Full Course Description

Breaking Trauma Bonds: 20 Clinical Interventions and Somatic Exercises to End Toxic Cycles & Rebuild Self-Trust

Healing trauma bonded clients goes far beyond traditional paradigms.

To be effective, you need to recognize and treat the intricate web of emotional entanglements and the complex interplay between attachment and pain.

By delving into the depths of trauma bonds, you can guide your clients toward a journey of self-discovery and empowerment, where healing isn't just about alleviating symptoms but…

…rewriting the very fabric of their emotional landscape.

This training shows you the way.

Join Dr. Laura Copley, acclaimed expert in relationship trauma, specializing in trauma bonds and post-traumatic growth for a ground-breaking workshop. Dr. Copley’s celebrated book Loving You is Hurting Me has helped thousands of clinicians and clients alike find new meaning after toxic relationships. Now, you’re getting the key interventions and somatic exercises directly from Dr. Copley.

Immediately elevate your practice…

Enhance your confidence in navigating the complexities of trauma bonds and supporting clients with "toxic" traits
Learn powerful reparenting techniques to guide clients in exploring their origin stories
Promote healthy dynamics and foster corrective experiences that reunite clients with authentic emotional connections
Incorporate relational neuroscience techniques to deepen therapeutic engagement and create an integrative healing environment
Reestablish the critical role of self-trust to help clients heal their complex trauma

By the end of this workshop, you will be equipped with a robust toolkit to effectively address trauma bonded relationships, help survivors foster resilience, and guide clients toward post-traumatic growth.

Program Information

Objectives

Examine trauma bonding and complex trauma through the lens of relational neuroscience and attachment theory.
Recognize the 7 stages of trauma bonding and how they play out as toxic relational patterns, and develop strategies to intervene in ways that foster corrective healing experiences.
Outline the 5 major attachment traumas including their origins and impact, and learn creative clinical skills to explore how these trauma wounds shape clients' present experiences.
Recognizing the critical role of self-trust in the healing journey and discovering strategies to cultivate this essential ingredient for complex trauma recovery.
Practice somatic therapies, narrative exposure techniques, and parts work interventions to supports client’s exploration of their inner worlds.
Practice Post-Traumatic Growth exercises to support clients’ personal development and journey toward self-actualization.
Integrate evidence-based approaches with innovative techniques to create effective and experiential therapy sessions.

Outline

The Trauma Bonded Client

What are we missing with this population?
Do more effective work with trauma-bonded clients
Explore Dr. Copley’s research and trauma-informed approaches
at is needed to do better work with trauma bonded individuals?
INTERVENTIONS: “Not My Best Moment” visualization exercise and “Self-Forgiveness” practice

Preparation, Grounding, Resourcing, and Titrating

Trauma-informed considerations before beginning therapy
What is titrating and how to do it?
Applied Relational Neuroscience and Positive Psychology
Teaching clients “The Art of Discernment”
INTERVENIONS: Polyvagal-inspired “Meet Your Nervous System” and “What Grounds Me?” exercise, Havening Techniques for safety, Parts Mapping for “Creating Inner Guardians” and client’s “Gathering Place” Activities, Intro to Bilateral Stimulation

Attachment Traumas, Family-of-Origin Issues & Reparenting

How the 5 major attachment traumas are linked to worthiness
Know how attachment traumas play out as current reactions and behaviors
Examine and undo the impact of family-of-origin roles and attachment wounds
Reparent the inner child and its wounds
INTERVENTIONS: “Meeting Your Wounded Inner Child” Parts Work activity and worksheet, “Little Me Reconnection” photograph exercise, and Establishing Unmet Needs, “Dialoguing with Inner Guardians” as a Reparenting writing exercise

