Additional Information:
Registration Code: MUL-YVR
Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up
Relational Strategies to Treat Challenging Trauma Clients
Presented by Robert T. Muller, Ph.D., C. Psych., author of Trauma and the Avoidant Client & Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up
Monday, June 1, 2020 – Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | Richmond, bc
Date & Location
Monday, June 1, 2020 – Tuesday, June 2, 2020
8:30am – 4:00pm
Executive Hotel Vancouver Airport
7311 Westminster Hwy
Richmond, BC V6X 1A3
phone: 604.278.5555
Workshop Description
This practical workshop, led by Dr. Robert T. Muller, a leading expert on trauma therapy and globally-acclaimed author of the psychotherapy bestsellers: Trauma & the Avoidant Client + Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up–is aimed at building your understanding of the psychotherapeutic relationship with challenging clients, particularly trauma clients. All clients present with some degree of traumatic affect, making this workshop suitable for all practitioners.
While many of us try to maintain a good therapeutic relationship, this can be difficult. Trauma clients struggle to trust the therapist; many minimize their own traumatic experiences, or become help-rejecting. Others rush into the work, seeking a “quick fix,” despite a long history of interpersonal trauma.
Through the lens of attachment theory, using a relational, integrative approach, Dr. Muller follows the ups and downs of the therapy relationship with trauma survivors. How do we tell when we’ve unknowingly compromised safety in the relationship? What happens to the relationship when clients or therapists rush into the process, and how can this be addressed? And how can subtle conflicts in the relationship become useful in treatment? Dr. Muller points to the different choices therapists make in navigating the relationship. In trauma therapy, those choices have a strong impact on outcome.
Recovering from trauma is a complicated process. When people reveal too much, too soon, they may feel worse. The pacing of therapy is critical. Here too, the key is in the therapist-client relationship. Dr. Muller walks you through the relational approaches that help pace the process of opening up – so that people find the experience helpful, not harmful.
Throughout the workshop, theory is complemented by case examples, practical exercises, and segments from Dr. Muller’s own treatment sessions. This workshop focuses on clinical skills that are directly applicable in your work as therapists. You will learn specific skills to ensure ethical practice with all clients.
Special Offer:
Participants who register for this event are eligible to receive a FREE copy of Dr. Muller’s newest book, Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up. Retail value is $49.00. Please note, as materials are shipped 2 weeks in advance of the workshop date only participants who register prior to March 16, 2020 are guaranteed a copy of the book at the event. Participants who register after March 16, 2020 may be required to pay shipping to receive their free copy of the book. Free books are not eligible for refund or exchange.
Workshop Topics:
Agenda & Learning Objectives
- Opening up about the trauma: A relational process
- When the expectation is to stay silent about the past: You mustn’t tell anyone!
- Guarding the family secret
- When loyalty prevails
- How clients protect themselves from their own history
- How trauma stories “leak out” with the therapist
- Trauma fragments appear unannounced
- Clients only want to stay silent for so long
- Client avoidance of the past, painful feelings, and relationships
- It’s hard to show vulnerability, even with the therapist
- Mutual avoidance: When client and therapist avoid: This trauma is too scary to handle!
- When the expectation is to stay silent about the past: You mustn’t tell anyone!
- How to pace the process of opening up (considering many clients have limited access to funds): The dangers of rushing into trauma work yet providing encouragement to open up once the therapeutic relationship is prepared
- When the client rushes in:
- Strategies to provide containment
- When the client rushes to forgive the perpetrator
- When the therapist rushes into trauma work, and unknowingly undermines the process
- Wanting to rescue the client brings the “quick fix”
- Therapists export the “quick fix”
- When the client rushes in:
- Strategies to bring a sense of safety to the therapeutic relationship
- Taking the client’s suffering seriously: Sounds easy! It isn’t.
- Naming client traumatic experiences
- When the client disagrees: “I’m no victim!”
- Validating client traumatic experiences
- When the client doesn’t accept validation so readily
- Naming and validating client traumatic experiences: A therapeutic process
- Honesty in the therapeutic relationship: Easier said than done
- Negotiating change from the start helps bring containment and hopefulness
- The NAT: Helping the client articulate and imagine themselves as different
- Helping clients mourn traumatic losses: A relational process
- Bringing emotion into the work
- How mourning brings post-traumatic growth
- Facing a lost childhood
- A changed worldview
- A changed view of self
- Navigating and using conflict in the therapeutic relationship
- The relationship can easily go off the rails: When enactments bring ruptures
- Ruptures always blindside the therapist
- Ruptures are a big deal in trauma therapy
- How to repair a ruptured alliance
- How the therapist should look inside
- Relational first response: Validating the client’s experience
- Providing containment around the conflict
- Helping the client mentalize: Unpacking the conflict
- The relationship can easily go off the rails: When enactments bring ruptures
- Beyond the trauma: Reclaiming identity
- When trauma dominates identity
- Helping clients reclaim intentionality, dignity, personal values
Learning Objectives
- Navigate and use conflicts in the relationship
- Bring safety to the therapeutic relationship early on
- Help clients pace the process of opening up
- Recognize their own (therapist) feelings in the treatment (eg, the wish to rush into trauma work, or the wish to avoid it)
- Help clients mourn traumatic losses to bring post-traumatic growth
Continuing Education Credits
This workshop has been formally approved by the following associations:
- Canadian Addiction Counsellors Certification Federation (CACCF)
- Canadian College of Professional Counsellors and Psychotherapists (CCPCP)
- Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA)
- Canadian Professional Counsellors Association (CPCA)
- Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)
- Indigenous Certification Board of Canada (ICBOC)
- Medical Psychotherapy Association Canada (MDPAC)
- Ontario Association of Consultants, Counsellors, Psychometrists and Psychotherapists (OACCPP)
- Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association (OEATA)
† The Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW) and the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Social Workers (NLASW) accept CPA-approved CEUs.
