In this seminar we will consider how the early social environment, mediated by primary caregiver, influences the evolution of structures in the infant's brain with implications for the maturation of the orbitofrontal cortex. We will examine the brain circuits involved in emotion regulation and the impact on these of early and long term development. We will consider how far the brain is plastic and might be responsive to therapeutic or attachment-based intervention in cases of childhood trauma, neglect or abuse. We will be asking what makes an event traumatic.

This seminar will cover diagnostic issues in identifying traumatic experiences that are rooted in childhood experiences and differentiating these from traumas experienced by otherwise healthy adults that may result in PTSD or a disruption in their self-reflective functioning. We will consider the implications this has for considering an appropriate treatment strategy.

In this seminar we will summarise how biochemical changes in the patient's body arise in response to trauma, impacting upon the autonomic nervous system, the patient's capacity to affect regulate, the role of the hypothalamus-pituitary-axis and the neuroendocrine system. We will consider what impact these changes have on the patient's physical wellbeing.

Offering interactive regulation to engage with and complement the patient's disturbed auto-regulation, the therapist becomes a container for the trauma. As most of the psycho-biological stress of the trauma is communicated non-verbally, via right-brain to right-brain atonement, this process relies on the therapist's own sense of embodiment and internal body-mind regulation. In this presentation, based on case material, we will explore how body psychotherapy offers treatment options and techniques that are capable of reaching down into the roots of trauma in somatic experience. We will look at how therapists can develop the internal resources and capacities needed to regulate the body-mind impact of traumatic relational dynamics.

In this session we will explore techniques for Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR), and integrative mindfulness-oriented approaches for addressing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The seminar will explain mindfulness-based case-formulation, and mindfulness based psychotherapy as a systematic approach for enabling detached, non-judgmental observation of almost any inner or outer world event. The purpose of this approach is to maintain congruence with the client's own experience; maximise client engagement moment to moment and to cater to the client's mental resources.

This presentation and workshop will consider the importance of neuroscience in the development of an effective psychotherapeutic treatment strategy for a traumatised patient. Using case material we will consider how we can apply an understanding of the neurological organisation of the emotional operating systems, specific neural circuits affected by trauma and the extent to which the brain or nervous system may be compromised by the trauma, and how to adapt that knowledge to provide the most effective treatment for each individual patient.

In sensorimotor psychotherapy, although a talking therapy, body sensation and movement patterns - rather than client narratives - are the entry points of treatment. Following trauma, the body often holds the unprocessed traumatic material in the form of autonomic dysregulation, and the intrusive re-experiencing of images, sounds, smells and associated sensations. There is also often constriction, pain and numbing which accompany reactivation of the defensive movement patterns (fight, flight, freeze) all part of our natural survival response. In this presentation will look at ways of safely working with traumatised individuals within the constraints of short-term treatment. Exploring somatically-focused treatment interventions participants will learn sensorimotor techniques for stabilisation and symptom reduction. The presentation will explore reinstatement of active defences as a primary aim towards treatment resolution.

Sensorimotor psychotherapy is an equally effective treatment for longer term clients with complex childhood trauma. It requires careful pacing in order to reduce the dysregulation caused by multiple triggering of traumatic effects. The key emphasis is on working within the therapeutic relationship - itself a triggering environment - to avoid potentially de-stabilising the client. This presentation will build on somatic awareness and bodily based interventions of the morning's presentation but will incorporate working with the Structural Dissociation model within a sensorimotor framework. Central themes to be explored include embodying boundaries, self (of therapist) and interactive regulation. Participants will explore means of enabling dissociated clients to re-establish a connection with the present. The body is often the site and source of our pain from life's injuries. The presentation will therefore explore somatic resourcing for clients for whom the body has become disowned, avoided or perceived as the 'enemy.

DID, the most severe form of dissociative disorders, is invariably linked to extreme traumatic experience, usually originating in childhood or infancy, and often still occurring. As well as the confusion of the person's multiplicity, the therapist is also exposed to very distressing and largely uncorroborated trauma narratives, and to frequent states of emergency. It is often hard to know how to view this volatile material and how to respond to it clinically. This seminar will focus on recent theoretical development regarding the effects of extreme childhood trauma, and the implications for therapy with people who have DID.

This talk offers a brief psychoanalytic history of how trauma has been conceptualised from Freud and Ferenczi to current thinking. At different historic times the internal consequences of trauma have been privileged more than the external reality and vice versa. The nature of treatment is affected by the theoretical model the clinician has in their mind. In working with learning disability and trauma and with severe dissociative disorders, the talk aims to show how patients point the way to the treatment that aids them most, leading to a fine balancing of the internal and external worlds. Sometimes the internal world with all its terrors and archaic templates is a distraction form outer reality, sometimes the reverse is true. How does the clinician avoid secondary traumatisation whilst avoiding protectionist pseudo-professionalism to protect them from the power of the patient's traumatic narrative?

PDF brochure of full programme.