acute vs chronic
  • Cycle of dysregulation

Developmental Trauma Disorder – Proposed Criteria

  • Inability to modulate and recover from extreme states
  • Self and relational dysregulation
  • Relationship of ARC framework to Developmental Trauma Disorder
    • Guides to intervention

Affective and Physiological Dysregulation – Ongoing Client Assessment

  • Understanding the process of self-regulation
  • Arousal zones and functional engagement

Addressing Dysregulation and Building Regulation Skills

ARC Skills Framework

  • Developing identification and modulation sub-skills
  • Addressing individual differences

Effective Modulation of Levels of Arousal

  • Presentation of the highly aroused child – strengths and vulnerabilities
    • Functional nature of adaptations and treatment goals
    • Building mastery over energy – strategies and considerations
  • Presentation of the overly constricted child – adaptations and vulnerabilities
    • Learning to observe experience – strategies and considerations
  • Presentation of the rapidly shifting child
    • Functional nature of adaptations and treatment goals
    • Therapeutic strategies and considerations – linking tools to energy or function

Case Example – Supporting Regulation and Relationship/Attachment

  • Foundational work and establishing child-specific goals
  • Building relationship – self and identity work
  • Setting the foundation for modulation and identification – goal setting
  • Deepening identification
  • The bridge from observe to modulate – linking specific states to specific tools
  • Connecting therapy room work to real world practice - addressing relational dysregulation
  • Clinical course and outcomes – gradual termination

The Flow of Treatment – Sequential and Simultaneous Interventions

  • Goal of trauma experience integration – review of ARC framework

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 10/04/2018

Adult Treatment Through the Lens of Components-Based Psychotherapy (CBP)

Program Information

Outline

Models of The Therapeutic Process - Benefits of Manualized Process

  • Historic roots of trauma therapy

Structure of Components-Based Psychotherapy

  • Central elements of CBP – flexibility and adaptability

Treating Adult Survivors of Childhood Emotional Abuse and Neglect – Impact on Family

  • Psychological Maltreatment

Case Example – David, Biracial Married Adult with Teenage Child Experiencing Difficulty, Marital Problems

Case Example Nicole – Caucasian Mom, Married to Latino Man, Paralegal

Improvement in psychotherapy as a function of therapeutic factors

  • Influence of extratherapeutic factors

Basic Stance of Reliability, Attunement, Transparency

  • Attachment disturbance and complex trauma – the “Black Hole” of trauma
  • Triangle of relationship – victim, persecutor, rescuer
  • Dilemmas of the therapeutic relationship – into the abyss
  • Models of therapeutic action – classic, corrective, contemporary
  • Dual attunement – receptive and active

Relational Elements – Connection and Boundaries, Self-Disclosure, Acknowledging Strengths

  • Therapeutic errors – holding emotion, neglecting vulnerabilities
  • Relational elements in David and Nicole vignettes – disconnection
  • Parallel process in therapists

Client-Therapist Relationship Challenges- Still Face Experiment

  • Transference, counter-transference and enactment
  • Attunement elements in David and Nicole vignettes – empowerment
  • Role and process of supervision
  • Culture and context

Relationship Questions to Consider

Regulation – Window of Tolerance

  • Grounding, self-soothing, imagery and meditation techniques
  • Body-based regulation tools

Negative Mood Regulation as Predictor of Treatment Outcome (Cloitre)

  • Vignette examples – relationship and regulation

Therapy Induced Triggers

Window of Engagement – Matching Client and Therapist Levels of Tolerance

  • Nicole vignette – therapist dysregulation

Special Topics in Regulation – Space, Approach, Cultural Considerations, Regulatory Tools

Parts Work – Metaphors for Neurobiological Phenomenon

  • Types of parts – vulnerable, reactive, manager, adult
  • Fragmentation in parts of self
  • Nicole vignette – parts, relationship, regulation
  • Imagery exercise for direct engagement
  • David vignette – resources and parts work

Narrative – Integrative Storytelling, Nonverbal Approaches

  • One sentence life narratives

Three Levels of Trauma Processing

Traumatic Experience Integration – Mourning Losses, Shifting from Reactive to Active

  • Nicole vignette – self-narrative

Traumatic Identity Continuum – Transformation of Trauma and Parts

  • David vignette – narrative, relationship, parts

CBP Framework – Integration

  • Stages of treatment and related treatment tasks

Individualized Component Entryways – Matching Components to Current Presentation

  • Timing and pacing – macro vs. micro focus

Clinical Choice Points In CBP​

Goals of CBP – Awareness, Connection, Identity and Resilience

Objectives

  1. Integrate varied current trauma therapy models into a single coherent framework
  2. Specify which CBP therapeutic intervention will be most effective for individual client presentations 
  3. Implement effective clinical interventions to improve affect regulation for high risk clients
  4. Improve client engagement and therapeutic outcomes through use of co-regulation techniques

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 10/05/2018

Trauma Through the Lens of Polyvagal Theory

Polyvagal theory is helpful with understanding different physiological states people go through in relation to trauma. This is a positive perspective because it provides a roadmap of the damages of surviving trauma and the journey of recovery. With this knowledge, interventions are created that lead to healing and not to retriggering of old traumas.  

