Treating trauma workshop

01206 824 579 01206 824 579 / 07949 392 248 07949 392 248
14th October 2017, 10.00am - 5.00pm
Counsellors and trainees
£150
Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, Bloomsbury, WC1E 7HX

“There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” - Laurell K. Hamilton

Learning how to help people with trauma

This workshop will give you the knowledge of the inner world of trauma and the devastation it brings and will show you how to help people who have experienced trauma remember they survived.

Working in the right way can turn traumatic stress into traumatic growth, and it is the right interventions that make the difference.

Over the last 20 years, there has been significant progress in the understanding and treatment of those suffering the effects of trauma, and we want to share some of them with you.

Trauma is an experience that is unbearable, intolerable and one that we have no control over. It reaches not only those from the armed forces, the police, paramedics, and the fire services. It extends into our own homes and into our own lives.

Be it a sexual assault, a friend involved in a car accident, a family member encountering domestic violence, a neighbour being mugged, or you watching your parents fighting when you were a child, these are all traumatic events that have an impact on someone who experiences them.

The effects are not only experienced by those who are directly exposed to it, but also those around them.

Statistics:

  • 182,560 people were hurt in road traffic accidents (year up to Sept 2016) of which 13.5% were killed or severely injured (DofT Feb 2017).
  • Nearly half a million adults are sexually assaulted in England and Wales each year (Rape Crisis England and Wales headline statistics 2015-16).
  • One in five women between 16 to 59 years of age have experienced some form of sexual violence (Rape Crisis England and Wales headline statistics 2015-16).
  • Each year an estimated 1.9m people in the UK suffer some form of domestic abuse (March 2015 Crime Survey for England and Wales - CSEW).
  • About a third (31.4%) of adults in England report having experienced at least one traumatic event (Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014).

The impact of trauma

The experience of trauma is very much present in our lives, and the effects of trauma reach far and wide. This leaves traces on our minds and emotions, on our ability to experience joy and intimacy, and even our biology and immune system.

With the continual in-depth studying of trauma through neuroscience, developmental psychopathology, and neuropsychology, it has been possible to identify just how trauma produces physiological, psychological and emotional changes. These are the changes that lead to reactions and actions such as drug taking, eating disorders, severe anxiety and depression, numbness, dissociation, self-harm, hypervigilance, and a general lacking of meaning in life.

There are three ways of helping:

1. Medication.
2. Top down – from our psychology through working with the traumatic memory and the collapse of all that we know.
3. Bottom up – from our physiology through working with the body’s visceral contradictions locked within.

How this workshop will help:

This workshop will show you a combination of top down and bottom up methods of helping someone stuck in trauma.

It will give you the tools to help people regain control over their past trauma, and transform their physical and mental struggles back to self-mastery.

You will experience a range of ways of working, each able to produce profound changes in someone depending on the particular problem, and the make-up of the individual person.

This workshop is for you if:

  • You work with people in trauma and you want some new ideas on how to be more effective.
  • As a therapist, you are looking for different ways of working therapeutically with trauma.
  • Someone you know is struggling with a trauma and feels helpless.
  • You want to understand further how trauma impacts people’s lives and what can make a difference to their recovery.

N.B. - The nature of this workshop is such that it is not intended for those ‘in’ trauma to use as a way of working through it. The methods you will learn will teach you how to help people in trauma. 

Here’s what you will learn:

  • How trauma is more than an event that happened in the past; it is an imprint on mind, brain and body.
  • How a traumatic event shifts your focus onto suppressing inner chaos and losing the ability to be involved in your life.
  • How you can only be fully in charge of your life when you can acknowledge the truth and reality of your body.
  • How crucial it is to use the left and right side of the brain to heal.
  • What it takes to re-establish ownership of your mind and body when impacted by traumatic events.

You will come away from the workshop with practical techniques and strategies that you can use straight away in your work, and which will facilitate immediate benefits for the people you are helping with trauma.

The workshop is led by:

Dr Sandra Westland and Dr Tom Barber, both highly experienced practitioners in working with trauma using the latest psychological approaches.

The methods you will learn are based on scientific and psychological research. Sandra and Tom bring a combined experience of 40 years of psychotherapeutic client work, research, and teaching to the training.

Sandra has experienced and recovered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) herself, and has many years of experience working with paramedics, ambulance technicians and crisis teams. She has found first hand, in her research on women and problematic weight, that trauma has a bearing on weight, food and body issues.

Tom has spent many years researching the impact of anger and emotion, both prevalent in traumatic events and experiences. He is one of the leading authorities on the experience of anger, particularly in men. His previous military service has provided him with a unique insight into the effects and treatment of trauma from conflict scenarios.

CPD

CPD certification: Six and a half CPD hours, awarded by Contemporary College of Therapeutic Studies.

Bookings:

To book your place on this workshop go to https://contemporarycollege.com/treating-trauma-workshop/

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Hosted by Dr Tom Barber

Dr Sandra Westland, MA, B.Ed, DCAHP. Advanced PICT therapist, qualified clinical supervisor (existential, integrative) and group facilitator. Dr Tom Barber, MA, DHyp, DIHP, diploma Rogerian counselling, qualified clinical supervisor (existential, integrative) and group facilitator.