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4-Day: 34th Annual International Trauma Conference: Psychological Trauma: Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Restoration of the Self - Seminar

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4-Day: 34th Annual International Trauma Conference: Psychological Trauma: Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Restoration of the Self

4-Day: 34th Annual International Trauma Conference: Psychological Trauma: Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Restoration of the Self
Where:
BOSTON, MA
When:
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 - Saturday, May 20, 2023
  1. Practice embodied movement of the African Diaspora integrated with music and African Circle Dance (ACD) skills for individual and group therapy treatment, as means to improve client engagement.
  2. Ignite confidence, creativity, and the capacity for self-regulation through play and communalization of trauma.
  3. Practice the application of stage skills in shifting traumatic responses to put into practical use in-session for symptom management.
  4. Demonstrate how to use Shakespeare’s dramatic verse to help trauma survivors provide language to articulate their traumatic events.
  5. Investigate techniques from classical actor training that assist in mitigating the effects of dysregulation and increasing self-efficacy.
  6. Identify and eliminate anxiety activation points through somatic movement, breath, and sound.
  7. Apply methods of guided meditation and freewriting exercises to improve client engagement.
  8. Conduct deep listening practices of playback theater for practical use in-session.
  9. Organize peer to peer sharing in dyads or small groups for practical use in group sessions.
  10. Practice mindful percussion techniques to improve in-session attunement and clinical outcomes of client self-regulation.
  1. Describe the process and research methodology of the ReSource project, a large-scale randomized trial and systematic scientific mental training study.
  2. Specify the effects of mindfulness and compassion practices on brain, mental and physical health.
  3. Indicate the effects of mindfulness and compassion practices on prosocial behaviours and social connectedness.
  4. Describe, based on personal experience, the practices of developing presence through breath focused mindfulness practice and body scan.
  5. Describe the difference between empathic distress, empathy and compassion.
  6. Indicate how to build resilience from practicing the ability to flexibly switch between empathy and compassion when confronted with adversity and suffering from others.
  7. Describe, based on personal experience, the Lovingkindness Practice and Affect Dyads as tools to develop compassion and gratitude.
  8. Indicate the empirically demonstrated effects of such practices.
  9. Specify the nature of metacognitive awareness and perspective-taking on one’s own and other’s experience.
  10. Indicate the empirically demonstrated effects of such practices.
  11. Describe, based on personal experience, the observing thoughts meditation and an Inner-Critic/Self-Compassion Dyad as tools to develop metacognitive awareness and tools for understanding one’s own inner parts (here the inner critic) and other’s experience and perspective.
  12. Specify how science-based practices can translate into clinical practices and how so-called contemplative Dyads, daily partner-based mental practices, can help build up social capacities and support trauma-related work and healing.
  1. Practice mindfulness-based therapeutic yoga, movement, and dance to support emotional regulation, resilience and wellbeing
  2. Debate the social and racial disparities behind mass incarceration
  3. Distinguish the difference between the terms punitive, restorative and transformative justice
  4. Analyze the unique sociocultural environments of incarceration and social justice issues.
  5. Distinguish the differences between working with trauma in a confined environment and open therapeutic settings
  6. Appraise how the PYP’s programs can reduce the physical, mental, and emotional impacts and healthcare costs associated with stress and unresolved trauma
  7. Determine how a regular trauma-informed yoga practice inside prisons leads to positive personal and pro-social choices
  8. Theorize how mindfulness-based trauma-informed yoga is effective in developing self-awareness, self-worth, empathy, and compassion
  9. Practice trauma-informed yoga practices used to change behavior effectively, increase impulse control, and build resiliency
  10. Theorize what it means to foster a more peaceful and humane incarceration environment for incarcerated people and staff - Practice with Compassion
  11. Demonstrate the use of emotional regulation strategies to enhance distress tolerance.
  1. Practice mindfulness-based therapeutic yoga, movement, and dance to support emotional regulation, resilience and wellbeing
  2. Debate the social and racial disparities behind mass incarceration
  3. Distinguish the difference between the terms punitive, restorative and transformative justice
  4. Analyze the unique sociocultural environments of incarceration and social justice issues.
