Videos

In this short preview of this new training, Dr John Briere, talks about how some survivors of childhood trauma and early attachment disturbance are easily triggered into self-endangering behaviors that are not only risky for them but also highly distressing for therapists who seek to help them. This workshop examines two of the most problematic of these, each of which is the focus of many therapist consultation requests: self-injury and compulsive sexual behavior. A concrete, compassionate, in-depth approach to these behaviors is offered and specific interventions are detailed, including trigger management, meta-cognitive awareness, harm reduction, relational processing of implicit attachment and abuse memories, and emotional regulation skills development.

The #MeToo movement, documenting sexual violations across many professional and occupational settings, makes clear that such events are alarmingly common. The psychotherapy setting is not the exception. In fact, the nature of psychotherapeutic work may contribute to vulnerabilities given the powerful and intimate emotions engendered and the transference and countertransference responses that are relationally stimulated. Clinicians who treat the victimized client in subsequent therapy and those who treat or supervise the offending therapist face special challenges and require specialized knowledge.

Internal wounds and conflicts are driven by many factors, including two core trauma dynamics, the locus of control shift and ambivalent attachment to the perpetrator. These dynamics are re-enacted over and over, unresponsive to insight and psychoeducation, through activation of the internal Karpman’s triangle dynamic, which in turn promotes early relational trauma re-enactments in the client’s external world, including in therapy.

Research over the last thirty years has demonstrated a clear-cut relationship between suicidal and self-harming behaviour and childhood abuse. In the context of abuse and trauma, attachment failure is inevitable, leaving a lasting imprint on all future relationships. Rather than experiencing others as a haven of safety, traumatized individuals are driven by powerful wishes and fears of relationship. Their intense emotions and impulsive behavior make them vulnerable to self-destructive attempts to gain relief regardless of the consequences.

Complex trauma therapy is intensely intimate and often long-term. Over time, confronting stories and challenging presentations can take a toll. It is also true that our work is inspiring and filled with a profound sense of meaning and purpose. Walking alongside clients while they navigate the road to healing promotes hope, awe and faith in the strength and depth of the human spirit. Vicarious resilience describes therapists parallel process of personal growth and self discovery. In this video, Naomi introduces this four-part interactive webinar series combining presentation, discussion and experiential exercises, to create a safe, confidential forum to explore the interaction between you and your work. You will develop a personalised ‘tool kit’ for self-care and strategies to safeguard and enhance resilience.

Naomi describes the biological drive to attach, the importance of attunement or ‘present moments’ between child and care-giver and the role of ‘repair’ when attachment has been disrupted. She outlines what happens when the child needs to protect themselves when the attachment figure is also a threat.

In this video Naomi describes the Victim – Rescuer – Persecutor dynamic or Karpman’s triangle. She elucidates how and why each dynamic can be activated and how in a family situation it is up to the parent(s) to step off the triangle and support the child.

In this video Dr Colin A. Ross proposes a practical clinical perspective of post-traumatic stress disorder as not only about past trauma but also a pre-trauma disorder. He discusses the purpose of hypervigilance as a strategy to avoid future trauma occurring and flashbacks serving as a reminder about how the person ‘messed up’ in the past to prevent making the same mistakes in the future.

Based on concepts in Trauma Model Therapy: A treatment approach to trauma, dissociation and complex comorbidity, co-authored with Naomi Halpern, Dr Colin Ross talks about addiction as a strategy to avoid and self-regulate painful emotions, memories and sensations.