Jennifer Sweeton – 2-Day Intensive Trauma Treatment Certification Workshop: EMDR, CBT and Somatic-Based Interventions to Move Clients from Surviving to Thriving

Outline

The Neuroscience of Trauma and Mechanisms of Change

• Key brain areas involved in trauma
• Fight, flight, freeze, fawn survival responses
• Clinical implications of the freeze response
• The neuroscience of EMDR, exposure therapy and cognitive therapy

Connect Clients to a Diagnosis: Trauma Assessment Tools

• Simple vs. complex trauma
• Intergenerational trauma
• Symptom clusters and physical manifestations
• CAPS-5 and PCL-5
• Primary Care PTSD Screen
• Dual diagnosis

Stabilize Your Clients Prior to Trauma Work

• Trauma treatment roadmap – order of operations
• Bottom-up techniques to reconnect and feel safe in the body
• Self-soothing techniques
• Grounding strategies
• Breathwork
• Gauge when a client is ready for intense trauma/cognitive work

Proven Skills and Techniques from Evidence-Based Approaches:

• Somatic Approaches: Address Physical Symptoms of Trauma
  • Relevance of Polyvagal theory and early trauma
  • Assess for readiness to apply somatic tools
  • Teach body awareness
  • Manage unease with “Felt sense” exercises
  • Resourcing strategies to create a safe space
• CBT Coping Skills: Manage Emotions
  • Identify inaccurate trauma-related cognitions
  • Exposure, titration and pendulation to slow emotions
  • Cognitive reframing and reappraisal interventions
  • Memory reconstruction techniques

EMDR-Based Techniques: Resolve Traumatic Memories

• Adaptive Information Processing Theory EMDR vs EFT vs neuromodulation
• Resourcing strategies
• Combine memory reprocessing with cognitive restructuring
• Using “restricted processing” with complex trauma

Narrative Therapy Exercises: Rewrite Traumatic Experiences

• Interventions to help clients talk about hotspots
• Reclaim identity with the “Tree of life” exercise
• Awareness and closure – create life stories

Solutions to Trauma Treatment Roadblocks

• How to handle the angry client
• Strategies for the resistant trauma client
• Boundary concerns
• Dealing with crises, suicidality, substance use

Reintegration and Post-Traumatic Growth

• Better than normal – the neuroscience of post-traumatic growth
• The therapeutic alliance as a brain-based approach
• The power of forgiveness in moving forward
• Meaning making exercises

Research, Limitations and Potential Risks