Somatic Interventions for Treating Complex Trauma

Presented by Janina Fisher, Ph.D.

Monday, July 16, 2018 – Tuesday, July 17, 2018  |  Alberta, Banff, Canada

Date & Location

The techniques you’ll learn during this workshop will make even the most complex clients easier to treat – and the interventions you’ll learn directly address the underlying causes of post-traumatic stress.

Dr. Fisher will give you tools from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a body-centered talking therapy. These simple body-oriented interventions can be easily integrated into traditional talking therapies to address trauma-related challenges such as:

• Dysregulated autonomic arousal
• Overwhelming affects and sensations
• Intrusive images and memories
• Impulsivity and acting out
• Dissociative phenomena
• Numbing and disconnection

This workshop will cover recent neuroscience research that explains how traumatic experience becomes deeply embedded in both mind and body. Learn how to better assess and make sense of trauma-based symptoms and then how to apply neurobiologically informed treatment techniques in clinical practice.

Banff Park Lodge Resort & Conference Centre

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.

Agenda

The Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma

• How the mind and body react to threat and danger
• Automatic arousal and affect tolerance
• Inability to feel safe in the body
• Loss of the ability to self-witness

The Nature of Traumatic Memory

• ”The body keeps the score” (Van der Kolk)
• Implicit memories: is it memory?
• Remembering situationally: ‘here’ or ‘there’

Neurobiologically-informed Trauma Treatment

• Regulating the traumatized nervous system and restoring a witnessing self
• Psychoeducation: knowledge is power
• Reframing the symptoms
• Avoid ‘self-defeating stories’ (Meichembaum)
• Treat the symptoms, not just the event

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

• Trauma and procedural learning
• Tracking the body as a source of information
• Use the language of the body
• Body-centered techniques into talking therapy treatments

Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity

• Mindfulness practices in therapy
• Differentiate thoughts, feelings and body experience
• Dual awareness of everyday experience
• Teach mindfulness to clients

Challenges of Trauma Treatment

• Secondary symptoms: anger, self-harm and suicidality, aggression, substance abuse, and eating disorders
• Treatment-resistant depression and anxiety
• Complex symptoms as manifestations of animal defense responses

Therapy as a Laboratory for the Practice of New Actions

• Dis-identifying with the symptoms
• Develop a new language and a new story
• Capitalize on somatic resources for modulating the nervous system
• New resources that address specific trauma symptoms

Somatic Resolution of Traumatic Events

• Repair and transformation rather than re-processing
• Address uninvited memory
• Tell the story to ourselves: creating internal safety
• Right brain-to-brain communication: feeling safe with others

Learning Objectives

1. Assess the neurobiological effects of traumatic experience.
2. Categorize implicit and procedural memories of trauma.
3. Communicate the role of autonomic arousal in exacerbating symptoms.
4. Explore how “the body keeps the score.”
5. Characterize the basic principles of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.
6. Integrate mindfulness-based techniques in traditional treatments.
7. Specify animal defense survival responses in trauma patients.
8. Investigate the role of substance abuse, eating disorders and self-destructive behavior as trauma symptoms.
9. Implement ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ interventions to address unsafe behavior.
10. Choose a somatic approach to resolving traumatic experience.
11. Discriminate between past experience and present moment experience.
12. Develop right brain-to-right brain communication to improve the effectiveness of trauma treatment.

Your Presenter

Janina Fisher, Ph.D.

Janina Fisher, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and a former instructor, Harvard Medical School.  An international expert on the treatment of trauma, she is an Advisory Board member of the Trauma Research Foundation.  Dr. Fisher is the author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Self-Alienation (2017), Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma: a Workbook for Survivors and Therapists (2021), and The Living Legacy Instructional Flip Chart (2022).  She is best known for her work on integrating mindfulness-based and somatic interventions into trauma treatment.  More information can be found on her website: www.janinafisher.com.

Testimonials

“She gives thoughtful insight to questions from the audience/participants. She is successful to make therapeutic techniques/process playful.”
– Shame & Self-Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma | Vancouver, BC | May 19 – 20, 2016

“SO enjoyable. Janina is such an inspiration. She embodies the empathy, humanity, knowledge, and expertise.”
– Chelsea Conron | Vancouver, BC | May 19 – 20, 2016

“I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop and Janina’s fantastic. I look forward to digesting all that I learned and putting it into practice.”
– Shame & Self-Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma | Vancouver, BC | May 19 – 20, 2016

“So grateful for this workshop. Lots of applicable information. I am also now eager to learn more about sensorimotor therapy!”
– Shame & Self-Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma | Vancouver, BC | May 19 – 20, 2016

“Janina Fisher was obviously knowledgable, skilled, and an engaging presenter. Bring her back for the same presentation!”
– Galya, M.A, CCC | Burnaby, BC | May 12 & 13, 2015

“Excellent workshop by an excellent presenter. Janina’s skill, knowledge, and facilitation skills are superb. Her warmth and ability helped me to learn a lot.”
– Maija Wiik, M.A | Burnaby, BC | May 12 & 13, 2015

“What an amazing two days! I got more, on every level, than I hoped for. Many take away skills and Janina’s sharing was so helpful. Her normalizing of the therapists’ experiences was invaluable to me. Thank you!”
– Nicole Tarasiuk | Burnaby, BC | May 12 & 13, 2015

“Would love to have more workshops with Janina!”
– Bett McLean, Trauma & Abuse Counsellor | Burnaby, BC | May 12 & 13, 2015

“Janina was wonderful – warm, engaging, and knowledgable. She was very open to participants’ questions and receptive. She used examples which brought the material to life. She also has a great sense of humour!”
– Burnaby, BC | May 12 & 13, 2015

“Dr. Fisher was so enjoyable to listen to and learn from. I appreciated her authenticity and skillful expertise.”
– Burnaby, BC | May 12 & 13, 2015

“Fantastic workshop. Learned so much. Wonderful facilitator. Part of the time I was learning to help my clients, and part of the time I was learning to understand myself.”
– Burnaby, BC | May 12 & 13, 2015

Registration & Fees