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Assess observable deficits in social engagement and communicate cues of safety via neuroception. 
  2. Apply three neural platforms that provide the neurophysiological bases for social engagement, fight/flight, and shutdown behaviors. 
  3. Integrate fight/flight and immobilization defense strategies education with individual and group therapy treatment into practice.

Outline

The Emergence of Polyvagal Informed Therapy: Harnessing Neuroception of Safety in Clinical Treatment

  • Polyvagal Theory 
  • Evolution as an Organizing Principle
  • Three Phylogenetic Stages of the Automatic Nervous System 
  • Hierarchical Model of Autonomic State 
  • The Quest for Safety 
  • Immobilization and Mobilization with Fear 
  • Social Engagement 
  • Neuroception 
    • Physiological State – Intervening Variable Capable of Biasing
Neuroception 
  • Vagal Break and Efficiency 
  • Covid-19 Pandemic 
  • Polyvagal Informed Therapies 
    • Implications and strategies for treatment

Target Audience

  • Counselors 
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists 
  • Psychotherapists 
  • Therapists 
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists 
  • Addiction Counselors 
  • Occupational Therapists 
  • Case Managers 
  • Nurses 
  • Other Helping Professionals 

Copyright : 02/01/2021

We Do Not Work Alone: Implementing and Sustaining Trauma-informed Systems

Program Information

Outline

  • Implementing and sustaining trauma-informed systems
    • Rationale for systems based approaches
  • Agency level interventions
    • SAMHSA definition and principles for trauma-informed care
    • Domains of implementation
    • Parallel processes – agency level symptoms of stress
    • Basic intentions and values of trauma-informed care
  • Developing a common language among multi-layered systems
    • Administrator responsibilities and influence
  • Elements of change process
  • Common concerns and worries
  • Key areas of implementation
  • Implications of brain science – putting research into practice
    • Interventions, staff relationships and behaviors
  • Sustaining care
    • Addressing punitive influences
  • Principles of supervision – impact of effectively functioning team
  • Workplace stress – elements and mitigation
    • Staff needs –supportive social connections, varied choices, voice in affairs
    • Developing resilience – attending to vicarious traumatization
  • Measuring progress
  • Community level systems and impact of trauma
    • Role of schools
    • Measuring success at community level
  • Useful resources

 

Objectives

  • Characterize the reasons for the importance of trauma-informed systems for effective treatment interventions.
  • Articulate three key strategies for implementation of trauma-informed care in a treatment program
  • Explore a variety of multidisciplinary resources for successful trauma-informed systems

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 02/09/2021

SMART: Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment

Join Elizabeth Warner and Alexandra Cook for an introduction to SMART: Sensory Motor and Arousal Regulation Treatment. Through both didactic material and film, you will understand how SMART was developed, how somatic regulation happens in a SMART room, what trauma processing looks like in the SMART model, and how you can build attachment with caregivers.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Characterize and relate three forms of sensory motor input to the regulation of arousal in traumatized children and adolescents.
  2. Implement one co-regulating activity to enhance parent-child attunement and attachment building.
  3. Utilize childhood games in the SMART framework to address trauma processing in a fully embodied fashion.

Outline

  • The SMART spiral – weaving regulation, attachment and trauma processing
  • Co-occurring symptoms – multifaceted impact of interpersonal trauma and attachment disruption
    • Lack of response to somatic sensationsAttachment dysregulation and family disruption
    • Attention and consciousness dysregulation
    • Cognitive distortions – executive function
    • Negative alterations to self-image
  • Aims of SMART treatment – increasing tolerance and adaptability, creating an integrated sense of self
  • Components of Complex Trauma treatment
    • Safety, skill building, attachment, trauma processing, positive sense of self
  • Neurology related to trauma – Connectome Project
    • Role of play in creating healing environment
    • Neuroscience underlying SMART approach to treatment 
    • Negative effects of complex trauma on brain structures
    • Positive effects of environmental enrichment – implications for therapy spaces
  • Advantages of SMART approach to trauma treatment – bottom-up approach
    • The roots of development – developmental hierarchy
  • Structural underpinnings to arousal regulation – varied modes of regulation
    • Application to therapy setting and interventions
  • Understanding states – discrete and discontinuous nature
    • Working in the fluid zone
  • Somatic regulation and multisensory integration
    • Ayres sensory integration principles – development is sequential and rational
    • Importance of sensation in early development
    • Tools of somatic regulation – modulating arousal level and reactivity
    • Tactile systems – calming and arousing
    • Therapeutic use of touch – trauma related considerations
    • Practice exercise – proprioception
    • Vestibular system – bilateral coordination and spatial relationships    
      • Practice exercise – vestibular input
  • Sensory satiation through varying intensity, duration and frequency
  • Combining inputs – multisensory integration
  • Use of rhythmic exercises to promote connection and attunement
    • Practice exercise – experience and memories
  • Use of safe spaces to facilitate regulation and trauma processing
    • Video case demonstration – sensory input seeking
  • Sensory input worksheet
  • Collaboration with occupational therapy resources
  • Therapist skills – internal and external
  • Integrating caregivers effectively into the SMART framework
  • SMART outcome research in residential treatment settings
    • Developing in-home and outpatient applications

