Working Therapeutically with People who have Complex Trauma Histories – Blue Knot Foundation

This two day interactive professional development training provides the knowledge and practice framework to enable practitioners to establish safe, supportive, therapeutic relationships with people affected by abuse, neglect and/or attachment trauma. Over the two days the research evidence and practice approaches most likely to contribute to your clients long term recovery will be explored, as well as opportunities provided to workshop these practice approaches using real life scenarios.

Complex trauma is characterised by an array of adaptive responses to chronic and significant traumas of omission and commission. The collective evidence from neuroscientific advances, the voices of victims/survivors,  experienced clinicians and many service providers attest to the importance of a ‘lived experience’ understanding of the difficulties/symptoms/problems and adaptive coping strategies of people with complex trauma histories.

Conceptualising many presenting difficulties as adaptive responses or ‘normal responses to abnormal situations’ increases the empathy, understanding and insight needed to effectively work therapeutically with people.

This training builds understanding, knowledge and skills around the impacts of trauma on mind, body and emotions as well as to adaptive responses. It also integrates advances in neuroscience, lived experience and clinical wisdom to help build the capabilities of those attending to work compassionately and effectively with this client group. At the session’s completion participants will be better able to:

• Define complex trauma: its prevalence, impacts and dynamics including protective and risk  factors and attachment traumas
• Demonstrate knowledge of insights into the neuroscience of trauma and attachment
• Work with dissociation and  an understanding of trauma and memory including   explicit, implicit and somatic memory
• Demonstrate an understanding of the three phased trauma treatment framework
• Demonstrate knowledge of Phase 1: utilising an enhanced understanding of assessment essentials, centrality of safety and awareness of body
• Demonstrate knowledge  of Phase 2 Processing: working within therapeutic window and with transference, countertransference, enactments  and challenging presentations
• Demonstrate knowledge of Phase 3 Integration: including mentalising, mindfulness, and ability to experience pleasure.

Material presented in the training will be comprehensive, and will draw on the research based on the Blue Knot Foundation’s Practice Guidelines for Treatment of Complex Trauma and Trauma Informed Care and Service Delivery www.blueknot.org.au/guidelines