2-Day Complex Trauma: Somatic Interventions to Restore the Mind-Body Connection, Quiet the Mind, and Improve Self-Regulation

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

Victoria Grinman, PhD, LCSW Related seminars and products

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Victoria Grinman, PhD, LCSW, is the founder of Permission Slip Parenting™, a groundbreaking approach to guiding parents in connecting to a more fulfilled parenthood journey that supports their joy, confidence and sustained connection and growth with themselves and their child throughout their lifetime. She is an expert in the experience of posttraumatic growth, the parenthood experience, autism and relationships.

Dr. Grinman earned her PhD at Adelphi University and Master of Social Work at Columbia University. She served as a contributing lecturer at Columbia University, Boston College and Adelphi University, and speaks nationally to professionals dedicated to the healthcare arena. Victoria is a trauma-informed and trained yoga and mindfulness instructor, a certified aromatherapist and a dedicated long-time clinician volunteer for Experience Camps, a free one-week grief camp experience for children who have lost a significant person in their life. She nurtures Growing Kind Minds LLC, a private therapy and coaching practice and lives with her sassy yorkie, Vanna Goh Goh, named after Vincent van Gogh. She resides in New York City.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Victoria Grinman maintains a private practice and has employment relationships with Hudson Valley Professional Development and New York Therapy Placement Services. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Victoria Grinman is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the New York State Society for Clinical Social Work.

Objectives

1. Design effective ways to help clients understand and process what is happening in their body as a result of traumatic stress. 
2. Substantiate how trauma affects the developing mind and brain, and articulate the psychological impact and long-term effects of trauma on physical and mental health. 
3. Differentiate between disrupted attachment and traumatic stress. 
4. Determine how sensorimotor processing can alleviate the re-experiencing of trauma. 
5. Support why embodiment in psychotherapy matters and how to incorporate it successfully into treatment with traumatized clients. 
6. Perform specific movement, breathing, interoception, and mindfulness techniques that can help children and adults gain mastery over their lives. 
7. Characterize how yoga and other embodied strategies can reframe trauma experiences and connect to a mind-body awareness.  
8. Integrate yoga as a clinical intervention to help treat the symptoms of complex trauma, anxiety and depression, promote healing, and improve mental health. 
9. Distinguish how yoga quiets the brain and regulates our arousal system by balancing our parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems and widening the window of tolerance. 
10. Communicate therapy goals reflecting each of the five components of well-balanced yoga practice.  
11. Create yoga forms and techniques to help clients improve regulatory & distress tolerance skills and increase social skills. 
12. Execute and adapt various yoga forms and movements, in preparation to use them for a variety of settings, abilities & age levels. 

Outline

Application of Theory and Integrating Interventions

Neuroscience, Trauma, and the Body

• Single vs. repeated vs. extended trauma
• Developmental trauma vs. complex trauma
• Adverse childhood experiences
• Current research on the neurobiology of traumatic stress
  • How trauma affects the developing mind and brain
  • The psychological impact & long-term effects of trauma on physical & mental health
• Stress response patterns as survival strategies
  • Fight, Flight, Freeze, Faint, Fawn, Fool around & Fidget
  • Strategies to help clients understand and process what is happening in their body
• Hyper- and hypo-arousal and the window of tolerance
• The impact of trauma on somatic experiencing and the sensory system
  • How sensorimotor processing can alleviate the re-experiencing of trauma

The Neurobiology of Attachment

• Differentiating between disrupted attachment and traumatic stress
• Interpersonal neurobiology
  • Mirror neurons, empathy and connecting with others
  • Relationships can reshape our brains
• Attachment and attunement in the therapeutic relationship
  • Attachment style impacts your client’s relationships
• Neurological basis of attachment and co-regulation
• Current research on yoga and mental health ~ benefits, risks & limitations

The Triune Brain, Regulation and Polyvagal Theory

• Current research on yoga and mental health ~ benefits, risks & limitations
• The importance of understanding the triune brain and how yoga…
  • Calms the amygdala and quiets the brain
  • Regulates our arousal system
  • Widens the window of tolerance
• Top-down and bottom-up regulation
• Heart rate variability (HRV) and vagal nerve tone
• Yoga as a clinical intervention to treat symptoms of complex trauma, anxiety and depression
• Embodied strategies teach the brain and body to work in harmony
  • Reframe trauma experiences
  • Increase self-regulation
  • Connect clients to a mind-body awareness
  • Increase positive experiences
  • Promote healing & Improve mental health

Applications for Trauma Treatment

• Clinical applications for yoga
  • Foundation of traditional yoga informs the 5 themes
  • The 5 themes of trauma-informed yoga
  • Strengths and limitations of yoga as part of psychotherapy
  • Create and communicate therapy goals reflecting the themes
  • Integrating trauma-sensitive yoga in clinical work
• Practice and adapt yoga for a variety of settings, abilities & age levels to…
  • Restore the capacity to play through games & creative movements
  • Increase trust & build healthy attachments through family and partner yoga
  • Decrease dysregulation & improve distress tolerance skills
  • Reduce emotional numbing, depression, and dissociation
  • Help children and adults gain mastery over their lives with mindfulness techniques that can reduce intrusive images and “stuck” memories
  • Expand capacity for self-awareness with breathing exercises and interoceptive cues

Target Audience

• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Counselors
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counselors
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• School Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Other Mental Health Professionals