  5. Distinguish the differences between working with trauma in a confined environment and open therapeutic settings
  6. Appraise how the PYP’s programs can reduce the physical, mental, and emotional impacts and healthcare costs associated with stress and unresolved trauma
  7. Determine how a regular trauma-informed yoga practice inside prisons leads to positive personal and pro-social choices
  8. Theorize how mindfulness-based trauma-informed yoga is effective in developing self-awareness, self-worth, empathy, and compassion
  9. Practice trauma-informed yoga practices used to change behavior effectively, increase impulse control, and build resiliency
  10. Theorize what it means to foster a more peaceful and humane incarceration environment for incarcerated people and staff - Practice with Compassion
  11. Demonstrate the use of emotional regulation strategies to enhance distress tolerance.
  1. Demonstrate a way of helping the client tune in to body signals
  2. Determine or at least theorize when client has dissociative processes activated
  3. Investigate the historical background of current symptoms with a view toward remediation
  4. Apply body information to imagine tactics for meeting unmet developmental needs
  5. Employ body information toward creating healing scenarios
  6. Develop and test healing scenarios to remediate sequelae of childhood loss and abuse
  1. Appraise the role of the limbic brain in generating the sensations of disconnection and misconnection which contribute to loneliness.
  2. Appraise the role of relationship despair in chronically lonely persons which interferes with loneliness-combatting behaviors.
  3. Explore the exacerbating contribution endemic racism makes to the production of chronic loneliness in post-industrial society.
  4. Prepare how to clinically work with clients who live in a chronically disconnected setting within the framework of a racially divided society.
  1. Appraise the SMART Spiral, specifically Somatic Regulation, Trauma Processing, and Attachment-Building.
  2. Employ how to track clients’ arousal on the SMART Regulation Map.
  3. Assess the Big 3 sensory inputs, i.e. Tactile, Vestibular, and Proprioceptive inputs, through experiential learning opportunities.
  4. Appraise the issues learned from implementing SMART in Norway.
  5. Investigate the application of SMART in Taiwan.
  6. Measure how SMART has been utilized in the deaf and hard of hearing community.
  1. Evaluate three research findings on how traumatic stress impacts sensory processing.
  2. Define the term sensory integration and why it is a key concept in the treatment of traumatic stress.
  3. Define the term somatosensory map.
  4. Define the term interoception and its relevance to trauma intervention.
  5. Define the term exteroception and its relevance to trauma intervention.
  6. Define the term proprioception and its relevance to trauma intervention.
  7. Define the term vestibular function and its relevance to trauma intervention.
  8. Define the terms expressive arts therapy and expressive therapy.
  9. Integrate a three-part framework for applying expressive, action-oriented, and implicit methods in the treatment of traumatic stress.
  10. Apply a four-part model for expressive practices.
  11. Assess five key movement strategies in work with trauma and dissociation.
  12. Integrate three expressive strategies derived from current research data on traumatic stress.
  13. Analyze the Circle of Capacity and Window of Tolerance models.
  1. Evaluate the emerging research of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) and describe effective ways of integrating it into ongoing psychotherapy to improve clinical outcomes for clients with PTSD.
  2. Formulate methods of integration of psychedelic-assisted therapy in contemporary treatment for mental illness.
  3. Determine key areas of investigation regarding therapeutic potentials of classic 5-HT2A agonist psychedelics for mental healthcare.
  1. Appraise the importance of considering the vestibular system in the clinical interventions geared toward treatment of PTSD and its dissociative subtype.
  2. Integrate knowledge of somatic sensory processing into psychotherapy assessment and treatment approaches
  3. Evaluate the clinical benefits of neurofeedback as a novel adjunctive treatment for PTSD.
  4. Assess the neural mechanisms underlying clinical improvements associated with neurofeedback.
  5. Appraise and describe neurofeedback treatment protocols for PTSD.
  6. Support the Indigenous-led approach needed to adequately carry out research in a culturally-integrative manner
  7. Support traditional models of Indigenous health and wellness.
  8. Justify how evidence-informed mental health therapies can be adapted and evaluated in the Indigenous context.
  1. Determine the academic requirements associated with being able to practice neurofeedback
  2. Investigate how the traumatized brain can learn to organize and quiet itself through biofeedback to the frequencies at which it fires.
  3. Evaluate ancestral law as process and protocol for cultural respect
  4. Appraise the current use and landscape of Neurofeedback in Europe
  5. Analyze the latest research in neurofeedback
  6. Analyze the accessibility of neurofeedback in clinical practice
