8 CPD hours

The very nature of major depression often defeats our very best therapeutic efforts:  how can clients work or grow when they have no hope or interest?    When they can’t concentrate and have no energy?   When they are immobilized?  When they torture themselves with accusations of worthlessness or inadequacy?

It is not surprising that treatment-resistant depression often defies the efforts of skilled therapists and effective medications, leaving clients defeated and discouraged or even more depressed.

This two-part training addresses the question:  can we help chronically depressed individuals more effectively?

Even though diagnoses of depression correlate highly with a history of trauma, we generally forget to treat depression as a trauma-related disorder.  In this workshop, you will learn to help depressed clients learn to relate to their depressive symptoms with curiosity and mindfulness, rather than interpreting the symptoms as proof of hopelessness.  This webinar series will offer techniques for transforming the physical and cognitive symptoms using somatic interventions and by reinterpreting the depression as a communication from trauma-related parts of the personality.

Learning objectives:

• Educate clients about depression as a somatic state, not just a psychological state
• Identify 3 cognitive schemas that reinforce depressive states
• Identify three body-centred interventions that increase energy and focus in depressed clients
• Experiment with Sensorimotor Psychotherapy interventions that transform depressive beliefs
• Implement a parts model for healing depressive symptoms
• Discuss the use of the social engagement system and its role in evoking an internal sense of safety