Lisa Ferentz – Trauma, Affect Dysregulation and Shame: Treating the Seeds of Self-Destructive Behaviors

Outline

The Connection: Attachment and Affect Regulation

• The four attachment styles and their impact on child development
• The challenge of attaching to unavailable or abusive caretakers
• The connection between trauma, attachment, and the self-narrative of shame
• Living in a state of affect dysregulation and the impact of hypo- and hyper-arousal
• Exploring the dynamics of attachment and affect regulation through videos

Working from a Strengths-Based Perspective

• Advantages to de-pathologizing destructive behaviors
• The impact this paradigm has on the therapeutic relationship

Trauma Re-Enactment

• Meta-communication of self-harm
• “Telling” without talking
• Why acts of self-harm are not arbitrary
• Why your clients hurt themselves

Breaking the Cycle of Self-Destructive Behaviors

• What sets the behavior in motion
• Why it escalates
• What reinforces it

Extinguish Self-Destructive Acts: Creative Interventions

• The connection between trauma, attachment, and the self-narrative of shame
• The “management” of self-harming behavior
• Journaling to understand triggers
• Re-framing cognitive distortions
• Using guided imagery for untenable thoughts and feelings
• Safe place imagery and containment
• The power of incorporating breath work
• Using the body for somatic resourcing and grounding
• Short-circuiting flashbacks and dissociation

Why Standard Safety Contracts Don’t Work and What to Do Instead

• Incorporating CARESS – a unique proven approach
• Eliminating the power struggles in treatment
• Processing clients’ artwork