  7. Identify therapeutic benefits of Neurofeedback (NFB) as ancillary treatment for inpatient setting- Case Study Demonstrating how NFB Allows for a Different Realm of Healing Supporting Embodiment and Re-Connection Through State Shift Awareness
  1. Identify the basic theory and principles of Internal Family Systems therapy as they apply to working with addictions
  2. Identify the effects of trauma on parts and Self as they relate to addiction
  3. Assess an awareness of the clinicians own parts and how those parts impact therapy
  4. Appraise the history and development of the Internal Family Systems model of therapy and their relationship to addictions.
  5. Evaluate the concept of releasing uncomfortable feelings and beliefs which allows harmony and balance in the inner system.
  6. Explain how emotional awareness and expression allow harmony and balance to be restored, thus, reducing levels of inner distress and subsequent relapse
  7. Investigate the 3 categories of sub-personalities that most often present in therapy: Manager parts, Firefighter parts, Exiled parts
  1. Formulate solutions to gaps in the current diagnostic nosology.
  2. Catalogue limitations to current treatment research and the recommendations drawing from it.
  3. Integrate an understanding of the function of the brain and autonomic nervous system.
  4. Propose alternative intervention approaches.
  1. Determine the neurobiological underpinnings of stress and its effect on the body.
  2. Analyze the three major stressors that exist for humans and their effect on our biology.
  3. Evaluate ways of recognizing stress and preventing it.
  4. Identify the basic theory and principles of Internal Family Systems therapy as they apply to working with trauma
  5. Identify the effects of trauma on parts and Self
  6. Assess an awareness of the clinicians own parts and how those parts impact therapy
  1. Describe new research across patient populations and animal models into the neurobiology and sensory systems biology of PTSD.
  2. Discuss brain regions, neural circuits, and genetics thought to underlie PTSD.
  3. Educate others on potential new treatment methods, as well as further understanding current approaches to treating PTSD.
  4. Evaluate the process and research methodology of the ReSource project, a large-scale randomized trial and systematic scientific mental training study.
  5. Analyze the effects of mindfulness and compassion practices on brain, mental and physical health.
  6. Appraise the effects of mindfulness and compassion practices on prosocial behaviours and social connectedness.
  7. Describe the historical use of non-ordinary states in psychotherapy and psychological healing.
  8. Identify four evolutionarily determined propensities of the brain that predispose us to trauma.
  9. Describe insights derived from non-ordinary states of consciousness.
  10. Apply practices related to non-ordinary states to reduce self-evaluative preoccupation.
  11. Investigate the differential effects of trauma on different stages of development.
  12. Devise between the effects of insecure/disorganized attachment and trauma.
  13. Evaluate the capacity of brain/computer interfaces to modulate brain circuitry.
  14. Assess the role of synchronicity and rhythmicity in identity and relationships.
  15. Appraise an update on the current status of psychedelic research for treating PTSD.
  1. Apply interventions recommended by experts that help stabilize dissociative individuals in the first stage of treatment for complex trauma.
  2. Utilize specific skills used in the research-supported Finding Solid Ground program that has been shown to improve safety, emotion regulation, and self-compassion in dissociative individuals.
  3. Assess the functions that self-harm and other high-risk behaviors may serve in traumatized individuals.
  4. Critique two myths about treating individuals with dissociative identity disorder using peer reviewed research.
  1. Examine a multiple level analysis of developmental psychopathology perspective
  2. Assess the developmental consequences of child maltreatment
  3. Explore the study of attachment relations and representational models of the self and its disorders across the life span
  4. Investigate three different types of interventions used in AEDP to undo aloneness
  5. Apply the concept of relational processing in psychotherapy sessions with traumatized clients
  6. Utilize interventions related to relational metaprocessing
  7. Evaluate three different types of receptive affective experiences
  8. Discuss the evidence base for including neurofeedback in programs that treat trauma.
  9. Analyze the opportunities and obstacles for scaling the treatment of children and adolescents with developmental trauma in their community
  10. Develop a plan for implement neurofeedback in setting that treat children and adolescents in their community
  1. Employ tailored musical strategies to clients needing temporary relief from symptoms of acute anxiety and depression.
  2. Integrate facilitated musical activities (e.g. group drumming or singing) into treatment plans for clients experiencing social isolation.
  3. Evaluate the potential benefits of guided music listening (especially rhythmic music) as a catalyst for embodied experiences and transcendent states that may offer clients an alternative to chronic distress.

