Resource Videos

A Conversation with Hana Assafiri, OAM

Hana Assafiri, OAM is a social activist working tirelessly for women’s empowerment and in the domestic and family violence sector. Twenty-six years ago she founded the Moroccan Soup Bar in North Fitzroy, Melbourne, through which she has changed countless women’s lives who were escaping family and domestic violence by providing employment, a wage, the means to escape. Creating opportunities for change in women’s issues, racism, pluralism and intersectionality. She later expanded her mission to unify cultures through Speed Date a Muslim events and Conversation Salons. This conversation with Hana explores her personal story and her passion for creating change: Hana the audacity to be free.

Four Clinical Dilemmas: Maintaining Resilience, Mindfulness & Compassion In Work With Complex Trauma And Challenging Client Presentations – Part 2

In this video we continue the conversation about Prof. Emerit John Briere’s upcoming training, Four Clinical Dilemmas: Maintaining Resilience, Mindfulness & Compassion in work with Complex Trauma and Challenging Client Presentations to be held in Melbourne, Australia on 18 – 19 October 2024

Four Clinical Dilemmas: Maintaining Resilience, Mindfulness & Compassion In Work With Complex Trauma And Challenging Client Presentations – Part 1

In this two-part conversation with Prof. Emerit John Briere, he introduces some the clinical dilemmas he will be presenting about in his upcoming workshop, Four Clinical Dilemmas: Maintaining Resilience, Mindfulness & Compassion in work with Complex Trauma and Challenging Client Presentations, being held in Melbourne, Australia on 18-19 October 2024

The Snow White ‘Parts’ Metaphor: Working with complex and attachment trauma

Childhood abuse and betrayal trauma set in motion the development of complicated attachment styles, disrupted sense of Self, intense self-loathing, and paralysing shame. Clients present with a range of psycho-physiological symptoms and from an outsider’s perspective, seemingly self-sabotaging behaviours. A client may meet criteria for several diagnosis, including complex PTSD, personality disorders, eating disorders, dissociative disorders, substance abuse disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, non-suicidal self-injury, and suicidal ideation. The Snow White metaphor reframes the medical ‘disordered’ perspective and approaches symptoms and behaviours as functional adaptations or accommodations to trauma, rooted in self-protection and survival, “the problem is not the problem but a solution to another problem.” (Ross and Halpern, 2009). The approach can be applied to each tier of structural dissociation, Primary (PTSD), Secondary (C-PTSD, OSDD, BPD) and Tertiary (DID). A non-pathologising approach, the Snow White metaphor provides a comprehensive framework to assist clients in healing early attachment and trauma-based wounds. Using video, case examples and exercises, Naomi assists therapists to identify what works for whom, and when.

Befriending the Tiger: Vicarious Trauma, Resilience and Self-care on the Frontline with Naomi Halpern

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.

The Battle Within: Navigating The Locus Of Control Shift, Ambivalent Attachment To The Perpetrator And The Internal Karpman’s Triangle Through A Parts Approach with Naomi Halpern

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.

Karpman’s Drama Triangle

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.

Attachment and Ambivalent Attachment to the Perpetrator

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.

Interview with Dr Alana Roy about healing from trauma and psychedelic medicines.

In this interview I talk with Alana about healing from trauma utilising psychedelics medicines in conjunction with other therapeutic modalities.

Interview with Dr Colin Ross about paranormal experiences in people with a history of trauma

In this interview with Dr Colin Ross, we talk about his research into trance, ‘possession’ states, paranormal experiences and extrasensory perception in people with a history of trauma and the general population. We discuss spiritual experiences and harnessing spirituality in healing from trauma.

Treating Self-injury and Sexual Compulsivity from an Attachment-Trauma Perspective with Dr John Briere

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.

Sexual Boundary Violations in Psychotherapy with Dr Christine Courtois

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.

Self-destructive and Suicidal Behaviour as a Traumatic Attachment Disorder with Dr Janina Fisher

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.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder as a Disorder of the Future

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.

Addiction is the Opposite to Desensitization

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.

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