Assessing Toxicity in Relationships

Identifying Protectors, Blocks, and Resistance, and a new mindsight on how to perceive them
Sensitively overcome client resistance and prepare them for healthy self-disclosures
Explore the continuum of trauma bonding, red flags and narcissism
Paradigm shift away from “victim-perpetrator” mindset
Signs of abuse
Know the 7 stages of trauma bonding
INTERVENTIONS: “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” resistance activity, Emotion-Focused Therapy for Couples and “The Dance”, “Mapping Out the Toxic Hook” and Somatic Therapy, The Psychology of Ritual “Chord Cutting”, Somatic Experiencing Exercise, “Creating Your Self-Trust Mantra”, clinical movie analysis

Healing the Trauma in the Relationship Bond

Your role as a guide to corrective emotional experiences
Gottman’s research on Stages of Repair
Help clients identify their unmet needs and “toxic hook” cycle
Explore new narratives with writing exercises from Narrative Exposure Therapy
How to get clients speaking to their “Embodied Self”
Apply Brene Brown’s work on vulnerability & Ester Perel’s research on intimacy and connection
Therapeutic questionnaire for clients’ self-exploration
INTERVENTIONS: Qi Gong Activity for Healing Energy, Tapping-in (installing) a new narrative (“Even though I feel… I know I am…”), Narrative Exposure Therapy using storytelling and letter-writing,“Know Thyself, Trust Thyself” Exercise and how to speak on behalf of parts, “Getting to Know You,.. Again” re-connection questionnaire

Nurturing Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG)

The key to authentic connections after trauma bonding
How PTG looks after toxic relationships
Incorporate the “hero’s journey” into healing
The 5 key experiences in PTG
Create interpersonal transformation and growth after therapy ends
INTERVENTIONS: “Benefit Finding” exercise for Individuals and Couples, “Playlist for Parts” coming to aid an unmet need, Two-Chair Technique from Healed Self to Trauma Wounds, Trauma Transformation Timeline Exercise, and Re-authoring the story

Foreseeable Limitations and Risks

When treatment doesn’t work
The role of personality disorders in treatment
Address and identify misunderstandings
Emergence of new symptoms and triggers
Unmet expectations, drama and disappointment
Contraindications and Cultural Considerations:
Newness and evidence for the presented content

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychiatrists
Psychologists
Case Managers
Addiction Counselors
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psych Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 12/22/2025

Attachment-Centered Trauma Therapy: Healing Therapeutic Ruptures and Restoring Bonds

This practical workshop, led by Dr. Robert T. Muller, author of psychotherapy bestseller: Trauma and the Avoidant Client, builds our understanding of the therapeutic relationship with challenging trauma clients.

As therapists, we try to maintain a strong therapeutic relationship, but this can be easier said than done. Drawing on attachment theory and research, and using a relational, integrative approach, Dr. Muller follows the ups and downs of the therapy relationship in trauma work. He points to choices therapists make in navigating the process, examining how they affect outcome.

Specifically, we look at relationship patterns in trauma work, and how these can lead to troubling therapist-client enactments. When left unchecked, such patterns lead to ruptures in the relationship. In trauma work, how do we repair a ruptured alliance? And how can we help clients grow from the experience? This workshop looks at such issues in detail.

Theory is complemented by case examples and therapy segments. We draw from Dr. Muller's most recent therapy book, Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up, winner of the 2019 ISSTD award for the year’s best written work on trauma.

Program Information

Objectives

Use an attachment theory framework in relational trauma work.
Identify therapist-client relationship patterns in trauma treatment.
Determine therapist’s feelings regarding trauma work in the therapeutic process.
Identify problematic relational enactments.
Determine conflicts and relational ruptures to get treatment back on track.
Use conflicts and relational ruptures to bring about posttraumatic growth.

