Full Course Description

Trauma Treatment Certification Course: Comprehensive Strategies and Customizable Interventions for Enhanced Recovery

Program Information

Outline

Trauma Impact: Summary of the Research

  • Definitions & concepts
  • Short term and long term effects (the ACE study)
  • The “good” and “bad” news about trauma exposure
  • Limitations of the research
Assessment and Diagnosis of Trauma
  • Assessment of trauma in children, adolescents and adults
  • Trauma- & Stressor-Related Disorders in the DSM-5
  • What’s still missing from the DSM-5®?
  • Common pitfalls in diagnosis
  • My “favorite” diagnosis & why to use it frequently
Address Trauma’s Impact on Neurobiology
  • Major areas of impact
  • The 3-part brain (or upstairs/downstairs brain)
  • Neurologically-related issues in trauma survivors
    • ”Arrested Development”
    • ”Hair Trigger” threat response
    • Cognitive, academic, & work-related problems
  • Relationship problems
  • The arousal continuum
  • Dissociation
Evidence-based Treatments vs. the “Real World”
  • What does “evidence-based” mean in trauma treatment?
  • Components of evidence-based treatments
  • The evidence-based components approach
Points of Intervention in Trauma Treatment
  • Main entry points: immediate support vs. trauma treatment
  • Psychological first aid
  • Stages of trauma-focused treatment
  • What can you do if your client isn’t emotionally or physically safe?
  • Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: The “Gold Standard”
  • Case examples
    • ”Amanda”: 7-year-old girl with sexual abuse and complex family issues
    • ”Phil”: mid-30s man whose son died while in his care
Address Critical Domains in Trauma Treatment
  • The Physiology Domain
    • Sleep
    • Nutrition and hydration
    • Sensory needs and interventions
    • Medications, supplements, & nontraditional interventions
    • Physical activity/exercise
    • ”Amanda” and “Phil” and the physiology domain
  • The Relationship Domain
    • The Attachment, Regulation, & Competency (ARC) model (for youth)
    • Teaching caregiver emotional control (for caregivers of youth)
    • Build attunement (for caregivers of youth)
    • Positive discipline (for caregivers of youth)
    • Build the therapeutic alliance
    • Build a support network
    • Implement routines & rituals
    • ”Amanda” and the relationship/attachment domain
    • ”Phil” and the relationship domain
  • The Emotional Regulation Domain
    • Feelings identification and expression
    • Use SUDs scales
    • Grounding & self-soothing techniques
    • The “Comfort Kit”
    • Add attunement!
    • Apply Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics™
      • NMT assessments
      • NMT: Interventions by developing age
    • ”Amanda” and “Phil” and the emotional regulation domain
  • The Cognitive Domain
    • Teach and practice problem-solving
    • Teach and practice mindfulness
    • Address distorted cognitions: Most common targets of cognitive processing
    • Cognitive processing: how to modify problematic thoughts
    • Use the Franklin Method
    • ”Amanda” and “Phil” and the Cognitive Domain
  • The Identity Domain
    • Focus on identity and sense of self
    • Build on existing strengths
    • The Life Book approach
    • Exercises to improve identity
    • ”Amanda” and “Phil” and the identity domain
Additional Components for the 3 Stages of Trauma Recovery
  • Stage One: Safety & Stabilization
    • Establish rapport
    • Education of the client about effects of trauma
    • Safety plans
    • Trauma-specific areas of focus
    • Sexual abuse for “Amanda”
    • Triggers for “Phil”
  • Stage Two: Process the Past Trauma
    • Preparation
    • Create the trauma narrative
      • Play and verbal-based methods of creating the trauma narrative
      • Process of constructing a trauma narrative
    • When is your client finished with Stage Two?
    • Process “Amanda’s” trauma (play therapy “narrative”)
    • Process “Phil’s” trauma (verbal narrative)
  • Stage Three: Reconnection:
    • Consolidate/internalize coping skills
    • Enhance positive emotions
    • Making meaning of the trauma
    • Facilitate reconnection to daily activities
    • Enhance current relationships
    • Prepare for future safety and triggers
    • Posttraumatic growth
    • Reconnection for “Amanda” and “Phil”
Resiliency and Protective Factors
  • Research on resiliency and protective factors
  • The top protective factors for trauma
  • Build resiliency

Objectives

  1. Analyze the strategies to avoid common pitfalls clinicians may encounter when formulating a trauma diagnosis.
  2. Demonstrate the impact of trauma on the brain and behavior for the purpose of client psychoeducation.
  3. Analyze how to resolve the disconnect that sometimes exists between evidence-based treatments and the real lives of survivors.
  4. Determine the process for applying psychological first aid to ensure safety for clients who have experienced trauma.
  5. Apply a flexible conceptual framework to trauma treatment that is sensitive to clients’ needs across several critical domains.
  6. Utilize strategies to assist caregivers of young trauma clients with issues of emotional control, attunement, and discipline.
  7. Implement a variety of treatment exercises and grounding techniques to help clients develop emotional regulation skills.
  8. Integrate cognitive behavioral strategies to transition problematic thoughts of clients into more adaptive, helpful thinking patterns.
  9. Evaluate the effectiveness of various trauma treatment strategies used through the three stages of trauma recovery.
  10. Incorporate play-based and verbal techniques to assist clients in developing their trauma narrative.
  11. Choose appropriate strategies to help clients prepare for future safety issues and trauma triggers.
  12. Create a treatment plan for building resiliency in clients to facilitate posttraumatic growth and meaningful recovery.