Participate in an integrated embodied practice, combining dances from the African Diaspora, yoga, and live healing music.

  • Investigate trauma informed embodied yoga practices in order to develop interpersonal strength
  • Execute phrases from dances from the African Diaspora in order to investigate the shared connections between oneself and others
  • Respond to live healing music using an embodied movement methodology in order to develop resilience through mindfulness and movement.

EXIT 12 Dance
Use movement techniques to create intentional somatic experiences to release the trauma of military training, service, and war from the body and mind.

  • Use movement techniques to create intentional somatic experiences
  • Create movement phrases, utilizing mirroring and other techniques, individually and with others in order to increase self- and mutual recognition, emotional regulation, and empathy.
  • Construct movement phrases based on lived experience, and deconstruct movement phrases utilizing intention and emotion in order to strengthen self-empowerment and resilience

    • Blossom House Healing Arts
    Practice trauma sensitive mindfulness exercises, accessing resiliency and wellness through story and percussive expression

    • Assess the methodology of Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga and its potential impact on clinical outcomes
    • Employ trauma sensitive mindfulness exercises in order to develop vagus regulation through meditation and breathwork
    • Use story and percussive expression to develop methods of accessing resiliency and wellness

    De-Cruit

    • Play with classical acting training exercises and speak Shakespeare’s text to increase the capacity for self-regulation.
    • Practice the application of stage skills in shifting traumatic responses to put to practical use in session for symptom management
    • Use breath, rhythm, voice, and physical movement to improve client's ability to identify activation points
    • Create narrative writing pieces integrated with Shakespeare’s text in order to manage symptoms and increase capacity for self-regulation
    • Practice witnessing and being seen and heard in order to strengthen interpersonal relationship skills

    Limitations and risks

    The limitations of the research presented includes:
    Limited participant pool. Arts-based interventions produce the best results when in a small group. Therefore, the participant pool remains small in order to have the greatest individual impact. In order to increase the participant pool, more interventions of small groups can be done, increasing the number of the participant pool.
    Limited time. Practice-based and arts-based trauma interventions are still being developed and accepted in the continuum of care for the trauma affected individual, and practice sessions for intervention are limited in time. As funding and evidence for these interventions increases, more work can be done, more data collected, and more participants impacted.
    Limited data. Because practice-based research is growing in acceptance, there is limited data to access in order to compare current studies. As the pool continues to grow, comparisons can increase, further validating current research activities.

    Risks

    Physical Risks
    The workshops presented have physical components wherein participants may experience physical discomfort or pain. Workshop presenters will warm up participants, include possible movement modifications, and guide participants in order to minimize physical discomfort or pain. Participants may modify or pass on any activity they choose.
    Psychological Risks
    The workshops presented include thematic content related to possible activation of traumatic experiences. Workshop leaders will have mental health first aid on site in order to respond to all mental health issues.

Outline of the ReSource Project

  • Differentiating between Presence, Affect, and Perspective effects of mindfulness practice
  • Principal findings of relationship between elements
  • Limitations of generalizability
Understanding Presence
  • How to develop attention and interoceptive awareness
  • Practising focused attention
  • Examining clinical applications and contraindications of focused attention practice
Understanding Affect
  • How to develop care, compassion, and gratitude; prosocial motivation; skill in dealing with difficult emotions
  • Practising loving-kindness meditation
  • Exploring clinical applications and contraindications of loving-kindness practice
Understanding Perspective
  • How to develop meta-cognition, perspective-taking on self, and perspective-taking on others
  • Practising observing-thoughts meditation and perspective-taking dyads
  • Exploring clinical applications and contraindications of perspective-taking practices.
Differentiating empathy and compassion
  • Distinguishing between empathic distress and compassion fatigue
  • Practising compassion in moments of empathic distress
  • Exploring clinical indications of empathic distress and its effect on the therapeutic alliance

