Full Course Description


Understanding Military Culture: A Guide for Behavioral Healthcare Providers

Your ability to have a positive impact on military service members and veterans hinges on one simple question – do you understand their culture and how it clashes with elements of the overarching culture of behavioral healthcare? Without understanding military morals, values, and beliefs, you won’t establish effective rapport and create treatment plans that work. This recorded session will give you a deeper look at military culture as concrete strategies for assessment and treatment. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Demonstrate the importance of military cultural competence.  
  2. Argue a purpose for the customs, traditions, and ethos of the military culture. 
  3. Utilize the Cultural Formulation Interview for military members.

Outline

  • Is there a military culture? 
  • Ethos, military values and beliefs 
  • Tenets and purpose of the military ethos 
  • Culture clash: what happens when military culture meets behavioral health culture? 
  • Diversity in the military 
  • Taking a military history: what (and what not) to ask  
  • Using the Military Cultural Formulation Interview 
  • Military and veteran families 
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

  • Counselors 
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists 
  • Psychiatrists 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists 
  • Addiction Counselors 
  • Nurses 
  • Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

Culturally Competent Assessment of Military Service Members and Veterans

The military represents a unique culture, one which consists of its own belief systems, norms of behavior, laws, ethos, and even language. Evaluation and treatment of service members can be difficult at best, and ineffective at worst, when military cultural variables are not considered. Variables such as specific occupation, unit mission, rank, deployment history, family dynamics in the context of military service, leadership, motivation to serve, and command resources – to name a few – all can have a profound impact on case conceptualizations, treatment strategies, and ultimate fitness for duty determinations. This presentation will provide assessment techniques unique to service members which will enhance rapport, improve the accuracy of case conceptualization, and increase the efficacy of provider recommendations. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Define cultural competence as it pertains to the provision of mental health services to service members and veterans. 
  2. Incorporate military-specific assessment components into the case conceptualization of service members and veterans. 
  3. Develop and maintain military cultural competence.
  4. Utilize military instructions and guidelines relevant to mental health treatment.
  5. Identify and address at least two barriers to care affecting military and veteran clients.

Outline

Military Cultural Competence 

  • Definition and importance 
  • Building rapport with a service member or veteran 

Unique Components of the Military Mental Health Evaluation 

  • Identification of pertinent clinical, ethical and legal variables 
  • Finding and using relevant military instructions  
  • Incorporating cultural variables into the service member or veteran assessment 
  • Conceptualizing fitness for duty evaluations 
  • Tailoring clinical recommendations 

Developing Cultural Competence 

  • Methods for developing and maintaining competence 
  • Resources for developing and maintaining competence 

 

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professionals 
  • Licensed Clinical/Mental Health Counselors 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists  
  • Psychologists 
  • Social Workers 

Copyright : 11/06/2023

Caring for Self While Caring for Others: Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, and Burnout in Work with Military and Veteran Clients

Working with military and veteran clients is meaningful and deeply rewarding. But witnessing suffering  can result in vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout. This recorded session will give you the tools you need to incorporate self-care in your practice and in your life. You’ll learn to recognize essential signs of therapist stress and explore personal and organizational factors and strategies that help prevent it. Get the support you need to implement an effective self-care plan. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Assess symptoms of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma. 
  2. Utilize two strategies for managing work-related distress from working with military veterans to improve treatment outcomes. 
  3. Develop a plan for addressing an organizational factor impacting burnout. 

Outline

  • Burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary/vicarious trauma 
  • Specific occupational stressors related to work with military veterans 
  • Assessment strategies 
  • Person-centered strategies for managing distress 
  • Organizational factors – what they are, what you can do about them 
  • Develop a practical self-care plan 
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

  • Counselors 
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists 
  • Psychiatrists 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists 
  • Addiction Counselors 
  • Nurses 
  • Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/15/2022

Mastering the Unified Protocol: A Transdiagnostic Approach to Emotional Disorders

Real clients don’t fit into simple diagnostic categories. And when clients come in with multiple issues, it’s easy to fall into the “what do I treat first” trap.

But what if you could learn ONE protocol that gets to the heart of what creates suffering in every client with an emotional disorder, regardless of diagnoses?

