This session addresses the nature, forms, and impacts of complex trauma and the implications for working therapeutically with people who experience it.

• How to attune to and identify complex trauma in its many forms and impacts
• How to distinguish complex trauma from single-incident PTSD
• The neurobiology of attachment and the role of adverse childhood experiences in generating early life (complex) trauma and adult health problems
• The relationship between symptoms and coping strategies in effective treatment of complex trauma

Dissociation can take many forms and poses major challenges for clinicians because it is often unrecognized.

This session addresses the nature and varieties of dissociation with reference to its role and implications in the treatment of complex trauma.

• The relationship between complex trauma and dissociation
• How to identify and effectively respond to complex trauma-related dissociation
• The five dissociative symptoms
• How attune to degrees of dissociation and understand why even mild forms of it can impede therapy if left unaddressed
• And much more!

The ability to understand and work with traumatic memory is critical to the resolution of complex trauma. However, the nature of traumatic memory is widely mischaracterized and misunderstood.

This session presents current research findings on the complex network of subsystems we call `memory’, the need to distinguish contrasting kinds of memory, and the significance of this research for effective therapy.

• How to recognise the non-unitary nature of memory, the differences between explicit (conscious) and implicit (largely non-conscious) memory, and the features of traumatic memory
• How trauma registers in the brain and body and is expressed in physical sensations, automatic responses and involuntary movements rather than spoken language
• The true nature of traumatic memory, the phenomenon of delayed conscious recall of traumatic experience and the clinical implications for working with adults who experience the impacts of childhood trauma
• How to address the challenges traumatic memory poses to traditional talk therapy and how to incorporate non-verbal principles and interventions into effective clinical work, irrespective of the modality applied

Clients who experience the impacts of complex trauma often do not experience themselves as a ‘whole person’.

In fact, the notion of a unified self has been critiqued for some time. This means that effective therapy for complex trauma needs to adapt accordingly.

This session addresses the development and process of self, how healthy developmental trajectories are disrupted by early life trauma, and the differences between `normal multiplicity’ and trauma-generated dissociated self-states.

• How early life trauma can derail and disrupt self-coherence, continuity, and functioning
• How personality integration, coherence and self-continuity are not innate but rather result from developmental and relational experience
• A non-unitary model of self and a state theory of personality which aids understanding of the state-changes and fluctuations to which we are all subject

Unresolved trauma is often dissociated and non-verbal. What cannot be expressed in words is interpersonalised and enacted, including in the therapy room.

This session addresses the interface between complex trauma and dissociation, which can derail the therapy unless identified and addressed.

• Why and how unresolved trauma is repeated
• How to recognise a client’s dissociated experience in the therapy room
• Why enactments are frequent and inevitable in therapy for complex trauma
• How unconscious communications of the client in the service of self-protection can evoke dissociated experience in the therapist

Phase based treatment has long been endorsed by clinicians of complex PTSD.

This session introduces the phased therapy approach to treatment of complex trauma. It addresses the issues to which it gives rise, including criticisms of it, delineates the three phases, and how they apply in clinical context.

• The principle foundations of the phased approach to therapy for complex trauma
• The key and characteristic features of phased therapy for complex trauma with reference to its history, longevity, and status in the context of contemporary debates
• The tasks applicable to each of the three phases of therapy

The extensive impacts of complex trauma underline the importance of stabilization, affect regulation, and the capacity to self-soothe and tolerate emotion prior to the processing of traumatic experience.

This session focuses on the multifaceted task of client resourcing in contexts of complex trauma, and the many issues and challenges it involves.

• How to distinguish `top down’ from `bottom up’ resources and basic ability to assist development of these via appropriate interventions
• The wide-ranging impacts of complex trauma as signposts to the range of resources which need to be developed, acquired or reinstated in Phase 1 therapy for complex trauma
• How to distinguish and discuss clients’ somatic, cognitive, and relational resources and introduce interventions and strategies for fostering them

The language of `parts’, `ego states’, and `self-states’ is helpful and non-stigmatising with respect to the problematic divisions of personality generated by trauma, disrupted attachment, and experiences of overwhelm.

This session presents an introduction to `working with parts’ with reference to the crucial distinctions between standard ego-states which characterise health and dissociated self-states which pertain to the impacts of complex trauma.

Note: While reference to structural dissociation generated by severe early life trauma is included, this seminar does not equip participants to work with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

• How to attune to the differences between mild, moderate, and severe forms of dissociation and their clinical implications
• The value of the ‘language of parts’ in treating complex trauma and how to use it with all clients
• How to identify key differences between ‘normative ego states and the contrasting features of trauma-generated parts

The second stage of phased therapy for complex trauma is the processing of traumatic memory and experience.

This session reveals how to help clients through this processing phase.

• The implicit, non-verbal nature of traumatic memory and the implications for its processing
• How to shift treatment from the content and detail of traumatic memories to addressing the impacts on current functioning
• How to use `body based’ interventions with traditional `talk therapy’
• How to segue between Phase 2 processing and Phase 1 `return to resourcing’ if and as needed

Adjusting to `life after trauma’ presents a new set of challenges for clients, including emancipation from trauma-related beliefs and behaviours which may have existed for decades.

It is also not uncommon for clients to encounter new areas of unresolved trauma in the Phase 3 period, considering increased ability to engage with experiences of distress which could not be approached before.

This session addresses the final phase of therapy for complex trauma, which involves consolidating gains, achieving a more solid and stable sense of self, and increasing skills in creating healthy interactions with the external world.

• Phase 3 tasks, goals, and challenges
• How to recognise and prepare for the potential emergence and/or recurrence of painful memories for clients in the `post-processing’ period
• Skills to assist clients to address residual trauma-related cognitions and behaviours which may impede adjustment to `life after trauma’ and general well-being