  • An understanding of the social and racial disparities behind mass incarceration
  • The complexity of working with trauma in confined environments
  • How to identify safe, effective, and practical strategies and develop an understanding of the PYP methods
  • How to implement practices from mindfulness-based therapeutic yoga, movement, and dance to support emotional regulation and resilience in everyday life, clinical settings, and trauma exposed communal groups
  • How PYP’s programs can reduce the physical, mental, and emotional impacts and healthcare costs associated with stress and unresolved trauma
  • How we work with developing the self-awareness, self-worth, empathy, and compassion that leads to positive personal and pro-social choices
  • What it means to foster a more peaceful and humane incarceration environment for incarcerated people and staff - Practice with Compassion
  • How to work with short sequences and practices that can also be beneficial in the therapy room for working with different manifestations of traumatic stress such as being emotionally overwhelmed, anxiety, dissociation, and depression
  • Practices for incarcerated women’s hormonal and mental health.
  • Playful practices for youth and for visits between incarcerated people and their children
  • How our programs promote empowerment and-self-rehabilitation ( video testimonials with incarcerated program participants )
  • An understanding of the social and racial disparities behind mass incarceration
  • The complexity of working with trauma in confined environments
  • How to identify safe, effective, and practical strategies and develop an understanding of the PYP methods
  • How to implement practices from mindfulness-based therapeutic yoga, movement, and dance to support emotional regulation and resilience in everyday life, clinical settings, and trauma exposed communal groups
  • How PYP’s programs can reduce the physical, mental, and emotional impacts and healthcare costs associated with stress and unresolved trauma
  • How we work with developing the self-awareness, self-worth, empathy, and compassion that leads to positive personal and pro-social choices
  • What it means to foster a more peaceful and humane incarceration environment for incarcerated people and staff - Practice with Compassion
  • How to work with short sequences and practices that can also be beneficial in the therapy room for working with different manifestations of traumatic stress such as being emotionally overwhelmed, anxiety, dissociation, and depression
  • Practices for incarcerated women’s hormonal and mental health.
  • Playful practices for youth and for visits between incarcerated people and their children
  • How our programs promote empowerment and-self-rehabilitation ( video testimonials with incarcerated program participants )
  • Demonstrate a way of helping the client tune in to body signals
  • Determine or at least theorize when client has dissociative processes activated
  • Investigate the historical background of current symptoms with a view toward remediation
  • Apply body information to imagine tactics for meeting unmet developmental needs
  • Employ body information toward creating healing scenarios
  • Develop and test healing scenarios to remediate sequelae of childhood loss and abuse
  • The Social Production of Chronic Loneliness. Before the modern era, the inescapable bonds of communal life connected individuals in a life-long, interlaced set of connections; in fact, the word "loneliness" only came into the English language in about 1800. In contrast, according to the U.S. Surgeon General and many additional studies, today we are experiencing an "epidemic of loneliness" that significantly effects roughly a third of the population in many of the advanced, post-industrial societies.
  • Loneliness Is a Sensation, Not an Emotion. The Sensation of inadequate connection is generated by the limbic brain, just as it is in other social mammals. Herd mammals achieve physical safety in numbers, while social mammals are driven together to promote not only physical safety, but also psychological soothing.
  • The Clinical Treatment of Chronic Loneliness: Lessons from Contemporary Trauma-Informed Treatment Techniques. The limbic brain, unlike the prefrontal cortex, is sensation based, not language based. This has unavoidable and important implications for the clinical treatment of patients presenting with psychological issues that derive in part from chronic disconnection or misconnection. To be effective, such clinical approaches must account for the visceral experience lonely clients experience in their own body, and their limbic brain’s production of their sensation of loneliness.
  • Race Relations and Social Disconnection: How The Western World’s Inability to Move Beyond Racism Exacerbates the Chronic Loneliness of Our Era. While there are numerous identifiable socio-economic determinants of today’s increased social isolation—the unresolved issues of race that plague Western societies continue to contribute heavily to the production of excess loneliness that is characterized by the U.S. Surgeon General as an "epidemic of loneliness."

