Full Course Description

Module 1: The History and Evolution of Traumatic Stress, Grief & Loss

This is the first of a two-day seminar recording that delivers the bio-psycho-social aspects of traumatic stress, traumatic grief, & traumatic loss. Mental health professionals are on the front lines and, in many cases, have the initial contact with the individual(s) who has experienced traumatic stress. Clinicians are routinely called upon to serve survivors of major disasters, war, childhood physical and sexual trauma, rape, violent crime, and other forms of traumatic events. Participation in this workshop leads to a holistic and systemic understanding of traumatic stress and provides skills for immediate use in a variety of clinical settings.

How people respond to traumatic stress is an individual matter based on a number of factors including psychological, emotional, social, cultural, biological, spiritual, and familial. The two-day training will involve an analysis of the various defense mechanisms and other coping skills individuals employ during and following the experience of traumatic stress. Key approaches and interventions include:

Crisis intervention
Critical incident stress debriefing
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This training provides take-away evidence-based, best-practice clinical interventions and techniques for the Assessment, Safety & Stabilization, and Remembrance & Mourning phases of trauma treatment. In addition, completion of this seminar recording along with DAY 2 recording Evidence-Based TraumaTreatments & Interventions meets the educational requirement when applying to become a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (International Association for Trauma Professionals, www.traumapro.net).

Program Information

Objectives

Examine the nature of traumatic stress, grief and loss and their sequelae.
Analyze the clinical application of theoretical treatment models for traumatic stress, grief and loss.
Evaluate traumatic stress, grief and loss from biochemical, psychological, & social perspectives in order to improve clinical outcomes.
Examine the clinical research that supports the efficacy of trauma treatment.
Determine appropriate treatment interventions to address the comorbidity of traumatic stress in other diagnoses, including personality disorders and Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Examine the research on the efficacy of self-regulation skills as preliminary treatment interventions for trauma.

Outline

A Brief History and Evolution of Traumatic Stress, Grief & Loss

Systemic traumatic stress theory
Symptom review
Review of effective treatments
Tri Phasic model
Most commonly used instruments to assess traumatic stress

10 Core Competencies of Traumatic Stress, Grief & Loss Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual Factors that Produce Anxiety &Traumatic Stress

Precipitating events
Meaning making
Physiology of Trauma
Perception

Adaptive and Maladaptive Coping Behaviors

Trauma Adaptation
Systemic influences
Emotional & psychological stressors
Integrated theoretical concepts from stress, crisis & trauma theories
Information Processing Model
Psychosocial Model

Review of Effective Treatment Interventions

Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (PE, CPT & SIT)
EMDR & Bilateral Stimulation
Thought Field Therapy (TFT)/Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
Sensorimotor

The Biochemical, Affective, and Cognitive Impacts of Traumatic Stress

Affective volatility
The body keeps the score
Biology of traumatic stress

The Impacts of Traumatic Stress Over Time Across & Within Developmental Stages

Epigenetics
Reactive Attachment Disorder
Adrenal fatigue

The Role of Traumatic Stress in Clinical Disorders such as Personality Disorders, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and More

Traumagenesis
Traumaddiction
Comorbidity

Conceptualizing a Framework of Healing for Survivors of Traumatic Stress

Systemic perspective
Strengths perspective
Survivor metaphor

Traumatic Stress Exists Across the Continuum of Systemic Levels

Systemic trauma theory
Community trauma

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Case Managers, Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Psychologists, Social Workers, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/04/2016

Module 2: The 10 Core Competencies Of Trauma, PTSD, Grief & Loss

MODULE 2 OUTLINE

10 Core Competencies of Traumatic Stress, Grief & Loss Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual Factors that Produce Anxiety & Traumatic Stress

Precipitating events
Meaning making
Physiology of Trauma
Perception

Adaptive and Maladaptive Coping Behaviors

Trauma Adaptation
Systemic influences
Emotional & psychological stressors
Integrated theoretical concepts from stress, crisis & trauma theories
Information Processing Model
Psychosocial Model

The Biochemical, Affective, and Cognitive Impacts of Traumatic Stress

Affective volatility
The body keeps the score
Biology of traumatic stress

The Impacts of Traumatic Stress Over Time& Across & Within Developmental Stages

Epigenetics
Reactive Attachment Disorder
Adrenal fatigue

The Role of Traumatic Stress in Clinical Disorders such as Personality Disorders, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and More

Traumagenesis
Traumaddiction
Comorbidity

Conceptualizing a Framework of Healing for Survivors of Traumatic Stress

Systemic perspective
Strengths perspective
Survivor metaphor

Traumatic Stress Exists Across the Continuum of Systemic Levels

Systemic trauma theory
Community trauma

Copyright : 08/04/2016

Module 3: Assessment of Traumatic Stress Disorders

MODULE 3 OUTLINE

Self-Regulation

Interoception and Balancing the ANS
Self-Regulation Skills & Techniques

Assessment of Traumatic Stress Disorders

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the APA
DSM-5® changes
ACE & Developmental Trauma
Diagnosing PTSD with the PCL-5

Copyright : 08/04/2016

Module 4: Evidence-Based Trauma Treatments & Interventions

MODULE 4 OUTLINE

Techniques/Interventions

Relaxation/Self-regulation
Grounding
Containment
Writing/journaling
Drawing art
Healing metaphors
Transitional objects

Program Information

Objectives

Determine psychoeducation and cognitive restructuring techniques for maximizing client engagement and participation in early stages of treatment.
Articulate the 10 core competencies of traumatic stress, grief and loss and specify the clinical application of each.
Incorporate clinical interventions and techniques for the initial assessment, safety and stabilization phase of treatment as well as the remembrance and mourning phases of trauma treatment.
Examine the potential clinical limitations and benefits of completing a needs assessment for better progress in treatment.
Develop clinical skills to support and facilitate recovery from complicated bereavement in clients.
Incorporate CBT skills to promote the development of stability, self-efficacy, anxiety management, and relational capacities in traumatized clients.