* Participants will receive a certificate of completion after every workshop. Workshops are pre-approved for 5.5 or 6 credits per day unless otherwise specified.
This workshop may be may be eligible for CEUs from the following associations: Show more
- Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW)
- Canadian Centre for Accreditation (CCA)
- Canadian College of Professional Counsellor & Psychotherapists (CCPCP)
- College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO)
- Ontario Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (OAMFT)
- Ontario Association of Child and Youth Care (OACYC)
- Ontario Association of Consultants, Counsellors, Psychometrists and Psychotherapists (OACCPP)
- Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW)
- Ontario Society of Psychotherapists (OSP)
* Please contact your accrediting body for more information on individual association requirements.
Your Presenter(s)
Robert T. Muller, Ph.D., C.Psych. is on faculty as a Full Professor of Clinical Psychology at York University, is a Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD); and both of his books have won ISSTD’s award for the best written work of the year on trauma. He has over thirty years of clinical experience in the field, and maintains an active private practice in downtown Toronto. Throughout his professional career, Dr. Muller has been practicing, teaching, and supervising in the areas of trauma, attachment, and psychotherapy. He is the author of the award-winning psychotherapy bestseller, Trauma and the Avoidant Client: Attachment-Based Strategies for Healing, published by Norton Press. In addition, he has authored numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and grants, and is currently lead investigator in a provincially-funded, multi-site program for the assessment and treatment of intra-familial trauma. He completed his clinical training at Harvard University, and has been active in the field since then.
Trauma and the Avoidant Client is available for purchase on Amazon.
For more information on trauma and mental health please visit Dr. Muller’s blog Talking about Trauma and the online magazine The Trauma and Mental Health Report.
Dr. Muller’s newest book is entitled Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up, and it’s about how to navigate the psychotherapy relationship with challenging trauma clients. This book is available purchase on Amazon.
Who Should Attend
Clinical Professionals: All mental health professionals including, but not limited to Clinical Counsellors, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Social Workers, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Hospice and Palliative Care Workers, School Counsellors, Youth Workers, Mental Health Workers, Addiction Specialists, Marital & Family Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Vocational Rehabilitation Consultants and all professionals looking to enhance their therapeutic skills.
Recommended Accommodation
Executive Hotel Vancouver Airport
7311 Westminster Hwy
Richmond, BC V6X 1A3
phone: 604.278.5555
website: www.executivehotels.net/vancouver-airport-hotel/
Our rates:
For reservations, guests may call locally at 604-278-5555 or toll free at 1-800-663-2878 by mentioning the group name “Jack Hirose & Associates”
Room Type & Prices
Plaza / Courtyard Room- a queen bed or 2 double beds, mini-fridge
One-bedroom Condo Suite – a queen bed in master bedroom and a pullout sofa bed in living room, with full kitchen and in-room washer/dryer
April 22 – 24, 2020
Plaza/Courtyard – $159.00
One Bedroom – $179.00
April 29 – May 1, May 3 – May 5, May 19 – 20, May 31 – June 2, June 2 – June 4, 2020
Plaza/Courtyard – $199.00
One Bedroom – $219.00
Two Bedroom – $259.00
–PLUS TAX–
*please note, room reservations are subject to availability*
Please keep in mind when booking Jack Hirose and Associates corporate guest rooms, reservations booked for most hotels can be cancelled within 48 hours . If you are booking guest rooms through third party websites in many instances the reservations booked cannot not be cancelled.
When booking hotel rooms, ask for the Jack Hirose and Associates corporate rate. To receive our corporate rate, rooms must be booked one month prior to the workshop date. Please keep in mind hotel rates may fluctuate.
Registration & Fees
| Registration | Early bird Fee | Regular Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Individual Enrollment | $469 | $489 |
| Group 3-7 | $449 | $469 |
| Group 8-14 | $429 | $449 |
| Group 15+ | $409 | $429 |
| Full-Time Student | $409 | $429 |
All fees are in Canadian dollars ($CAD).
Fees do not include applicable taxes (5% GST).
Early bird cutoff date: May 18, 2020
To receive the early bird rate, registration and payment must be received by Monday, May 18, 2020.
Please review our Registration Terms and Conditions for information on our cancellation policy, payment policies, rebates, and more. You must agree to our Terms and Conditions to register for a workshop or conference.
Register Online Download Registration Form (.PDF) Register your Group
Downloads
All brochures and forms are provided in .PDF format.
If you are unable to open our files, we recommend downloading Adobe Reader for free.
Exhibitors are welcome at this event. We are pleased to offer sponsorship opportunities to businesses and organizations that provide services related to nursing, psychotherapy, addictions treatment, counselling, marriage & family therapy, psychology and other related fields.
→ More information
Related Events
Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up
» More info