Introduction to SMART model

  • Review of basic SMART principles
  • Experiential exercise with the Big 3 sensory inputs

SMART in Norway
  • Story of implementation of SMART in Norway
  • How SMART resonated
  • Challenges and adaptations
  • Nature of trauma seen in Norway

SMART in Taiwan
  • Story of implementation of SMART in Taiwan
  • How SMART resonated
  • Challenges and adaptations
  • Nature of trauma seen in Taiwan

SMART in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community
  • Story of implementation of SMART
  • How SMART resonated
  • Challenges and adaptations
  • Nature of trauma seen in this community

Panel Discussion and discussion of the limitations and risks of this experimental intervention

Note: The implementation of this intervention beyond its original setting would be considered experimental

Foundations for Practice

  • Introduction to foundations—expressive approaches, sensory integration and processing, and somatic theory
  • The four-part model Movement, Sound, Storytelling, and Silence (MSSS) for trauma reparation and recovery in psychotherapy and counseling
  • Circle of Capacity Model
  • Reflexive Convergence
  • Embodied Cognition

Grounding the Body and Mind through a Continuum of Practices
  • Applying a bottom-up [body-based]/top-down [brain-wise] model to address trauma through expressive and somatosensory approaches
  • The role of exteroception, interoception, neuroception and the "felt sense" in arts-based approaches to traumatic stress
  • Bilateral work and sensory integration—a foundation for grounding and resourcing

Self-Regulation and Co-Regulation: Expressive Approaches to Stabilization
  • Sensorimotor expressive approaches and trauma
  • Combining exteroception and interoception to support sensory processing and cortical functioning
  • The Five Movements as a foundation for sensory integration and enhancing capacity

Developing Future Innovative Expressive and Somatosensory Approaches
  • Translating trauma research into practical applications
  • Translational applications of expressive and somatosensory approaches to address dissociation
  • Applying a continuum of practices to support "coming to the senses" in trauma repair and restoration of the self