Outline

Opening Up About Trauma: A Relational Process

When trauma teaches silence: “You mustn’t tell anyone!”
How trauma stories “leak out” in therapy—even when clients resist opening up
Avoidance in trauma work: Why clients sidestep painful feelings and relationships
Mutual avoidance: When both therapist and client unconsciously steer away from trauma—“This feels too overwhelming!”
Risks and limitations of the research

Pacing the Process: Using the Therapeutic Relationship to Regulate Disclosure

Recognizing when a client rushes into trauma work—and why it can backfire
Techniques to slow down and create a sense of safety before diving deeper
When the therapist moves too fast: Understanding the impulse to push forward
How rushing—on either side—can destabilize the process and undermine progress

The Therapist’s Inner World: Navigating Your Own Attachment in Trauma Treatment

Understanding how your own attachment history shapes clinical interactions
Countertransference patterns in trauma therapy—and how they show up in session
- The rescue fantasy: The urge to “fix” or save the client
- Feeling bullied by the client: Power struggles and therapist reactivity
- Compassion fatigue and disengagement: When hopelessness sets in
Using self-awareness to strengthen therapeutic connection and resilience

Conflict as a Catalyst: Navigating Ruptures and Repairs in Therapy

How enactments—unconscious relational patterns—create ruptures in therapy
Spotting when the therapeutic relationship is going off track
The rupture-repair process:
- Looking inside: The therapist’s role in relational breakdowns
- Validating: Acknowledging the client’s experience without defensiveness
- Providing containment: Rebuilding safety and trust
- Mentalizing: Helping clients reflect on their own emotional responses
Turning conflict into growth: Using relational challenges to deepen the alliance

This structured approach ensures therapists walk away with practical, actionable skills they can use immediately—without adding extra time or complexity to their sessions.

Target Audience

Addiction Professionals
Case Managers
Licensed Clinical/Mental Health Counselors
Marriage & Family Therapists
Occupational Therapists
Psychotherapists
Psychologists
Social Workers

Healing Trauma from Narcissistic Abuse Using a DBT Approach

Narcissistic abuse leaves no aspect of one's life untouched. From fractured self-esteem to shattered trust, the impact is profound and far-reaching. The therapeutic process is often long and at times clinicians may find themselves navigating complex emotional landscapes, confronting unforeseen challenges, or feeling emotionally drained by the intensity of the work. Despite your dedication, traditional therapeutic methods may feel insufficient in addressing the depth of your client’s wounds. This is where Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) shines as an innovative approach. DBT offers a unique blend of validation and skill-building making it particularly adept at addressing the intricate layers of trauma resulting from narcissistic abuse.

DBT's emphasis on emotional regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness equips therapists with a toolkit tailored to the unique challenges posed by narcissistic abuse. This innovative approach provides concrete strategies for clients to manage overwhelming emotions and triggers, learn to trust oneself in relationships, set healthy boundaries and cultivate a deeper sense of self-compassion. By integrating these skills into therapy, clinicians can empower clients not just to cope, but to actively reclaim their lives and build resilience in the face of narcissistic abuse.

Program Information

Objectives

Integrate DBT principles into therapy sessions for clients to rebuild their lives post-narcissistic abuse.
Choose mindfulness-based interventions to enhance clients' self-awareness and self-compassion as part of their recovery from narcissistic abuse.
Utilize DBT skills for distress tolerance to help clients navigate challenging situations and triggers associated with narcissistic abuse.

Outline

Understanding Narcissistic Abuse Trauma

The impact of narcissistic abuse on survivors
Common manifestations of trauma in clients affected by narcissistic abuse
Unique challenges faced by survivors in rebuilding their lives

Essentials of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Trauma

Overview principles and techniques relevant to trauma recovery
Role in addressing emotional dysregulation and distress tolerance
Combine with traditional therapeutic approaches in healing trauma from narcissistic abuse
Research and limitations

DBT Skills for Emotional Regulation, Resilience, and Self-Compassion

Skills for emotional regulation, including mindfulness and distress tolerance
Techniques for managing overwhelming emotions triggered by narcissistic abuse
Importance of self-compassion as a cornerstone of healing and resilience

Rebuilding Lives: Implement DBT in Clinical Practice

DBT techniques into trauma-informed therapy for survivors of narcissistic abuse
Tailor interventions to meet the unique needs of individual clients
Actionable strategies to support clients in their journey of healing
Self-compassion as a central element in the recovery process

Target Audience

Counselors
Marriage and Family Therapists
Social Workers
Physicians
Psychologists
Addiction Counselors