This workshop will discuss the types of losses, the characteristics of trauma and the factors determining the severity of bereavement. The connection between trauma and grief will be explored and the typical human reactions in each will be discussed. Also examined will be the cluster group of symptoms when trauma and grief are both combined and overlapping. Special attention will be given to developing comprehensive strategies to help people both in trauma mastery and grief resolution.
The assessment and treatment implications of patient victimization will be critically examined from a constructive narrative perspective. A phase-oriented cognitivebehavioral treatment model will be presented for adults with PTSD, Complex PTSD, and related co-morbid disorders. A critical analysis will be offered of various forms of so-called "memory work" interventions.
Dreaming is a vital, nightly function of the brain. Disturbing dreams or recurrent nightmares are frequent symptoms of an acute focus on unresolved conflicts and events. Clients can learn to reclaim comforting sleep even before the overt reasons for seeking therapy are directly addressed. The potential of individualized metaphors structured within lucid dreaming empowers clients to "seize" the night." Hypnotic techniques offer an intriguing path that bypasses a client's ingrained fear of "falling to sleep."
Ignoring the impact of trauma on the client's family overlooks powerful dynamics that are crucial to treatment outcome. Participants in this workshop will learn how to involve the trauma sufferer's partner and other family members as resources in the healing process. Participants will learn how to better educate clients about the typical symptoms of trauma, the stages of trauma recovery, how to help family members both soothe and set limits with the traumatized person, and the typical pitfalls families encounter - including the depleting response of "enough already" as a family member tries to heal from a trauma.
People who are traumatized, and/or have one of the multitudes of addictive disorders are, in great part, dissociated from their physical reality. There is research which indicates that people who exercise are more likely to suffer from less anxiety, pain and depression. This short course offers a practical approach to overcoming people's reluctance to exercise by using active-alert hypnosis and music. By listening to hypnosis with music while exercising, people can alter their perceptions of pain, time, effort and pleasure. The words of the hypnosis are taken from the works of Milton H. Erickson, Jeffrey Zeig, Michael Yapko and Eva Banyai. Their different contributions will be delineated and explained.
This short course presents brief interventions designed to address and remove common barriers to successful treatment of pain conditions. Topics include: ways to reverse and regulate the emotional and physical impact of traumatic experiences; the necessity of medicine for the mind as well as the body; how to utilize the polyvagal nervous system in planning treatment strategy; how to help pain patients create healing connections with self, other and the divine; and how to teach people in pain to build on success. This session will include live demonstration and experiential practicum. Case consultation is welcome.
Whether brief or long-term, the treatment of childhood trauma should include an opportunity for the youngster to abreact (express strong emotion), correct (find individual, community or even fantasized solutions), and to discover contexts (perspectives and understandings of the events that occurred). Dr. Terr will thoroughly discuss and exemplify these three modes of treatment, selecting brief therapies as the clinical examples.
It is common to see clients who present with complex arrays of symptoms. These symptoms can be persistent or "mutate" unexpectedly, leaving patient and therapist feeling confused, frustrated and helpless. In this presentation, we will see how states of unresolved stress and trauma can be the underlying force that drives multiple elusive symptoms. These include panic, depression, insomnia, migraines, severe PMS, chronic pain, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.
Someone with a flashback experiences an intense traumatic memory as if it were happening to them again. Learning how to view the same memory as if it were happening to someone else on a small, distant movie screen eliminates the intense unpleasant feeling, while preserving important learning. There will be a live demonstration.