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 02/26/2021

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Theory and Practice

Dr. Pat Ogden, the founder of Sensorimotor Therapy, will take us through the process of helping clients heal by using somatic resources in place of talk therapy.  She will explain how therapists can use the wisdom of the body to tune in to their client’s history of trauma, attachment failures, and oppression.  By detailing the movements, principles, and application of Sensorimotor Therapy, Dr. Ogden adds valuable skills to the therapist toolbox.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Distinguish how Sensorimotor therapy can inform the clinician’s choice of treatment interventions.
  2. Catalogue the five fundamental movements of Sensorimotor therapy that can instill hope in clients and can stretch the boundaries of their Window of Tolerance.
  3. Catalogue the principles that create the context needed to maximize growth and healing in Sensorimotor Therapy.
  4. Demonstrate how a client’s somatic narrative can influence his/her Window of Tolerance.

Outline

  • Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
    • The wisdom of the body
    • The somatic narrative
    • The dysregulated defenses of the body and the Window of Tolerance
  • Trauma and Stress
    • The influences of our trauma and stress
    • Intersectionality
    • Neuroception by Stephen Porges
  • Prioritizing Regulation
    • Triggers
    • Resources
    • Repetition
  • Embedded Relational Mindfulness
    • Definition
    • Five building blocks
    • Tracking and experimenting
    • Resourcing vs.Processing
  • The Modulation Model
    • SNS Hyperarousal Zone
    • Social Engagement
    • DVC Hypoarousal Zone
  • Attachment System
    • Attachment Theory
    • Habitual ways of reaching out
    • Unresolved relational adversity
    • Legacy of Implicit and Explicit Bias
  • The five fundamental movements of Sensorimotor Therapy
    • Yield
    • Push
    • Reach
    • Grasp
    • Pull
  • Philosophical-Spiritual Principles
    • Organicity
    • Non-violence
    • Unity
    • Mind-Body-Spirit Holism
    • Relational Alchemy
    • Presence and Mindfulness

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 02/12/2021

Trauma, PTSD and the Mind-Body Relationship

Program Information

Outline

  • Trauma impacts the connection between the mind and body
    • Techniques for grounding, expansion, giving/receiving sensations
    • Yoga practices – universality of mind-body practices
  • Transforming trauma, loss and disability – living fully in the body
    • Impairing effects of trauma
    • Quality of presence in the body
    • Value of compensation systems
  • Understanding the landscape of trauma
    • Types of trauma – applying varied approaches to varied trauma
    • Dimensions of trauma impact on individuals – disruption of time and memory
  • Therapy goals toward returning the mind to a comfortable relationship with the body
    • Case example – post traumatic flashback
    • Combining body approaches with psychotherapy
  • Disruptions to time sense – understanding the ways in which memory invades the present and future
    • Identifying with client experience
  • Frequent symptoms of trauma and PTSD
    • Effects on mind-body relationship – disconnections, functional losses, sense of personal space
  • Core mind-body sensations
    • Case example – sensory disruptions
    • Inward dimensions of mind-body relationship – engaging intangible experience
  • Dissociation and coping with trauma
    • Case example – silence and struggle for words
  • Partner work exercises:  Yoga and creating mind-body awareness
  • Facilitating a sense of safety and calm – finding home again
  • Reciprocal support – restoring trust
  • Balance – shifting awareness
  • Taking up space – restoring sense of safety
  • Block and sandbag work – passive and active grounding
  • Foot and arch poses – sense of lift and lightness
  • Sacral exercise – filling the vessel
  • Standing poses - partner support and making effortful effort effortless
  • Floor poses – trust, vulnerability and support
  • Passive chest opening – spreading awareness through the limbs
  • Quieting practices – bringing calm into a challenging world
    • Cautionary guidelines for work with traumatized individuals
  • Back to back exercise – rhythm and calming, support without judgement
  • Sitting exercise – relieving suffering and effort
  • Restoring resilient and flexible boundaries
  • Solo exercises – muscular action as reference to restore mind-body relationship
    • Brain activation – calming the cortex
  • Common elements of varied mind-body practices
    • Reclaiming interior spaces – grounding and living with trauma memories
    • Partner exercise – accepting support and allowing vulnerability
  • Recovery process from powerlessness and traumatic separation of mind and body relationship

Objectives

  • Develop an intuitive understanding of the effect that trauma has on the mind-body relationship
  • Practice exercises to facilitate reconnecting the mind and body for trauma survivors
  • Characterize three ways in which trauma memories manifest in the body and actions of clients. 
  • Individualize movement and yoga exercises for specific expressions of trauma symptoms in post trauma individuals
  • Modify body-based interventions for individuals who have sensitivities associated with traumatic experiences

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 11/06/2018

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: A Model for Accelerated Change

Program Information

Outline

 

  • Introduction
    • EMDR as a Psychotherapy Approach
    • EMDR Therapy Applications
    • Clinical & Research Literature
    • Duration of Treatment
    • History of EMDR

 

  • EMDR Therapy as an Adaptive Information Processing Model (AIP)
    • Traumatization & Traumatic Memory
    • How EMDR Works
    • The Role of Eye Movements in EMDR
    • What Happens During EMDR

 

  • EMDR Treatment
    • Eight Phases of EMDR Treatment
    • Video Case Study: Kathy
    • Video Case Study: Heidi
       
  • EMDR Intervention Strategies: Cognitive Interweave
    • Video Case Study: Rebecca
    • EMDR Research & Efficacy
    • EMDR Training

Objectives

  • Describe EMDR Therapy as an integrative psychotherapy approach focusing on the emotional difficulties associated with exposure to traumatic life experiences in order to improve treatment outcomes and increase the effectiveness of therapy.
  • Validate the effectiveness of EMDR as a treatment model for trauma by presenting supported clinical and research literature.
  • Teach the eight phases of EMDR treatment, provide clinical case studies, and identify EMDR treatment interventions for the purpose of helping therapists learn how to effectively apply EMDR therapy in clinical settings.