Developed by Dr. David Barlow at Boston University, the Unified Protocol (UP) cuts across traditional diagnostic boundaries to focus on key psychological processes underlying most mental health issues. Leave behind the confusion and frustration of chasing treatment order or switching between approaches – with the UP, you will simultaneously reduce symptoms of co-occurring disorders, all while improving your clients’ quality of life.

In this workshop, Dr. Shannon Sauer-Zavala, co-developer of the UP, will walk you through 8 easy-to-learn modules and demonstrate how you can use UP principles flexibly to:

  • Harness your clients’ motivation toward change
  • Teach your clients to better understand and utilize the power of their emotions
  • Facilitate cognitive restructuring exercises to enhance the clarity of your clients’ thinking and deciding
  • Revamp your clients’ mistaken appraisals of triggering body sensations
  • Improve your clients’ ability to be present and in charge of their behaviors

Rooted in the power of emotion-focused CBT and shown to be effective in over 70 rigorous clinical trials, the Unified Protocol lets you get to the core of mental health issues and focus on your client - not labels.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of the current method of classifying mental disorders.
  2. Construct a transdiagnostic case conceptualization for clients presenting with comorbid disorders.
  3. Utilize mindfulness-based interventions to increase clients’ awareness and experience of emotions.
  4. Apply cognitive restructuring techniques targeting overestimation and catastrophizing.
  5. Plan behavioral experiments to promote clients’ ability to engage in intentional action.
  6. Utilize situational, imaginal, and interoceptive exposures to improve clients’ tolerance of strong emotions.

Outline

Controversial issues in diagnosis

  • History of mental health disorders classification
  • Categorical approach: the problem of phenotypic overlap
  • Comorbidity – when only the content of worries distinguishes diagnosis
  • Ill-fitting diagnostic boxes: unspecified and subthreshold presentations
Rationale for transdiagnostic treatment and a return to lumping disorders
  • Conventional approaches: the burden of one diagnosis = one treatment
  • Personality/temperamental factors supporting a transdiagnostic approach
  • Neurobiological evidence for going deeper than symptom level
The two vulnerabilities to developing emotional disorders
  • Experiencing strong emotions and having strong negative reactions to intense emotions
  • Transdiagnostic case conceptualization – when avoidance backfires
  • Unified Protocol: core strategies to increase clients’ willingness to experience strong emotions
Starting out: Understanding what gets clients going and what keeps them stuck
  • Conducting assessments and getting clients on board with UP treatment
  • Harnessing and maintaining motivation
  • Exercise: Goal setting and decisional balance
  • Case study
Developing a better understanding of emotional experience
  • Teaching clients the adaptive function of their uncomfortable feelings
  • “Just relax” - understanding the interacting components of thoughts, physical sensations, and emotions
  • Break out of the vacuum – recognizing the ARC (antecedents, response, consequence)
  • Exercise: Cultivating mindful attention and Mindful mood induction
  • Case study
Shining a light on how thinking generates and maintains distress
  • Dismantling thinking traps: the role of automatic, habitual cognitive appraisals
  • Targeting specific types of cognitive inflexibility: overestimation and catastrophizing
  • What to do when cognitive work falls flat with your clients
  • Exercise: Ambiguous picture
Understanding and countering avoidance strategies
  • The five categories of emotional behaviors that reinforce symptoms
  • Deciding on alternative action experiments
  • Exercise: Paradox of suppression
  • Case study
Fostering more accurate appraisals of body sensations
  • Shaking clients’ conviction that they cannot handle situations and emotions
  • Interoceptive exposures – de-triggering your clients’ physical experience
  • Exercise: Playground metaphor and generating exposure ideas
  • Case study

Climbing the ladder of emotion exposures

  • Situational, imaginal, interoceptive!
  • Creating strong emotion to show clients they can cope
  • Exposure preparation and debriefing
  • Exercise: Create a hierarchy
  • Case study
Maintaining gains and preventing relapse
  • Treatment consolidation and relapse prevention
  • Tips for teaching clients to be their own therapist
  • Exercise: Distinguish symptom relief goals from well-being goals
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 03/29/2022

Crisis Response Planning and Lethal Means Counseling to Reduce Military and Veteran Suicide

Treating a client in a suicidal crisis is nerve-wracking enough on its own, but what if you’re working with a client who has access to and advanced knowledge of weapons? This recorded session provides essential information on two effective suicide prevention tools for use with military service members and veterans, Crisis Response Planning and Lethal Means Counseling. You’ll get specific strategies for conducting client-centered narrative assessments of suicide risk and a tailored crisis response plan that prioritizes self-management strategies and reducing access to firearms. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Conduct a narrative assessment with a suicidal military service member or veteran. 
  2. Distinguish the core components of a crisis response plan. 
  3. Develop a means safety plan with a suicidal individual.

