Trauma Conference: The Body Keeps Score - Trauma Healing with Bessel van der Kolk, MD

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Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD Related seminars and products

Trauma Research Foundation

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Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD, is a clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of post-traumatic stress. His work integrates developmental, neurobiological, psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of the impact of trauma and its treatment.

Dr. van der Kolk and his various collaborators have published extensively on the impact of trauma on development, such as dissociative problems, borderline personality and self-mutilation, cognitive development, memory, and the psychobiology of trauma. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles on such diverse topics as neuroimaging, self-injury, memory, neurofeedback, Developmental Trauma, yoga, theater, and EMDR. 

He is founder of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts and President of the Trauma Research Foundation, which promotes clinical, scientific, and educational projects. 

His 2014 #1 New York Times best seller, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Treatment of Trauma, transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring – specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, somatically based therapies, EMDR, psychodrama, play, yoga, and other therapies.

Dr. van der Kolk is the past president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and professor of psychiatry at Boston University Medical School. He regularly teaches at conferences, universities, and hospitals around the world.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Bessel van der Kolk is a professor at Boston University School of Medicine, the Director of the Trauma Center, and the National Complex Trauma Network. He receives royalties as a published author. Dr. van der Kolk receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Bessel van der Kolk has no relevant non-financial relationships with ineligible organizations.

Objectives

1. Analyze & communicate how traumatized people process information.
2. Determine how sensorimotor processing can alleviate traumatic re-experiencing.
3. Articulate the range of adaptations to trauma early in the life cycle.
4. Substantiate how trauma affects the developing mind and brain.
5. Communicate the recent advances in neurobiology of trauma.
6. Differentiate between disrupted attachment and traumatic stress.
7. Break down how adverse childhood experiences affect brain development, emotion regulation & cognition.
8. Choose techniques of physical mastery, affect regulation and memory processing.
9. Assess how traumatic imprints can be integrated using techniques drawn from yoga, theater, neurofeedback, and somatic therapies.
10. Appraise the current DSM-5® position on DTD.
11. Demonstrate how to integrate various treatment approaches in your practice.
12. Defend treatment strategy alternatives to drugs and talk therapy through an understanding of current research.

Outline

Neuroscience & Brain Development

• How children learn to regulate their arousal systems
• How the brain regulates itself
• Developmental psychopathology: The derailment of developmental processes & brain development due to trauma, abuse, and neglect
• How the brain responds to treatment

Early Life Trauma

• Interpersonal neurobiology
• Adaptations to trauma early in the life cycle
• Loss of affect regulation
• Chronic destructive relationships towards self and others
• Dissociation and amnesia
• Somatization
• Self-blame, guilt, and shame
• Chronic distrust and identification with the aggressor

Attachment, Trauma, and Psychopathology

• The breakdown of information processing in trauma
• Mirror neuron systems and brain development
• How to overcome the destabilization and disintegration
• The compulsion to repeat – origins and solutions
• Difference between disorganized attachment and traumatic stress

Neuroscience, Trauma, Memory, and the Body

• The neurobiology of traumatic stress
• Learned helplessness and learned agency
• Restoring active mastery and the ability to attend to current experiences
• Somatic re-experiencing of trauma-related sensations and affects that serve as engines for continuing maladaptive behaviours
• How mind and brain mature in the context of caregiving systems

The Diagnosis of Treatment of Trauma-Related Disorders

• Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD)
• Affect and impulse dysregulation
• Disturbances of attention, cognition, and consciousness
• Distortions in self-perception and systems of meaning
• Interpersonal difficulties
• Somatization and biological dysregulation
• The development of DTD in the DSM-5® as a diagnosis and its implications for assessment, diagnosis, and treatment

The Latest Research on Trauma-specific Treatment Interventions

• The role of body-oriented and neurologically-based therapies to resolve the traumatic past
• Alternatives to drugs and talk therapy
• EMDR
• Self-regulation, including yoga
• Mindfulness
• Play and theatre
• Dance, movement, and sensory integration
• Neurofeedback

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Therapists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Psychiatrists
• Addiction Counselors
• Occupational Therapists
• Case Managers
• Nurses
• Other Helping Professionals

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