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 01/07/2019

Trauma Processing with Children

Program Information

Outline

  • Impact of adverse childhood experiences on developmental stages
    • Factors that predict prognosis
  • Our role as trauma therapists
    • Areas that require specialized intervention
    • Addressing influence of trauma on specific abilities
    • Common presentation of post trauma symptoms
  • When to use EMDR with children – integration with adjunctive therapies
    • Awareness of shifting perspectives for children, vulnerability to small changes in presentation
    • EMDR process in children
    • Channels of associations
  • Resource work with EMDR – developing positive skills
  • Evaluating perspective in affected children – developing competence
  • Benefits of EMDR – management of memories and affect
  • EMDR protocol – elements and steps
    • Utilization outside of standard protocol
    • How EMDR affects PTSD
  • Integrating EMDR into the treatment of attachment disorder
  • Mood, affect regulation and attachment interventions
    • Incorporating affect tolerance, developmental and cognitive levels into approach
    • Incorporating caretakers into therapy
    • Utilizing subjective assessment and information
  • Evaluating the therapeutic benefit of play
  • Formulating the therapeutic intervention – structure and sequence
    • Video case example – coping with failure

 

Objectives

  1. Apply EMDR, play therapy and attachment interventions to effectively treat to varied child trauma presentations.
  2. Adapt standard EMDR protocols to address the specialized needs of traumatized child clients.
  3. Analyze and respond to common disruptions to the trauma therapy intervention.

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 10/10/2018

Making Connections: The Neuropsychology of Sandplay Therapy in the Treatment of Trauma

This course provides an overview of the neuropsychology of trauma and sandplay therapy. Students will explore the impact of trauma on the brain, body, and psyche/soul and discover how sandplay heals trauma from a neuropsychological perspective.  Leading theories on trauma treatment are reviewed and applied to case studies in sandplay with an emphasis on theories rooted in neurodevelopment, depth psychology, affective neuroscience and body-centered therapies.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Create your own sandplay therapy set-up.
  2. Determine qualities of self and archetypes and how to apply to sandplay therapy.
  3. Apply current theories of trauma with sandplay therapy.
  4. Devise sandplay interventions based on neuropsychological need.

Outline

  • Overview of how trauma affects the brain and body
  • Creation of sandplay therapy
    • Research support
    • Trauma examples
    • Origins
  • Exploration of three roots of sandplay therapy
    • Lowenfeld’s world technique- play therapy
    • Jung’s depth psychology
    • Tibetan Buddhism with Eastern contemplative practices
  • Identification of seven key tenets of sandplay:
    • There is an innate tendency for the psyche to develop and heal itself
    • The psyche consists of both conscious and unconscious dimensions
    • Imagery, symbols, creative expression and self-directed play are primary means by which psyche expresses itself
    • In a free and protected space, the psyche follows an inherent pattern of development and naturally moves toward growth
    • As the psyche expresses itself, the sandplay therapist serves as a silent witness, attuned to its unfolding
    • Encounters with one’s sacred and directing center lie at the core of the change process in sandplay
    • Journey inward to discover wholeness leads toward embodied relatedness toward the outside world
  • Comparison sandplay vs sand tray therapy
  • Explanation of neuropsychology of sandplay therapy 
    • Neural integration and nine domains
    • Brain growth and development
    • Neuro-sensory feedback loop
    • Three stages of self
    • Patient’s experience using sandplay therapy
  • Review of neurosequential model of therapeutics
    • Connection of brain structures and intervention
  • Defining four components of sandplay therapy that promote neural integration
    • Relational safety and generous attunement
    • Somatosensory engagement
    • Symbolic expression of trauma narrative
    • Mindful participation 
  • Case example: sandplay, trauma, and neural integration

Target Audience

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Addiction Counselors
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Nurses
  • Other Helping Professionals 

Copyright : 02/04/2021

Use of Play and Activity to Support Trauma-informed Treatment

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Outline

Introduction to Steve Gross

Chief Playmaker at the Life is Good Kid’s Foundation

 

Massachusetts Reception

  • Treating People Humanely
    • Helping Orient People to a New Location
    • Creating a Space of Normalcy
    • Establishing Structure
    • Engaging Teens
  • Schedule Routine
    • Getting Kids into School
    • Specific Meal Times/Snack Times
    • Quiet Times
  • Importance of Sleep
    • Educating Parents
    • Sleep Hygiene
    • Room Darkening
    • Storybooks
    • Soft Music