Outline

  • Understanding suicidal behaviors in military service members and veterans 
  • Assessment tools that build a collaborative relationship 
  • How to develop a crisis response plan 
  • Have the conversation: Lethal means counseling 
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

  • Counselors 
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists 
  • Psychiatrists 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists 
  • Addiction Counselors 
  • Nurses 
  • Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/15/2022

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for Suicidality: Overcoming Stuck Points and Creating Mental Flexibility

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a rapidly growing model that is showing promising results and has uncovered key cognitive processes that, when addressed, can create lasting healing from suicidal ideation and behaviors that can often accompany PTSD. 

Join co-developer of CPT, Kathleen Chard, PhD, where she will address how she approaches suicidality from a CPT perspective based on over 20 years of research around PTSD and suicidality. Learn the key processes behind this approach to trauma treatment that is endorsed by the U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, and the U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a best practice for the treatment of PTSD.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Analyze the empirical evidence supporting the use of CPT for suicidality.
  2. Determine common myths around suicidality among those with PTSD that can interfere in treatment and worsen outcomes.
  3. Utilize three cognitive processing techniques to address “stuck points”.

Outline

  • Explore the evidence for positive results from CPT research studies on suicidality and PTD
  • Identify common myths around suicidality
  • Practice 3 CPT interventions useful for suicidal clients

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 09/10/2021

Exposure to Burn Pits: Implications for Treating Medical Trauma in Military and Veteran Clients

Respiratory illness. Neurological effects. Cancer. Reproductive toxicity. These are only a few of the problems that your military and veteran clients might be dealing with after exposure to burn pits. And if you’ve been watching the news, you’re aware of the sense of betrayal they’re feeling. In this keynote recording, Michelle Flaum, EdD, LPCC-s will frame these experiences as medical trauma and tell you how you can help.

Program Information

Outline

  • Ecological Model of Medical Trauma 
  • Client Risk Factors with Emphasis on Military Risk Factors from Burn Pit Exposure 
  • Assessment and Treatment Phase Work with Burn Pit Exposure Clients

Target Audience

  • Counselors 
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists 
  • Psychiatrists 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists 
  • Addiction Counselors 
  • Nurses 
  • Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

Military Sexual Trauma: How to Heal in the Face of Betrayal

You may be overlooking a major factor in your clinical work with MST survivors – betrayal trauma. For many clients, the multiple layers of betrayal within military culture can often be more traumatizing than the assault itself - and it’s a major contributing factor to the development of PTSD. This recorded training will help you assess how betrayal trauma impacts recovery and develop a roadmap for shifting your clients from victim to survivor to thriver. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Assess clients’ experience of multiple components of betrayal trauma.
  2. Construct a coping skills plan for clients in early treatment for MST.
  3. Describe narrative therapy techniques that may be used with clients who have experienced MST.

Outline

  • Betrayal trauma – the most intense, traumatizing component of MST 
  • Multiple components of betrayal: offender, first disclosure, institution/system, body and self 
  • Difficulties and necessities of addressing betrayal trauma in clinical practice 
  • The impact of early/earlier sexual trauma and potential trauma reactivation over the life span 
  • Healing beyond the sexual assault – moving from victim to survivor to thriver and restoring trust in self and system 
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks 

Target Audience

  • Counselors 
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists 
  • Psychiatrists 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists 
  • Addiction Counselors 
  • Nurses 
  • Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

Paths Through Moral Pain: Psychological Flexibility As A Guide

When moral injury occurs in the context of trauma, it makes symptoms like guilt, shame, and anger so much worse and therapy so much more difficult. Facing situations that conflict with personal values leaves your military and veteran clients carrying deep pain that you need to know how to address. In this session Wyatt will provide an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-based guide through moral pain focused on compassion, forgiveness, and values (re)alignment so that you can facilitate healing, connection, and vitality for your clients. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Differentiate natural moral pain from functionally impairing moral injury. 
  2. Conceptualize moral injury from a functional contextual perspective.  
  3. Engage psychological flexibility processes to cultivate acceptance of moral pain and commitment to moral values. 

