Triggered: Treating Self-endangering Behaviours in Trauma Survivors
1.5 CPD hours
Survivors of trauma and early attachment disturbance are at elevated risk of a variety compulsive and self-endangering behaviors, ranging from suicidality and self-injury to indiscriminate sexual activities and binge eating. Although often seen as symptoms of a personality disorder, behavioral addiction, or impulse control disorder, emerging research suggests that such behaviors actually serve as homeostatic responses to triggered childhood memories in the face of inadequate emotional regulation.
Calling on his recent book (Treating Risky and Compulsive Behavior in Trauma Survivors; Guilford, 2019), John Briere presents the Reactive Avoidance Model (RAm) which directly targets the traumatic memory/emotional dysregulation dynamic underlying many risky behaviors. New interventions include trigger management; developing mindful/metacognitive awareness; the ReGAINing procedure; implicit memory processing; and harm reduction.
Learning Objectives
Attendees will be able to:
- List three different distress reduction behaviors
- Outline the central components of trigger management
- Describe two ways in which implicit processing occurs in RAm-based therapy