 

Four Domains of Structure

Internal Control

Active Engagement

Social Connection

Creating/Evoking Joyfulness

 

Mississippi: Post Katrina

Work with Pre-School Teachers to Provide Structure

Asking the Kids to Teach Adults How to Play

Joining with Kids in Play

Video Example: Parachute & Drum

  • Exposure to Sensations in a Fun & Safe Way
  • Containment Through the Rhythm & Calmness of Your Presence
  • Metaphor of the Storm

Body Energy

Soothing Exercise: “Hot Hands”

 

Sumatra, Indonesia: Post Tsunami

Trauma Training for Providers

Video Clip

  • Bodyguard Game with Muslim Girls
  • Connection, Purpose, Concentration, Fun

 

Haiti: Post Earthquake

Feeling “Over-Your-Head”

Being a “Helper” vs. “Rescuer” or “Savior”

Learning from the Culture

  • Utilizing the Resources of the Local People
  • Teaching the Care Providers
  • Empowering the Care Providers to Lead & Train

Biggest Challenge: Building Relationships & Trust

Video Examples

 

Japan

Different Culture; Same Effectiveness

Great Honor of All People 

Objectives

  1. Demonstrate how play can be used to support trauma therapy in children to improve functioning, mental health, and coping.
  2. Analyze the four domains of structure and demonstrate via case examples and video how implementation of the domains provides the foundation upon which healing can occur.
  3. Evaluate the use of play and the efficacy of the 4 Domains of Structure across various cultures and in response to various types of trauma exposure.

Copyright : 02/14/2019

Incorporating Play Therapy into Evidence-Based Treatment

Program Information

Objectives

  • Support children with complex trauma histories restore their capacity for playfulness and co-regulation.
  • Implement at least ten play therapy techniques that are consistent with the core components of trauma-informed treatment.
  • Evaluate which trauma informed treatment components “fit” with specific needs of children who have experienced developmental trauma.

Outline

  • Incorporating play therapy into evidence-based trauma treatment
  • Neuroscience of Childhood Trauma
  • Parasympathetic /sympathetic nervous system
  • Self-regulation exercise – shifting states
  • The Five F’s of trauma response – animal charades
  • Brain as social organ – self-regulation
  •                 Mirror neuron system – “mirror, mirror” technique
  • “Still face” experiment - video demonstration
  • Stages of attachment – developmental behavioral responses
  •                 Factors which affect attachment and key attachment theory concepts
  • Measuring the quality of attachment – “strange situation” research
  •                 Attachment styles – secure, insecure, disorganized, disoriented
  •                 Characteristics of secure attachment – Daniel Siegel’s four S’s
  •                 Developmental Trauma Disorder
  • Core components of evidence based treatment
  •                 Feelings map therapeutic exercise
  • Neuroscience underlying play therapy – reintegrating hemispheric functions post trauma
  •                 Catharsis, decontextualization, changing roles
  • Axline’s Play Therapy Principles
  • Therapist establishes a friendly relationship, accepts the child as he is
  • Creates a permissive relationship; child has freedom of expression
  • Validates (acknowledge and reflect) child’s feelings
  • Responsibility for decisions and change is left mostly to the child
  • Child directs the therapeutic process; therapist follows, therapeutic interaction is not rushed
  • Limits are set only when necessary for child’s outcomes
  • Toxic post-traumatic play – indicators of iatrogenic intervention
  •                 Sand tray examples – metaphors of conflict and safety
  • Elements of a supportive play therapy environment
  • Integrating play therapy with other evidence-based treatments
  • Structuring expressive interventions – case examples
  • Structuring sand tray interventions – case examples
  •                 Appropriate attachments and relational engagement
  • Self-regulation strategies and interventions
  •                 Co-regulation and auto-regulation
  • Self-reflection and introspection
  • Integration of traumatic experiences to acknowledge and process the trauma:
  • Future safety – transitioning beyond the trauma

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 10/08/2018

Working with Problematic Sexual Behavior in Children & Youth

Program Information

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers

Outline

Sexual Development & Normal Sexual Behaviors

Sexual Development Across the Lifespan

Sexual Developmental Milestones

 

Sexual Behaviors

Normal Sexual Behaviors

  • Infant/Toddler
  • Ages 3-5
  • Elementary Age
  • Adolescents

Sexual Behavior Problems

  • Origins of Sexual Behavior Problems
  • Associations with Maltreatment

Treatment for Sexual Behavior Problems

 

Understanding Teenagers

The Teenage Brain

Typical Teen Behaviors

Media Influences

LGTBQ Youth

Adolescents with Illegal Sexual Behavior (AISB)

  • AISB vs. Adult Sex Offenders
  • AISB & Trauma
  • Implications for Treatment

 

Examples of Sexual Behavior Problems

Normal Sexual Behavior

Reactive Sexual Behavior

Sexualized

Coercive Sexual Behavior

 

Effective Response to Sexual Behavior Problems

Levels of Response

When to Report

Safety & Support Plans

Objectives

  1. Analyze child and adolescent sexual behavior and important developmental milestones, and demonstrate how sexual development changes across the lifespan.
  2. Differentiate normal developmental sexual behaviors from problematic sexual behaviors.
  3. Determine the appropriate and most effective responses to problematic sexual behavior, including identifying the 3 Effective Response Goals, when to report abuse, and how to create safety and support plans.

