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Addictive Behavior as the Problem
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It’s no secret that many therapists consider the field of addictions treatment to be dangerous foreign territory with its own special language and methods. But increasingly, therapists and substance abuse professionals alike have begun to recognize the connection between addictive behavior and traumatic life experience. In this workshop we’ll present an approach to addictive behavior that:
- Focuses on the interactive relationship between the underlying trauma symptoms and the impulse to “use” to regulate unbearable feelings and sensations
- Provides a meaning-making component that lessens shame and offers inspiration to live a “life beyond trauma”
- Integrates Sensorimotor Psychotherapy techniques that teach clients how to regulate their nervous systems, decrease anxiety, tolerate sadness and loneliness, and ground themselves both physically and emotionally
- Engages the client’s right brain through drawing, diagramming, movement and gesture, as well as utilizing traditional cognitive interventions
Objectives
- Focus on the interactive relationship between the underlying trauma symptoms and the impulse to “use” to regulate unbearable feelings and sensations
- Provide a meaning-making component that lessens shame and offers inspiration to live a “life beyond trauma”
- Integrate Sensorimotor Psychotherapy techniques that teach clients how to regulate their nervous systems, decrease anxiety, tolerate sadness and loneliness, and ground themselves both physically and emotionally
- Explore the right brain through drawing, diagramming, movement and gesture, as well as utilizing traditional cognitive interventions
Outline
Introduction to co-existence of substance abuse and mental health issues within clients
- Discussion of how trauma and addictions often exist within the client, which requires a greater knowledge-base for therapist
- Introduction to trauma impacts on children
Experiencing Sensorimotor Psychotherapy with trauma
- Discussion of shame and therapist's ability to guide clients toward reducing it and living a "life beyond trauma"
- In-depth overview of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy techniques to teach clients how to decrease anxiety
- Demonstration of how to engages client's creative side through drawing, diagramming, movement and gesture, as well as utilizing traditional cognitive interventions
Concluding remarks from Janina Fisher
- Final discussion of Sensorimotor techniques to use with clients
- Inspirational quotes and tips from speaker
Janina Fisher, PhD
Janina Fisher, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and former instructor at The Trauma Center, a research and treatment center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known as an expert on the treatment of trauma, Dr. Fisher has also been treating individuals, couples, and families since 1980.
She is past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.
She is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017) and the forthcoming book, Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma (in press).
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Janina Fisher has an employment relationship with the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. She is a consultant for Khiron House Clinics and the Massachusetts Department of MH Restraint and Seclusion Initiative. Dr. Fisher receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. Dr. Fisher has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is on the advisory board for the Trauma Research Foundation. She is a patron of the Bowlby Center.