  • The utility of combining pre-existing treatments with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy
  • Evolve the treatment model so as to enhance efficacy and efficiency
  • Understanding the complexity of treating patients with developmental traumas
  • Specific case studies to highlight experience and outcomes
  • What features define the Transformational Process
  • The use of the therapeutic relationship
  • Expanded states of consciousness
  • The contribution of the vestibulocerebellum to the sense of self in PTSD
  • Overview of the vestibular and somatosensory systems
  • Ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of these systems (most primal and developmentally early systems to develop)
  • How vestibular and somatosensory processing relate to attachment
  • PTSD, alpha-rhythm reductions in the brain are commonly observed.
  • brain rhythms as a critical target for neuroscientifically-informed treatment interventions for PTSD.
  • Discussion of neurofeedback that aimed to directly and non-invasively regulate altered alpha rhythms among individuals with PTSD. Results from our study suggest that neurofeedback has the capacity to normalize dysregulated brain networks that have repeatedly been observed in PTSD.
  • Discuss converging evidence for the clinical utility of neurofeedback as a method by which to reduce PTSD symptoms.
  • Appropriateness of traditional research methods
  • Overview of culturally-sensitive research methods
  • Qualitative methodology to understand impact of the healing protocol.
  • Quantitative methodology to objectively assess brain changes.
  • Limitations and risks of each section
  • Making Neurofeedback Accessible to the Public
  • Understanding how to learn about neurofeedback
  • Speaking the language of the brain
  • The role of neurofeedback in the treatment of trauma
  • Indigenous approach to neurofeedback for Indigenous clients
  • Acceptance of Neurofeedback as Tool for Mental Health Professionals in Europe
  • Ways to help neurofeedback to acceptance in various cultural and regulatory environments
  • Discussion of limitations and risks of Neurofeedback
  • Review the history and development of the Internal Family Systems model of therapy.
  • Explore and discuss the basic assumptions of IFS in relationship to addictions
  • Be introduced to how to use IFS Therapy and the treatment of addiction
  • Discuss the risks and limitations of IFS Therapy in relation to addiction
  • Who gets left out? Introduction to trauma disorders and definitions of trauma
  • Evidence-Based Treatment: History from a pragmatic skeptic
  • A dash through psychobiology: Using metaphors to understand how our bodies speak
  • Innovations in treatment: Approaches you should know about
  • The nature of stress and its physiological consequences
  • The three major stressors we must know about
  • How the early environment "programs" us physiologically and psychologically into chronically stressful patterns of feeling and behavior
  • Why stress remains hidden in our culture
  • The stressful work environment: how to recognize it and transform it
  • How to recognize stress and burnout and prevent it
  • How the understanding of stress can inform and enhance our work
  • Introduction to PTSD epidemiology and nosology
  • Classical understanding of the neurobiology of Fear
  • Observations of sensory system alterations with trauma exposure
    • Preclinical models of olfactory trauma/fear neurobiology
    • Preclinical models of auditory trauma/fear neurobiology
    • Clinical models of visual system alterations with trauma exposure
    • Integration of these neurobiology data with clinical observation, e.g. van der kolk ‘Body Keeps Score’
  • Integration of genetic / epigenetic / circuitry understanding of fear neurobiology
  • Neurobiology-based opportunities for prevention of trauma memory consolidation
  • Neurobiology-based opportunities for enhancement of fear extinction
    • Summary
  • The ReSource Project
    • Process and methodology
  • Mindfulness and compassion practices
    • Effects on brain, mental, and physical health
    • Effects on prosocial behaviours
    • Effects on social connectedness
  • Balancing empathy, compassion, self-compassion, and mindfulness practices
    • Avoiding empathic distress and burnout
  • History of non-ordinary states in psychotherapy
  • Common factors in trauma-related psychopathology and their antidotes
  • Brief history of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP)
  • What are mindfulness practices and how do they work to help resolve trauma
  • Synergies among mindfulness, compassion, & PAP
  • The role of transpersonal awareness in healing
  • Discovering the extraordinary gift of being ordinary
  • Key trauma principles that have emerged from the thousands of studies published over the last 30 plus years
    • Changes in neural circuits and emotional systems in the brain
    • Neurofeedback to correct some of these circuits
    • Psychedelics can change perceptual and self-systems
    • Self-awareness and interpretation of physical sensations
    • Focus and concentration
  • Common patterns among highly dissociative individuals
  • Myths about dissociative identity disorder (DID)
  • Overview of the TOP DD Network studies including the expert-recommended interventions used in stabilizing highly dissociative individuals
  • Common triggers and functions of self-harm
  • Discuss the Finding Solid Ground Program: a participant- and research-informed educational program for dissociative clients
  • Limitations and Risks
  • Discusses the relation among adversity, timing, and developmental outcomes.
  • Reviews the literature on the biological and psychological effects of maltreatment.
  • Presents pathways to resilient adaptation and implications for intervention.
  • Experiential work with Attachment, Emotion & Transformation in Attachment Trauma Processing
  • The Importance of Receptive Affective Experiences in Attachment Work
  • The therapeutic Processing of Relational Experience
  • The challenges for children and adolescents with developmental trauma
  • How neurofeedback addresses those challenges
  • The appeal of neurofeedback with children & adolescents
  • Addressing developmental trauma at an institutional level
    • Results
    • Client
    • Clinician
    • Agency
    • Societal
  • Challenges of scaling
    • Recruitment
    • Training
    • Cost/benefits
    • Program fidelity and patient safety
  • The economics of scaling
  • An invitation to making change happen
  • Discussion of limitations and risks

Live music demonstration:

  • Participants will learn – through samples of live music – how different tempos and musical characteristics stimulate specific arousal and affective states in addition to brain chemicals (e.g. dopamine), in ways that can be leveraged in therapeutic settings.
  • This discussion of musical characteristics will refer to the "iso principle" – a music therapy technique in which the practitioner uses music to match the mood or heart rate of the client ("meeting clients where they’re at") before gradually adjusting the tempo and other musical features to bring the client to the desired mood and/or physiological state.
  • While the "iso principle" has been widely studied, individual responses to this approach may vary. Limitations include small sample sizes used in controlled experiments (including this 2021 study) and the potential to trigger distressing memories if practitioners unwittingly play music that has strong negative or traumatic associations for clients. (Prior conversations with the client about musical associations and/or using generative or improvised music as alternatives can reduce the risk of negative outcomes.)

