Complex trauma is highly damaging but frequently unrecognized and inappropriately treated. While current research in the neurobiology of attachment has major implications for treatment of trauma, the potential of these insights is not widely operationalized in clinical practice, and confusion about the differences between ‘complex’ and ‘single incident’ trauma persists.
This training event addresses the stakes of recognizing and responding to complex trauma (which comes in numerous guises) in light of current research findings and their implications for treatment.
Clinical and research insights establish that effective approaches to complex trauma are “phased” and need to engage physical as well as cognitive and emotional processes (‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’) This poses challenges to standard perspectives (i.e. insight-based and cognitive behavioral) which privilege ‘talk’ and which thus require reconsideration. Core features of effective therapy for complex trauma will be delineated and discussed.