Journey to Wholeness: Selected Issues in the Treatment of Complex Trauma and Dissociation
This two day advanced worskhop will be held in English with consecutive translation to Italian
In this highly interactive two day workshop we will focus on several challenging issues in the treatment of adult patients who have been abused or neglected as children. During the first day, we will explore the many faces of attachment trauma, examining how various difficult personality traits of caregivers with affect their children, including narcissistic, borderline, avoidant, obsessive, paranoid, and schizotypal patterns of relating. Participants will practice specific ways to relate to and help patients overcome these patterns, which are often repeated in their own inner mental representations, and which leave emotional scars that prevent healthy relationships in the present. The challenges of working with individuals who have suffered neglect without obvious abuse will also be discussed. These patients are often unsure of their identity, are profoundly disconnected from their bodies, feel empty and purposeless, have a fragile sense of self, and do not trust their own perceptions. On second day, participants will learn specific integrative approaches to understand and work with angry, hostile, and perpetrator-imitating parts of the patient. Often our own emotions and fears about these parts can impede effective treatment. We will spend time exploring our normal defensive reactions to anger and sadism, the need to set safe limits, and ways to work with our countertransference effectively with our patients. Specific interventions will be demonstrated and practiced. Shame is one of the major reasons for impasse and resistance, and for the activation of anger, hostility and self-destructive behaviors, and often underlies ongoing dissociation and failure to improve with good treatment. Participants will learn the several functions of shame, and practice a variety of compassionate top-down and bottom-up approaches to resolving shame, as well as how to help patients develop shame resilience. Finally, we will explore selected topics in Phase 3 treatment, including issues of emerging healthy intimacy and sexuality.
Contact: Silvio Cohen at info@silviocohen.it
Sponsor: Centro Moses