 

Outline

Pain is Inevitable, Suffering is Optional 

  • Identify morally injurious events, transgressions, and betrayal 
  • Help clients understand the social function of moral emotions 

Responding to Beliefs that Fuel Moral Injury 

  • Potential pitfalls of traditional cognitive interventions  
  • Understand how the relationship to moral pain can cause suffering 
  • Cognitive defusion techniques to cultivate freedom from suffering 

Behavioral Interventions for Guilt, Shame, Disgust, and Disillusionment 

  • Strategies to help clients establish presence and willingness 
  • Values clarification –  re-evaluation, realignment, and release 
  • Use mindfulness to cultivate compassion and forgiveness for self and the world

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professionals 
  • Licensed Clinical/Mental Health Counselors 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists  
  • Psychologists 
  • Social Workers 

Copyright : 11/07/2023

Trauma-Related Insomnia: Effective Sleep Strategies for Military Personnel and Veterans

Untreated sleep problems wreak havoc on your ability to effectively treat patients, particularly when it comes to trauma-related insomnia in the military service members and veterans. Though contributing factors aren’t well-understood, higher rates of sleep disorders in these populations means that you must be prepared. Learn how to go beyond sleep hygiene – and why you should – to provide your military and veteran clients with simple, evidence-based interventions to improve their sleep. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Analyze the three causal factors of chronic insomnia.
  2. Assess the impact of fear of sleep has in traumatized clients.
  3. Utilize three CBT strategies to alleviate symptoms of insomnia. 

Outline

  • Sleep problems in military and veteran populations: possible causes and consequences 
  • Three causal factors of insomnia: low deep sleep drive, body clock input, conditioned arousal 
  • Impact of trauma and trauma symptoms on sleep in military and veteran populations 
  • Cognitive Behavioral Insomnia strategies: stimulus control, sleep scheduling, cognitive therapy 
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks 

Target Audience

  • Counselors 
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists 
  • Psychiatrists 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists 
  • Addiction Counselors 
  • Nurses 
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

Rethinking Addiction: The Integrative Harm Reduction Approach

The truth about illegal drugs is that most people use them for pleasure, connection, enhancing creativity, and coping with life’s many physical and emotional challenges. Of course, drugs have serious inherent risks. But given the prevalence of the “Just Say No” culture, do we really understand the best way to minimize those risks? For many therapists, the answer is no. In fact, therapists are often so uncomfortable dealing with drug use that they’ll immediately refer a client out, despite having established a solid therapeutic relationship. This session offers a psychobiosocial approach that demystifies problematic drug use, as well as an integrative harm reduction approach that provides a road map for helping therapists help their clients rethink their relationship with substances. You’ll explore:

  • Seven therapeutic tasks for engaging and promoting positive change for clients who struggle with drug use and other risky and addictive behaviors
  • Harm reduction principles that facilitate healing relational experiences
  • Approaches to help drug-using clients overcome the shame and guilt that often derails therapy
  • Mindfulness-based strategies for sitting with uncomfortable urges and feelings

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Justify how the harm-reduction stance is essential to effective treatment across the spectrum of addictive severity.
  2. Catalogue seven therapeutic tasks that combine relational psychodynamic, CBT, and mindfulness interventions to promote positive change with addictive behaviors.
  3. Utilize the Microanalysis to assess how addictive behavior reflects the interplay of biology, meaning, habit, and social context.
  4. Demonstrate Urge Surfing to improve affect acceptance and tolerance.
  5. Demonstrate Unwrapping the Urge to explore the meaning and function of the addictive urge.

Outline

  • The journey to Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP)
  • A harm reduction frame as essential to effective helping
  • Challenges of working with people who struggle with drugs in clinical practice
  • The maligning of addiction
  • A re-humanized understanding of problematic substance use
  • Selected techniques demonstrated

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 02/16/2022

Eating Disorders in Military Populations: Trauma and the Tape

Risk factors for eating disorders are pervasive in military service – from the heightened emphasis on weight and size, to constant demands for physical fitness and stamina, to repeated exposure to potentially traumatizing experiences. This recorded session will give you the skills you need so that you can assess for eating disorders and create effective treatment plans in the context of your clients’ military culture. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Appraise the impact of military culture on the development of eating disorders. 
  2. Assess eating disordered behavior among military servicemembers and veterans.  
  3. Utilize exposure and response prevention tools to help clients face fears about returning to “normal eating”.