Copyright : 02/22/2019

Internal Family Systems

Program Information

Objectives

  • Utilize IFS conceptualizations to develop and implement interventions that reduce post trauma symptoms
  • Analyze the relationship between varied personality parts and facilitate effective integration of disconnected aspects of personality
  • Structure and sequence IFS interventions in response to specific client presentations and therapeutic engagement

Outline

  • Development of Internal Family Systems Therapy and evolution into trauma approaches
    • Historical development of family systems therapies
      • Results of early family systems interventions
      • Relationship of personality parts and cycle of self-talk – impact on symptom expression
  • Integration of family systems into standard psychoanalytic interventions
    • Limitations of standard intervention practices
    • Respecting and acknowledgement of protective parts of individuals
  • Conceptualization of individual clients as systems of parts, each with positive and negative aspects
    • Accepting the role of negative parts, offering respect and acceptance
    • Nature of mind to operate as nonunitary system of parts
    • Alteration of structure and communication in post trauma individuals
      • Polarization and iatrogenic effects of current interventions
      • Applying family systems approaches within individuals
  • Characteristics of a healthily functioning Self – the eight c’s of Self leadership
    • The five characteristics of a healthily functioning IFS therapist
  • Differences between attachment theory and Internal Family Systems conceptualizations
    • Results and implications of MDMA trauma treatment research
  • Avoiding negative responses to IFS interventions
    • Power and desperation of protective systems and parts – ongoing burdens
  • Respecting the system – joining with protectors, obtaining permission
    • Ongoing influence of traumatized self-parts - internal exiles, managers, fire fighters
      • Prioritizing interventions with varied parts – protectors before exiles
      • User friendly choice of therapeutic language
      • Negotiating with parts to allow access without overwhelming the client
  • Aspects of successful resolution
  • Case example of IFS interventions – relationship disruption, transference and rage
    • Witnessing, retrieval, unburdening protectors

 

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 09/05/2018

The Use of Internal Family Systems Model in Trauma Treatment

Program Information

Objectives

  • Integrate the IFS model into your clinical practice and accelerate the healing from complex trauma.
  • Demonstrate how IFS translates common comorbidities into parts language, showing a non-pathological perspective of mental health disorders.
  • Structure and sequence IFS interventions in response to specific client presentations and therapeutic engagement.

Outline

Treating the Various Types of Trauma

  • Acute trauma and transition into PTSD
  • Complex or relational trauma
  • Developmental and attachment traumas
  • Extreme or dissociative trauma

Comparing and integrating trauma treatments

Working with parts in IFS therapy

Internal Family Systems (IFS): Healing of Emotional Wounds

The inner wisdom of the client

Phase oriented traditional treatments vs IFS approach

  • Non pathological approach to clients and diagnoses
  • Classic conceptualizations of attachment styles vs IFS conceptualizations

The IFS Technique

  • Identify the range and role of varied client parts, identify the “target part”
  • Working with protective parts – unblending, updating, obtaining permission
  • When separation is not possible – direct access to parts for unblending

How IFS handles attachment trauma – repairing internal relationships

  • Internal attachment and self-connection in the face of abandonment fears
  • Healing vs the correctional experience

IFS complex trauma study – results of pilot research

Neurobiology underlying impact of trauma

  • Effects of hyperarousal and hypoarousal – on therapist as well as client
  • Polyvagal theory – safety assessment from the ventral portion of parasympathetic system
  • Exercise – response to arousal states
  • Working with extreme parts in neurologically informed manner
  • Video example – addressing hyperarousal with direct access

Self energy, empathy and compassion

Healing and unburdening

  • Common roadblocks to unburdening
  • Integration, repair and forgiveness

Memory Reconsolidation – accessing, reactivation, mismatch and erasure

Target Audience

Counselors

Social Workers

Psychologists

Psychotherapists

Therapists

Marriage and Family Therapists

Psychiatrists

Addiction Counselors

Occupational Therapists

Case Managers

Nurses

Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 10/09/2018

Trauma & Altered States of Consciousness

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Outline

  • PTSD- diagnostic criteria and core symptomology
    • Dissociative and preschool subtypes
  • Psychiatric comorbidity of chronic early trauma
    • Attachment and formation of a secure base
    • Substance use and self-medication as response to trauma symptoms
    • Dissociation as response to dysregulated emotional states
  • Developing adequate emotion regulation capacities – importance of caregiver-infant bond
    • The attachment relationship – optimal zone of arousal
  • Dissociation as an altered state of consciousness in response to overwhelming experience
  • Four dimensions of consciousness affected by trauma
    • 4-D model of altered states in traumatized individuals
    • Dissociative and non-dissociative presentations in each dimension
    • Adaptive vs maladaptive function of symptoms
  • Consciousness of time – temporality
    • Episodic memory and disruption of flow
    • Remembering vs reliving
  • Affect regulation and the origin of the self
  • Brain structures affected by trauma – neuroimaging studies
    • The nature of traumatic memory and clinical implications
  • Present vs past centered therapies – outcome research and future directions
  • Consciousness of thought – tendency to sad, shameful and angry narratives
    • Dissociative change in narrative perspective – creating a shared narrative
  • Voice hearing and dissociation – association with trauma-related disorders
    • Working with perpetrator introjects
  • Moving toward self-compassion – increasing the capacity for empathy
  • Consciousness of and in the body – embodiment
    • Healing boundaries disrupted by trauma
    • Neurobiology of embodied consciousness
    • Body scan approach – case example of EEG neurofeedback training
  • Consciousness of emotion – affect
    • Associated brain structures – Periaqueductal Gray
    • Panksepp’s basic emotional systems
    • Implications for therapy – emotion dysregulation, addressing shame
    • Bottom up and top down regulation approaches
  • Comprehensive resource model and limitations of research
  • Dissociative dimensions of emotion – compartmentalization
    • Defense cascade model – fight, flight, freeze responses
    • Clinical implications of affective awakening – titration of positive emotions
  • Building attachment resources
  • Healing the traumatized self:  The rebirth of the self
    • 4D model and sense of self – from trauma to recovery

