Complex Trauma: Recognising and Responding Effectively to Our Clients

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

Pam Stavropoulos, PhD - UniMelb, Grad. Dip. Psychotherapy (JNI) , Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment, Fulbright Alumni, Clinical Member PACFA . Related seminars and products

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Pam Stavropoulos, PhD, is an educator, consultant, and psychotherapist whose most recent work is as Head of Research with the Blue Knot Foundation. A former Fulbright Scholar and two-time winner (2022 & 2014) of the Pierre Janet Writing Award for the best clinical, theoretical, or research paper in the field of dissociation and/or trauma, she has been a member of the ISSTD Scientific Committee and coauthored the nationally and internationally endorsed Practice Guidelines for Clinical Treatment of Complex Trauma (Blue Knot Foundation, 2012, 2019). Pam has held lectureships at the University of New England and Macquarie University (from which she left her tenured position to study and practice psychotherapy) and is a former Program Director of the Jansen Newman Institute, Sydney. The author of Living under Liberalism: The Politics of Depression in Western Democracies (2008) she has written research reports in the community health sector and is a clinical supervisor who specializes in complex trauma-related issues.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Pam Stavropoulos maintains a private practice. She receives royalties as a published author. Pam Stavropoulos receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Pam Stavropoulos is a member of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation and the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia.

Venue information

COVID-19 AND YOUR SAFETY
Our venue is registered with Service NSW as a 'Covid Safe' venue. 
You will be required to checkin via our QR code and to abide by the safety  measures current at the time and in line with public health orders. These will be advised in your pre-event reminder/information emails.
In the interest of everone's safety, PDP reserves the right to deny entry to any participant who chooses not to follow the current COVID safety plans. 

ACCESSIBILITY
This venue offers wheelchair access from the Brown Street entrance.  

PUBLIC TRANSPORT
4 minute walk from Chatswood train/metro/bus interchange

PARKING
Links to reasonable early-bird parking close to the venue:
https://www.secureparking.com.au/en-au/car-parks/australia/new-south-wales/sydney/lower-north-shore-and-northern-beaches/zenith-centre-car-park

https://www.secureparking.com.au/en-au/car-parks/australia/new-south-wales/sydney/lower-north-shore-and-northern-beaches/12-help-street-car-park

NOURISHMENT 
All day tea, coffee and chilled water are provided.
We have a fridge and two microwave ovens should you wish to bring your own food. 
The venue has a cafe on the ground floor and is surrounded by cafes and restaurants inlcuding an extensive foodhall above the Chatswood Interchange.

ACCOMODATION
Mantra Hotel is next door to the venue: website here
Meriton Suites is a 4 minute walk from the venue: website here

Objectives

Learning objectives of this training:

1. Recognise the possibility of complex trauma in diverse client presentations.
2. Recognise differences between complex/single incident trauma and the treatment implications.
3. Identify the necessary components of effective therapy for complex trauma, and the extent to which the combination of these components may require modification and adaptation of your existing ways of working.
4. Chart the links between core principles of effective therapy for complex trauma and their clinical application.
5. Recognise the centrality of the realm of the non-verbal and ways in which unarticulated experience is ‘evoked’, ‘enacted’ and ‘embodied’ (Wallin, 2007).
6. Understand the rationale for the three phases of recommended treatment for complex trauma and assemble a foundational context in which Phase 1 (safety and stabilisation) can take place.
7. Attune with increased sensitivity to non-verbal cues within the evolving stages of the therapeutic relationship.
8. Embed within your particular approach ongoing attunement to pre-verbal experience and the body with a view to assisting clients to stay within their ‘window of tolerance’.

"This seminar addresses one of the most current and relevant challenges faced by therapists today. I present this training based upon the latest research along with my experience as a therapist and clinical supervisor."   Pam Stavropoulos

How will you benefit from attending this training?

• Increase attunement to the role of non-verbal experience and the body in effective therapy for complex trauma.
• Recognise the relationship between research findings pertaining to complex trauma and their application to practice.
• Understand ways in which standard psychotherapeutic approaches (insight-based and cognitive behavioural) may require adaptation and supplement in light of the evolving research base on complex trauma and a basic capacity to tailor familiar ways of working in light of this understanding.

Outline

Session 1 (includes a short morning tea break)

• Definitions, diagnosis, challenges
• Diagnostic developments: DSM-5 and ICD-11and
• Co-morbidities and missed diagnosis
• Assessment of PTSD and CPTSD
• Commonly applied assessment tools
• Diagnostic limits and relational context
• `Complex’ and ‘single incident trauma (PTSD) - the stakes of the distinction and the implications for treatment.
• Relational trauma
• Childhood its impacts on adult health
• The neurobiology of experience: stress, overwhelming stress, and the many impacts
• What lens are we looking through? Trauma and dissociation.
• Clinical implications: stages of therapy & overall frame.
• Ongoing challenges in therapy for complex trauma.
• Traumatic re‐enactment & enactments in the therapy room.
• Trauma theory. 
• Attachment and developmental Trauma.
• The neurobiology of childhood trauma
• The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.

Session 2 (includes a short afternoon tea break)

• Clinical implications of the research base- importance of non-verbal and the body (`bottom up’ and `top down’).
• The challenge to `standard’ psychotherapeutic approaches.
• Current validated treatment approaches.
• Mental health and adaptation to trauma.
• The importance of dissociation.
• Key features of effective therapy for complex trauma.
• Working clinically: Initial stages of therapy.
• Towards self-regulation (the centrality of safety).
• Phased treatment - the theory and application in practice.
• Transference and counter-transference.
• The high stakes of therapist well-being.
• What the current research and literature tells us.
• Vicarious trauma, self-care, and supervision. Evaluation and closing.

Evaluation and quiz - your payment includes a quiz which when completed with a minimum of 80% correct answers, will enable you to download your Attendance Certificate.

To complete the quiz, please log into your account at pdp-catalogue.com.au and click the orange "Certificate" button under the program's title.

For live webcasts, post-tests must be completed within one month of viewing the program.

Target Audience

Webcast Schedule

Morning Session
  9:00am - 12:45pm
  Includes a 15 minutes break at 10:45am

Lunch Break
  12:45pm - 1:45pm

Afternoon Session
  1:45pm - 5:00pm
  Includes a 15 minutes break at 3:15pm