Melbourne only – 16 CPD hours

In this two-day workshop, Dr Briere will describe four major clinical dilemmas often encountered by clinicians working with complex trauma in adolescents and adults:

• Self-injury;
• Active substance abuse;
• Sexualized behaviour, including with the clinician; and
• Angry and challenging behaviour directed toward the therapist.

He will describe hands-on, evidence-based treatment approaches for each of these presentations that are technically validated but nonauthoritarian and empowering. Equally important, he will discuss ways on which the therapist can foster mindfulness, self-compassion, and attunement to avoid triggered countertransference and maximize self-care.

From his early work on childhood trauma to his ongoing visionary integration of mindfulness, relational issues, and psychotherapy, as well as his 15 books and decades of teaching, workshops, and consultations to thousands of therapists and trainees, John Briere’s innovative approaches to helping trauma survivors have influenced generations of psychotherapists. The newest of his contributions include two upcoming books: Principles of Trauma Therapy: A Guide to Symptoms, Evaluation & Treatment, 3^rd edition (Sage, late 2023) and Psychological Assessment of Adult Posttraumatic States, 3rd edition (APA, in progress).

John will summarize state-of-the-art interventions for each of these four dilemmas and will offer a hands-on mindfulness-informed approach to maintaining attunement and equanimity in the face of challenging clinical presentations. He will show how appreciation of the client’s suffering can be balanced with self-attunement skills that allow the clinician to maintain a form of objectivity in which the client is fully engaged but the therapist does not become enmeshed in unhelpful dynamics.

There will be multiple opportunity for case consultation and collegial group discussion as well focused skills development exercises like the mindfulness based “ReGAIN” approach to triggered countertransference.

Learning Objectives

• Explore trigger management techniques that can be used with clients, including trigger identification, breath-based relaxation, grounding, urge-surfing, and harm reduction approaches.
• Explore modern clinical approaches to five emotionally activating clinical presentations, including indications and counterindications.
• Learn how to maintain equanimity and grow as a therapist when working with challenging clients and situations.
• Learn how to cultivate mindful attunement in the face of extreme client suffering, using the Buddhist notion of “inviting pain to tea.”
• Learn about dispassionate compassion as it relates to work with challenging clients.
• Establish metacognitive awareness of one’s own trauma history in work with trauma clients as a way to reduce emotional reactivity.
• Practice a ReGAINing exercise that deescalates triggered countertransference.

Special accommodation rate at RYDGES hotel

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