Copyright : 08/24/2020

2-Day Shame-Informed Treatment Certification Course

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Discriminate between guilt and core shame and elaborate on the adaptive, social and clinical implications. 
  2. Evaluate the role of attachment in the formation of a shame-based identity.
  3. Investigate the neurophysiology of shame as seen through the lens of Porges’ polyvagal theory.
  4. Assess for verbal and non-verbal signs of shame in clients.
  5. Employ interview questions for assessing shame in clients’ relationships and current patterns.
  6. Investigate how clinicians can enhance attunement to create trust and openness with shame-prone clients.
  7. Evaluate how therapists can use co-regulation to create a sense of safety and equal power in the therapeutic relationship.
  8. Support how clinicians can increase vulnerability and self-awareness of their own shame to overcome barriers of relational presence.
  9. Investigate how shame acts as a cover for anger and explain how compassion exercises can be employed to help clients let go of anger.
  10. Evaluate the importance of managing shame in clients with substance use issues in efforts to prevent relapse.
  11. Employ somatic interventions to help cultivate secure attachment in trauma clients.
  12. Communicate how shame pushes clients into binge eating and clarify how self-acceptance interventions can be used to reduce emotional eating.

Outline

Shame, Attachment and Social-Emotional Development

  • The difference between guilt, shame and core shame
  • Shame and attachment
  • Ruptured interpersonal bridges
  • The evolution of social-emotional development
  • Why self-compassion is so hard to access
The Neurophysiology of Shame:
Polyvagal Theory, Shame and the Shutdown Response
  • Shame and the Vagus Nerve
  • Neuroception, shame and felt safety
  • Core shame and implicit memory
  • Three common responses to shame
  • How addressing shame expedites treatment
Recognizing Shame: Assessment Tools
  • Why shame goes undetected by clinicians
  • Multicultural perspectives
  • Perfectionism, rage, blame and other defenses against shame
  • Reading the body - non-verbal signs of shame
  • Interview questions for assessing shame in relationships and current patterns
  • Self-assessment: identify your own shame
How to Create a Safe and Empathetic Therapeutic Environment
  • Mirror neurons and relational presence
  • Attunement as the key to therapeutic change
  • Large Empathy and being vulnerable
  • Avoid stigmatizing language in therapy
  • Co-regulating safety and equal power in the therapeutic relationship

Re-Write the Story of Shame into “I Am Enough”:
Clinical Strategies to Cultivate Secure Attachment and Self-Compassion

  • Somatic approaches to cultivate secure attachment
  • Self-compassion and gratitude exercises
  • The four therapeutic “R”s: Recognize, Respect, Regulate and Re-Story
  • Four “C” shovels to calm nervous system and self-regulate shame response
  • Exercises to strengthen connections
  • Creative arts, music and poetry – increase neuroplasticity
  • Playfulness, humor and being in nature can rewire the brain
  • Mindfulness and meditations for non-judgmental awareness of shame
  • Narratives and visualizations to re-write clients stories to safety and being enough
  • Research, limitations and potential risks

Connect Shame-Informed Clinical Strategies to the Treatment of:
Anger and Rage

  • Shame of fear: Shame as a cover for anger
  • Self-acceptance techniques for internal damage control
  • Compassion and forgiveness exercises to let go of anger

Trauma

  • Somatic interventions
  • Strategies to survive without guilt
  • Exercises to rediscover self-worth

Stress and Anxiety

  • Mediate the paralysis of perfection with self-acceptance
  • Social anxiety as shame & self-doubt
  • Mindfulness-based, non-anxious self-consciousness

Eating Disorders

  • How shame pushes clients into binge eating
  • Choice Awareness Training for moderation & presence
  • Self-acceptance strategies for emotional eating

Substance Abuse and Addiction

  • Addressing the shame of relapse
  • Self-assertive trigger avoidance
  • Choice awareness techniques for habit modification
  • Build craving/impulse control skill power

Depression, Self-Harm & Suicidality

  • Recognize how internalized shame can deepen depression
  • Developing healthy coping strategies for uncomfortable feelings
  • Demystifying shame responses and returning them to their origin

Copyright : 10/15/2020