 

Objectives

  1. Articulate the effects of trauma on psychopathology
  2. Apply therapeutic trauma interventions to the four consciousness dimensions of symptom presentation
  3. Propose alterations in dimensions of consciousness that differentiate between dissociative and non-dissociative trauma psychopathology.

Copyright : 01/16/2019

Trauma-Informed Change Making

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Outline

Introduction

Goals & Agenda

Global Trauma Project (GTP) Mission

How GTP Works

Background Story

GTP Approach

  • Trauma-Informed Change-Making
  • Trauma-Informed Empowerment Framework

 

Trauma-Informed Change-Making (TICM): The GTP Model

IASC Intervention Pyramid

TICM Evidenced-Based Approach

Key Aspects of TICM

TICM Implementation

TICM in Action: South Sudan National Trauma Healing Initiative

 

Trauma-Informed Community Empowerment Framework (TICE)

TICE Development & Framework

TICE Application

Contextualization Part 1: Introduction to Trauma

  • 3 Areas that Impact Well-Being
  • Impacts of Trauma & Compounded Stress
  • “Survival Brain” vs. “Thinking Brain”
  • Triggers
  • Coping Skills
  • Resilience

TICE Framework

  • Safety
  • Regulation
  • Empowerment
  • Joy

Contextualization Part 2: Connection

  • Underlying Needs
  • Making Repair
  • Natural Support System
  • Supported/Created Community

Identity

Conclusion: Lessons Learned

Power & Privilege

Do No Harm

Importance of Local Solutions

Global Mental Health

Objectives

  1. Analyze the Trauma-Informed Change-Making (TICM) Model designed to strengthen systems of support in low-resourced communities impacted by trauma.
  2. Analyze Trauma-Informed Community Empowerment (TICE) Framework for Training and mentoring local caregivers in facilitating community supports.
  3. Contextualize mental health interventions for diverse cultural backgrounds and analyzes the effectiveness of that contextualization.
  4. Apply basic psychoeducation tools in diverse cultural settings in order to improve the effectiveness of mental health services and trainings.

Copyright : 04/03/2019

Impact of Trauma in Adult Spirituality and Meaning-Making

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Outline

  • The diversity of sacred dissonance – integration of spirituality into trauma care
  • Defining spirituality and why spirituality matters
    • Comparative spirituality, psychology and religion
    • Cultural competence
    • Spirituality as either part of the problem or solution
    • Spiritual practices attributed to coping resources
  • Religion and spirituality as a system of meaning
    • Addressing disparity between global belief and situational meaning
  • Spirituality and trauma in developmental context
    • Child’s spiritual reaction to trauma – increased vulnerability
    • Trauma as negative religious experience       
  • Therapist self-awareness
    • Complicated interfaces between therapist and client spirituality
    • Risks and limitations faced by therapists
    • Tools for improving self-awareness
  • The impact of complex trauma on spirituality
    • Areas of spiritual impact – view of self, loss of trust, disrupted faith
    • Impaired relational capacity with the Divine
    • Attachment to God research
    • Internal working model of attachment – underlying mechanisms
    • Explicit and implicit learning
    • Altered systems of meaning - dynamics of a transcendence crisis
  • Case study Shari – adult complex trauma survivor
  • Attending to spirituality in therapy
    • Comprehensive framework for spiritual assessment
    • Transforming spirituality
  • Component-based Psychotherapy – relational parts work and attachment
    • Useful contemplative practices
    • Mourning losses – use of sacred texts
  • Impact of trauma treatment on therapist spirituality – vicarious trauma
    • Healing elements for the soul

Objectives

  1. Apply spiritually informed interventions to traditional trauma and attachment approaches
  2. Integrate spiritual conceptualizations into the corrective emotional experience of trauma therapy.
  3. Adapt spiritual assessment and engagement practices to diverse faith backgrounds and experience.
  4. Apply effective contemplative practices to self-regulation for both faith-based and non-faith-based individuals  

Copyright : 02/21/2019

Caring for the Caregiver: Vicarious Trauma

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Outline

 

  • Nurturing the Self of the Therapist
    • Why Nurture

 

  • Working with Trauma Survivors
    • Empathy
    • Authenticity
    • Mutuality

 