Outline

  • Risk factors for eating disorders in military and veteran populations 
  • How to deal with clients’ fear of persecution by peers and leadership 
  • Issues with access to care 
  • Key assessment questions and instruments to screen for eating disorders 
  • Evidence-based interventions for disordered eating 
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

  • Counselors 
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists 
  • Psychiatrists 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists 
  • Addiction Counselors 
  • Nurses 
  • Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/14/2022

The Chronic Pain Foxhole: Strategies for Treating Pain in the Military and Veteran Populations

Without a fundamental understanding of military culture and how service members and veterans view pain, you’ll be unprepared to help your clients manage the complex issues they face and have the highest quality of life. This recorded session will help you understand the most common causes of chronic pain in the military population, deliver a variety of nonpharmacological strategies to relieve chronic pain, and create an effective interdisciplinary treatment team. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Assess the prevalence, causes and characteristics of chronic pain in military and veteran populations.
  2. Determine the roles and responsibilities of the mental health provider on an interdisciplinary chronic pain team.
  3. Utilize nonpharmacological strategies to relieve chronic pain.
     

Outline

  • The prevalence and epidemiology of pain in active-duty military and veterans 
  • Comparison of military versus civilian pain medicine 
  • Military culture and attitudes toward pain management 
  • The inter-disciplinary treatment pathway and clinic functions used to treat chronic pain  
  • Lessons learned – effective nonpharmacologic methods for alleviating chronic pain 
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks  

Target Audience

  • Counselors 
  • Social Workers 
  • Psychologists 
  • Psychiatrists 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists 
  • Addiction Counselors 
  • Nurses 
  • Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/15/2022

Concussion and TBI in Military and Veteran Populations: A Toolbox of Interventions to Improve Cognitive Functioning and Quality of Life

Though largely “invisible injuries,” traumatic brain injury and concussion history can severely complicate your treatment efforts. In this recorded session, you’ll learn essential techniques you can use in your practice to rehabilitate cognitive skills that are commonly impaired as a result of TBI. Improve your clients’ self-efficacy and help them take control of their symptoms as you understand how fatigue, mood, anxiety, trauma, and chronic pain affect cognitive performance. 

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Analyze the effect of traumatic brain injury on the structure and function of the central nervous system. 
  2. Utilize at least two evidence-based strategies to improve cognitive function following traumatic brain injury. 
  3. Design interventions that help clients understand mind-body interactions related to functional neurological symptoms.

Outline

  • Mechanics and neuropathology associated with traumatic brain injury common in military settings 
  • Evidence-based techniques designed to improve function and performance of common cognitive declines in TBI  
  • Mood, anxiety, trauma and chronic pain matter more than you might think – how to identify and treat functional neurological symptoms 
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

  • Counselors  
  • Social Workers  
  • Psychologists  
  • Psychiatrists  
  • Marriage & Family Therapists  
  • Addiction Counselors  
  • Nurses  
  • Occupational Therapists  
  • Other mental health professionals

Copyright : 11/15/2022

Going Into The Fire: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for Military and Veteran Couples and Families

The intricate web of PTSD, marital distress, and familial challenges that military families face demands more than just empathy… 

…it calls for a robust, evidence-based approach that can pierce through the layers of defenses and reach the vulnerable core.  

And as service members and their families grapple with the challenge of reintegration and return to civilian life after deployment or service, therapists often find themselves at a crossroad, feeling a deep sense of responsibility but lacking a clear pathway to make a meaningful impact.  

Enter Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) – a beacon of hope and your roadmap to becoming the change agent these families so desperately need. This transformative training led by George Faller MS, LMFT will not only equip you with practical skills and a deep understanding of military culture but will also reignite your passion and confidence, enabling you to create ripples of positive change and help forge loving, durable relationships amidst the chaos.  

Join us; let’s embark on this journey together and inspire hope, resilience, and healing in the hearts of those who’ve given so much.  