Facilitated rhythmic activity:
  • Through a group rhythmic exercise, participants will gain understanding of simple techniques that encourage coordinated motor movements ("interpersonal rhythms") and brainwave entrainment, known to improve mental states and foster feelings of social connection among strangers in nonverbal ways.
  • In therapeutic contexts, group drumming is emerging as a rhythmic intervention for mental health clients and youth who have experienced trauma, including African refugees.
  • Limitations of rhythmic exercises in people experiencing trauma may include negative self-concept among clients (e.g. "I can’t do this – I have no rhythm") as well as the need to consider culturally appropriate exercises (not all clients will relate to African djembe drumming, for example).

Discussion of music in relation to psychedelic therapies and transcendent states:
  • Participants will learn about the role of music in amplifying the effects of hallucinogens such as psilocybin, and how music serves as a "hidden therapist" in emerging psychedelic therapies.
  • Participants will gain an understanding of how listening to rhythmic music (without hallucinogens) can stimulate non-ordinary states of states of consciousness (trance). Music may serve as a "flexibility primer," offering new possibilities to clients imprisoned in feedback loops of emotional and physiological suffering.
  • Participants will learn about the emerging understanding of music as a portal to experiences of wonder, transcendence and awe – and growing research linking these states to increased well-being and psychological healing.
  • Limitations: musical interventions for achieving transcendent states (with or without psychedelics) remain in the experimental phase in therapeutic settings. Similarly, music as a cognitive "flexibility primer" remains a hypothetical framework for psychological healing.

Further notes:
  • Music listening activates the brain’s pleasure and reward pathways, stimulating neurochemicals that offer downstream benefits in the treatment of acute anxiety, clinical depression, stress and physical pain.
  • The unifying effect of rhythm and song in large groups of individuals, regardless of familiarity, makes music a potential modality for addressing the "frozen separation from others" identified by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk as a signature feature in trauma.
  • Similar to psychedelic agents such as psilocybin, rhythmic music can induce transcendent and non-ordinary states of consciousness, offering hypothetical benefits to clients who experience themselves as imprisoned in feedback loops of emotional and psychological suffering.

MULTIPLE SPEAKERS

Continuing Education Credits Awarded for Completion of All Days, Full Attendance
[+] [-] 4-Day: 34th Annual International Trauma Conference: Psychological Trauma: Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Restoration of the Self


Breakdown for Continuing Education Credits by Event
[+] [-] The ART of Releasing Trauma from the Body: Expressive Arts Techniques of Breath, Rhythm, Movement, and Voice in Community
[+] [-] From Empathic Distress to Compassion: Building Resilience in the Face of Trauma
[+] [-] The Basic Concepts and Practice of Psychodrama and Sociometrics
[+] [-] Freeing the Prisoner Inside - Prison Yoga Project (PYP)
[+] [-] Freeing the Prisoner Inside - Prison Yoga Project (PYP)
[+] [-] Healing Attachment Wounds and Trauma Using PBSP (Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor therapy)
[+] [-] What Brain Science Has to Tell Us About Connection and Loneliness
[+] [-] Conversations about SMART Implementation Across Cultures
[+] [-] Expressive and Sensory-Based Approaches to Treating Traumatic Stress: The Body Holds the Healing
[+] [-] The Brave New World of Psychedelic Assited Therapies: Promises and Pitfalls
[+] [-] The Neuroscience of The Mind Body Relationship in the Aftermath
[+] [-] How to Incorporate Neurofeedback into Trauma Treatment
[+] [-] IFS for Addictions
[+] [-] Trauma 101: An Introduction to the Field of Traumatic Stress Studies and Neuroscience
[+] [-] Psychological Trauma Underlying Mental Processes
[+] [-] Basic Clinical Science
[+] [-] Innovative Treatments
[+] [-] The Frontiers of Trauma Treatment
[+] [-] Leveraging Our Innate Wiring for Music as an Agent of Healing
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