Managing power dynamics when working with survivors of abuse

Live Online CPD Event - Managing Power, Control, Boundary and Attachment Dynamics when working with Survivors of Abuse, with Christiane Sanderson

When working with survivors of physical, sexual, domestic or spiritual abuse, practitioners need to ensure that abuse dynamics do not inadvertently get replicated in the therapeutic process, while always being mindful of the need to minimise re-traumatisation.

As therapists, we are aware that such as the use of threat, terror, silence, secrecy, shame and distortion of reality dehumanises survivors and renders them voiceless and vulnerable. These dynamics can often get re-enacted during the therapeutic process through client-therapist interactions that assert power and control, appeasement behaviours such as compliance and submission, boundary violations and oscillations between connection and disconnection.

This training workshop, which would be especially relevant for psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists, aims to identify the ways in which these dynamics manifest within the therapeutic space and how these can be managed.

The objective is to facilitate a more collaborative, non-hierarchical and relational approach in which survivors can truly heal, rather than being catapulted back into trauma dynamics. To this effect, the importance of ‘being with’ rather than ‘doing to’ will be emphasised alongside practical ways by which re-shaming or re-traumatising of survivors is minimised, so as to offer a genuine human relationship in which our clients have the safe opportunity to recover and heal.

Christiane Sanderson BSc MSc is a senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton. With 28 years of experience working in child sexual abuse, interpersonal trauma and domestic abuse, she has run consultancy and training for parents, teachers, social workers, nurses, therapists, counsellors, solicitors, the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Committee, the Methodist Church, the Metropolitan Police Service, the NSPCC and the Refugee Council.

She is the author of many books on trauma, shame, childhood sexual abuse, and dissociation, including Counselling Skills for Working with Trauma (JKP 2013).

For further details and to book your place, please see our website bramhamtherapy.co.uk.