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Explore Emotionally Focused Therapy’s (EFT) role as a systemic model for families living with PTSD to improve clinical outcomes. 
  2. Delve into attachment processes and trauma experiences as they relate to case conceptualization and inform clinical treatment interventions. 
  3. Utilize key EFT interventions to help clients reprocess emotional responses and reduce reactivity, ultimately improving client level of functioning. 
  4. Understand the process model of emotion and protective strategies’ function in clients, examining their clinical implications for symptom management. 
  5. Review safety considerations and therapist self-reflection in a clinical setting to foster positive responsiveness and improve client engagement. 

Outline

Basics of EFT Focus: Attunement & Emotions  

  • Helping clients both co-regulate and self-regulate  
  • Assembling the elements of emotions  

Working with defensiveness/ Taking control of session  

  • Understanding military culture  
  • Impact of military deployment on the individual, couple, and family  
  • Handling Interruptions  
  • Setting up enactments  

Micro Moves in Stage One- Steps 1-4  

  • Understanding Negative Cycles of interaction  
  • Markers for De-escalation of the negative cycle  

Micro Moves in Stage Two– Steps 5-7  

  • Going Deeper with Withdrawer Re-engagement/ Pursuer Softening   
  • Creating positive cycles of engagement  
  • Tying It all Together- Self-of- Therapist issues  

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professionals 
  • Licensed Clinical/Mental Health Counselors 
  • Marriage & Family Therapists  
  • Psychologists 
  • Social Workers 

Copyright : 11/07/2023

Finding a Faster Way to Treat Trauma: A Neurobiologically Informed Approach

Increasingly, therapists are under pressure to provide short-term treatment for long-term issues. But how can we possibly treat trauma briefly? After all, many trauma treatments focus on helping the client remember and articulate what happened to them. It’s also especially difficult to provide short-term care for clients who exhibit suicidal or self-destructive behaviors, or for dysregulated clients who often find quick methods difficult to tolerate. So, what’s a trauma therapist to do? The answer lies in new, neurobiologically-informed treatments. Rather than treating traumatic events, neuroscience teaches us to treat their effects. In this recording, you’ll discover how to:

  • Pace the treatment to fit the demands of managed care
  • Capitalize on the body’s innate capacity to heal
  • Focus on traumatic effects rather than events
  • Apply a safe, neurobiologically informed brief therapy model that offers hope to trauma survivors

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Evaluate the theory of trauma-related autonomic dysregulation.
  2. Construct a “phase-oriented” treatment of trauma and create treatment tasks for each phase.
  3. Utilize mindfulness-based treatment techniques with traumatized clients.
  4. Practice three (3) somatic and cognitive interventions that directly address the neurobiological effects of trauma.

Outline

  • Understanding the neurobiological ‘living legacy’ of trauma
    • Implicit versus explicit memory
    • Survival-related defensive responses
    • Autonomic dysregulation
  • Implications for brief therapy
    • Phase-oriented treatment
    • Pacing the tasks of treatment for a time-limited model
  • Tasks of the three phases of treatment
  • Approaches and interventions appropriate for a short-term model

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 03/12/2022

The Collective Trauma of War

Focusing on the symptoms of PTSD is not enough when working with veterans. We need to help them understand the larger society that wishes to forget the horrors of war and its shared responsibility for them, and how that reinforces their intense feelings of isolation and difficulty integrating back into the civilian world. This recording will offer an innovative way for vets to gain agency and bring a clearer awareness to understanding the emotional burden they carry.

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Identify six common symptoms of the unprocessed collective trauma of war to help the veteran differentiate these symptoms from their own symptoms. 
  2. Demonstrate how to help veterans gain agency in their lives by cultivating specific coping skills, such as using attachment to others and breathing techniques to help them stay regulated. 
  3. Examine how you may carry the collective trauma of war and the ways this can affect your clients in therapy. 

Outline

Identify six common symptoms of the unprocessed collective trauma of war to help the veteran identify these symptoms in others to differentiate it from their own symptoms

  • Teach veterans common PTSD symptoms of collective trauma 
  • Practice with them quick symptom recognition 
  • Help veterans cultivate specific coping skills, such as using attachment to others and tracking their arousal, to help them stay regulated
  • Teach veterans the Window of Tolerance model of regulation 
  • Help them identify where they are on the model during therapy sessions 
Identify how you carry the collective trauma of war and how it affects your clients
  • Use personal somatic reflection and triad sharing to identify symptoms 
  • Use personal and group examples to understand the impact on your veteran clients 

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 03/22/2019