  • Trauma Center Treatment Models
    • Client-Therapist Treatment Process

 

  • Trauma Impacts/Risks
    • Secondary Traumatic Stress
    • Vicarious Traumatization
    • Factors Contributing to Vicarious Traumatization
    • Trauma Exposure Response

 

  • Nurturing & Self-Care
    • Anticipate, Address, Transform
    • Resources
    • Self-Care Plans/Strategies
    • Mindfulness
    • Boundaries
    • Finding Your Tribe
    • Professional Interventions

 

Objectives

  1. Utilize the two questions that when answered act as buffers and sustainers for therapists as they do the work of trauma therapy.  The two questions are: 1) “What are the strengths, capabilities, and talents that each therapist brings to their work that makes them good at it?” and 2) “What is the meaning and purpose behind why each therapist chose to do this work?”
  2. Demonstrate the importance of therapist self-care, self-attunement, and meaning-making in order to decrease the likelihood and impact of vicarious trauma, burnout, and loss and meaning.
  3. Analyze the role of vicarious trauma and its impact on therapists, including the clinical and personal implications.

Copyright : 03/05/2019

Neurobiofeedback

Program Information

Outline

  • Trauma, Attachment, & the Brain (Bessel van der Kolk, MD)
    • The Effect of Early Childhood Trauma on Different Parts of the Brain
    • Brain Structures Impacted by Trauma
    • DSM-5 Smorgasbord of Trauma Related Diagnoses
    • Breakdown in Cortical Timing in PTSD
    • Neurofeedback & Trauma

 

  • The Principals of Biofeedback (Ainat Rogel, MD)
    • Why Biofeedback?
    • Biofeedback Assumptions
    • Hierarchy of the Brain
    • What is Biofeedback?
    • Training Video

 

  • Assessment (Diana Martinez, MD)
    • Subjective & Objective Assessment Measures
    • Neuromarkers & Physiomarkers
    • Quantitative Electroencephalogram (QEEG)
    • Event Related Potentials (ERP)
    • HRV Assessments

 

  • The Impact of Neurofeedback on Adults & Children with Developmental Trauma (Ainat Rogel, MD)
    • Adult Study
    • Child Study
    • Using Neurofeedback to Teat Individuals with Developmental Trauma
    • Case Studies

 

  • Conclusion: Efficacy of Neurofeedback (Bessel van der Kolk, MD)
    • Neurofeedback Research
    • Case Study: Caroline

 

Objectives

  1. Analyze the effects of early childhood trauma and attachment on different parts of the brain and elaborate on the impact of trauma on key structures of the brain.
  2. Demonstrate the use of biofeedback by identifying the various types of biofeedback, how biofeedback is conducted, how biofeedback is measured, and biofeedback assessment measures.
  3. Evaluate the efficacy of neurofeedback via review and explanation of neurofeedback research with children and adults with Developmental Trauma.
  4. Evaluate the effectiveness of neurofeedback measurement tools with children and adults.

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 05/13/2019

The Future of Trauma Interventions

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Analyze the history of trauma in the creation of the PTSD diagnosis; highlight how the memory-focused treatment of trauma fails to take into account the processing of trauma in the present and the present impact of how one organizes what is seen, how one organizes their actions, how one organizes interactions with others, and one’s present experience of trauma.
  2. Assess how chronic stress changes the brain and analyze the impact of stress and trauma on specific brain structures.
  3. Appraise non-traditional, non-memory focused treatment options that have been shown to be effective for treating trauma, including: yoga, music, exercise, theater, mindfulness, and MDMA.

Outline

 

  • Politics & Trauma
    • Veterans & Trauma
    • Trauma & Processing Information
    • Stuck in a Memory-Focused View of Trauma Treatment
    • ACES / Scope of Childhood Trauma
    • Trauma: Largest Health Problem in United States

 

  • Trauma Changes the Brain
    • Cytokines & Inflammation
    • Types of Trauma People Experience
    • Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Sequelae
    • NCTSN Study
    • DSM-5 Random Trauma Related Diagnoses
    • Quality of Parental Care & Attachment

 

  • The Future of Trauma Care
    • The Four “R’s”
    • Self-Regulation Video Example
    • Examples of Non-Traditional Effective Trauma Therapy
    • Case Example: Noah & 9-11
    • Learning from Attachment
    • Thinking-Brain Dominant Strategies
    • Polyvagal Theory
    • Brain Changes as a Result of Trauma
    • Synchrony, Attunement, & Skill Building

 

  • Overcoming Trauma
    • Re-establish Community
    • Taking Effective Action
    • Establishing Emotional Regulation
    • Accessing the Emotional Brain
    • Tell the Truth
    • Figuring Out the Best Interventions to Repair Damage
    • Example: MDMA for Trauma Treatment

 

Target Audience

Counselors - Social Workers - Psychologists - Psychotherapists - Therapists - Marriage and Family Therapists - Psychiatrists - Addiction Counselors - Occupational Therapists - Case Managers – Nurses - Other Helping Professionals

Copyright : 05/08/2019

Q&A Call with Bessel van der Kolk, MD

Copyright : 09/19/2022

Q&A Call with Gary Bailey, MSW, ACSW

Copyright : 09/29/2022