Workshop Description:
Working with clients who present with issues related to PTSD and Complex PTSD can be especially challenging, even for seasoned clinicians. Understanding the impact of poor attachment patterns, dysfunctional communication, affect dysregulation, and the subsequent coping strategies that clients must evolve to feel safe in the world is essential to strengths-based, trauma-informed assessment and treatment. In this master class, clinicians will have the opportunity to present and process case scenarios and clients who present with the inevitable manifestations, “symptoms,” and struggles related to Complex PTSD. Clinicians will have the opportunity to gain new perspectives and suggestions for treatment from both colleagues and the presenter who has been treating trauma for over 39 years. In addition to getting consultation and feedback about specific clients, participants will find that the suggestions offered to one therapist will have tremendous relevance and be applicable to their own cases as well.
Methodology: Participants are encouraged to e-mail Lisa a brief summary of either a challenging case or specific questions that pertain, more broadly, to trauma treatment one week prior to the workshop, making sure to preserve the confidentiality of the client’s identity. We will then use these scenarios as the foundation for the workshop content. If a large number of therapists sign up for the workshop the presenter will crystallize the common themes and issues in their cases.
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify at least three manifestations of insecure attachment and the impact it has on affect dysregulation and the client-therapist relationship.
2. Describe at least three coping strategies that clients with Complex PTSD continue to use as they move through life.
3. Explain how clients with Complex PTSD are impacted when trauma becomes their identity.
4. Describe at least four complex “symptoms” that clients with complex PTSD struggle with in adolescence and adulthood.
5. Explain the role that neuroplasticity plays in bringing hope to the treatment of Complex PTSD.
6. Explain why incorporating right-brain based activities is necessary in the treatment of Complex PTSD.