Outline

Theories of Traumatic Stress, Loss and Grief

Information processing model
Psychosocial model
Contemporary thoughts

Bereavement and Adjustment Disorders

Supporting Normal Bereavement
Treating Complicated Bereavement

Assessment of Traumatic Stress Disorders

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the APA
DSM-5® changes
ACE & Developmental Trauma
Diagnosing PTSD with the PCL-5

Techniques/Interventions

Relaxation/Self-regulation
Grounding
Containment
Writing/journaling
Drawing art
Healing metaphors
Transitional objects

Demonstrations: Interactive Exercises/Application of skills

Cognitive Behavioral Techniques
Narrative Exposure Therapy Technique
Thought Field Therapy (TFT)
Bilateral Stimulation

Closure: Lessons Learned

Target Audience

Addiction Counselors, Case Managers, Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Psychologists, Social Workers, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 08/05/2016

Module 5: Treatment Interventions: Demonstrations, Exercises & Application

MODULE 5 OUTLINE

Demonstrations: Interactive Exercises/Application of skills

Narrative Exposure Therapy Technique
Thought Field Therapy (TFT)
Bilateral Stimulation

Copyright : 08/05/2016

Module 6: More on Effective Treatment Interventions

MODULE 6 OUTLINE

Review of Effective Treatment Interventions

Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (PE, CPT & SIT)
EMDR & Bilateral Stimulation
Thought Field Therapy (TFT)/Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
Sensorimotor

Copyright : 05/08/2016

Module 7: Desensitization, Integration & Closure

MODULE 7 OUTLINE

Desensitization & Integration

Trauma Memory Processing
Graphic Timeline
Narratives

Closure: Lessons Learned

Copyright : 08/05/2016

Module 8: Theories of Traumatic Stress, Loss and Grief & Disorders

MODULE 8 OUTLINE

Theories of Traumatic Stress, Loss and Grief

Information processing model
Psychosocial model
Contemporary thoughts

Bereavement and Adjustment Disorders

Supporting Normal Bereavement
Treating Complicated Bereavement

Bonus: Overcoming Trauma-Related Shame and Self-Loathing with Janina Fisher, Ph.D.

Shame has an insidious impact on our traumatized clients’ ability to find relief and perspective even with good treatment. Feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy interfere with taking in positive experiences, leaving only hopelessness. This 60-minute recording was webcast live from the office of Dr. Janina Fisher and introduces shame from a neurobiological perspective—as a survival strategy driving somatic responses of automatic obedience and total submission.

Learn to help clients relate to their symptoms with curiosity rather than automatic acceptance, discriminate the cognitive, emotional, and physiological components of shame, and to integrate somatic as well as traditional psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral techniques to transform shame-related stuckness.

Program Information

Objectives

Discriminate the clinical implications of physiological and cognitive contributors to shame.
Determine cognitive-behavioral, ego state, and psychoeducational interventions to address shame in clients.

Outline

The Neurobiology of Shame

The role of shame in traumatic experience
Shame as an animal defense survival response
Effects of shame on autonomic arousal

Shame’s Evolutionary Purpose

Shame and the attachment system
Rupture and repair in attachment formation

Making Meaning of Shame

Feelings of disgust, degradation, and humiliation are interpreted as “who I am”
Cognition and the body
Internal working models predict the future and determine our actions

Working from the “Bottom Up”

The role of procedural learning and memory
Physiological effects of mindful dual awareness
Using mindfulness-based techniques to inhibit self-judgment

A New Relationship to the Shame: Acceptance and Compassion

Re-contextualizing shame as a younger self or part
Bringing our adult capacity to our childhood vulnerability
Healing shame through compassionate acceptance

The Social Engagement System and the Healing of Shame

Social engagement and the ventral vagal system (Porges)
The incompatibility of shame and social engagement
The therapist’s own social engagement system as a healing agent

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Bonus: Trauma Defined: Bessel van der Kolk on The Body Keeps the Score

Researchers are increasingly finding that the body is the key to trauma treatment. Trauma is about the body becoming immobilized, feeling helpless or numb. Often traumatized people either don’t feel their body at all, or they feel it all the time.

In this compelling one-hour discussion, world’s leading trauma researcher and author of the The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk discusses his research and the influences on his life work with trauma. During the hour, he succinctly and descriptively draws the picture of trauma, the brain, and how various treatments work (and don’t) on the trauma client.

This hour will leave you, and those with whom you share this information, with the best understanding on the nature of trauma, its impact on the brain, how our brains work and most of all, the important new treatments that promise hope to those suffering from PTSD and trauma.

Bessel has spent 40 years working with and learning from traumatized clients. In this video, he shares insight into a bold new paradigm for healing from trauma. You won’t want to miss this personal account of Dr. van der Kolk’s work.

Program Information

Objectives

Evaluate how trauma influences the activity of the key areas of the brain and how that dictates behavior patterns in clients.
Articulate the clinical research surrounding the effectiveness of yoga, mindfulness meditation, and theater in healing trauma in clients.

Outline

The Latest Clinical Research Surrounding:

The impact of trauma on brain activity
Neurofeedback, EMDR and “body work” on symptom reduction
The effectiveness of movement, mindfulness and theater activities in trauma treatment

Target Audience

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