New Rules for Treating Trauma: Master Class

CPD

Handouts

Speaker

Courtney Armstrong, LPC, MHSP Related seminars and products

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Courtney Armstrong, LPC-MHSP, is a licensed professional counselor who specializes in grief and trauma recovery with over 25 years’ experience. Certified as an approved consultant by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH), she is the founder of the Institute for Trauma Informed Hypnotherapy and has developed clinical hypnosis training programs for the Veterans Administration, serves on the ASCH Education and Training committee, and has trained thousands of clinicians worldwide.

Courtney is also bestselling author of the books, Rethinking Trauma Treatment: Attachment, Memory Reconsolidation, and Resilience, The Therapeutic “Aha”, and Transforming Traumatic Grief. She has been featured as a trauma and grief expert on national television and radio programs and contributes to publications such as Psychotherapy Networker, Counseling Today, and The Science of Psychotherapy.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Courtney Armstrong is the founder and president of Courtney Armstrong Consulting and Training Services and the Institute for Trauma Informed Hypnotherapy. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Courtney Armstrong serves on the Clinical Hypnosis Education and Training Committee of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. She is a member of the American Mental Health Counselor's Association, the Tennessee Licensed Professional Counselors Association, and the Chattanooga Area Psychotherapy Association.

 

Objectives

1. Summarize how a client’s emotional trauma is processed in the brain as it relates to case conceptualization.
2. Analyze why the use of clinical exposure techniques alone are not enough to relieve post-traumatic stress symptoms.
3. Name the 4 primary attachment styles and the clinical implications that each attachment style brings in session.
4. Identify 1 therapeutic goal for clients with avoidant attachment style.
5. Identify 1 therapeutic goal for clients with anxious attachment style.
6. Identify 1 therapeutic goal for clients with disorganized attachment style.
7. Breakdown the three phases of trauma informed treatment put to practical use in session.
8. Compile recent neuroscience discoveries regarding memory reconsolidation and its clinical implications for treating trauma.
9. Characterize the five steps that several evidence-based trauma therapies have in common.
10. Utilize two experiential techniques that can be used to resource, uplift, and empower clients to reduce feelings of shame and helplessness.
11. Apply two interventions to help clients reconnect to a healthy sense of self, relationships, and the world.
12. Discuss how to avoid abreaction and re-traumatization while reviewing traumatic memories in clients.

Outline

New Rules for Treating Trauma

Rule #1

Understand how Trauma Impacts the Brain

• How traumatic memories are stored
• How to engage the emotional brain

Rule #2

Consider Your Client’s Attachment Style

• Securely attached clients
• Avoidant/dismissive attachment styles
• Anxious/preoccupied attachment styles
• Disorganized/unresolved attachment styles

Rule #3

Attune, Lift, and Lead

• Attune with right-brain to right-brain communication
• Lift by acknowledging a strength your client possesses
• Lead and motivate clients by focusing on
• what’s desired

Rule #4

Teach Emotional Regulation Skills

• Tools for orienting and grounding
• Tools for calming and self-soothing
• Tools for containment and safety

Rule #5

Part 1 - Reconsolidating Traumatic Memories

• What is memory reconsolidation and why is it important?
• 5-steps for reconsolidating traumatic memories
• Explore embodied beliefs
• Create and install new belief experiences

Rule #6

Part 2 - Reconsolidate Traumatic Memories

• Observationally retell the story with a new ending
• New narrative integration
• Client demonstration video

Rule #7

Facilitate Post-Traumatic Growth

• What is post-traumatic growth?
• Restore resilience
• Create new meaning
• Healthy relationship skills

Applications for Special Populations

• Sexual trauma survivors
• Childhood abuse and neglect
• Traumatic grief after sudden or violent deaths
• Medical trauma, car accidents and disasters
• Children and adolescents after trauma
• Cultures and faith traditions
• Simple self-care techniques to prevent vicarious trauma

Limitations of the Research & Potential Risks Memory Reconsolidation

• Age of the memory
• Repetitively reinforced memories
• Inner conflicts about memory resolution
• Dementia & other neurological disorders

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Nurses
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Other Professionals Who Work within the Mental Health Fields

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