Full Course Description

101: The Integrative Path for Treating Trauma

Treating trauma can often feel like a high-wire act, as we attempt to treat deep emotional wounds, navigate old memories, shift brain circuitry, and build trust. Where do we even begin? In this workshop, you’ll learn a clear, practical, and expansive approach to trauma treatment that addresses each of these challenges. Using a parts approach, you’ll learn how to work directly with survival strategies, support clients through attachment and autonomic challenges, manage dissociation with confidence, and integrate evidence-based approaches like EMDR, DBT, somatic, attachment, and medication interventions. By the end, you’ll walk away with a unified, neuroscience-informed framework you can use immediately. You’ll also learn how to:

Identify and work with wounded parts using language that builds trust
Apply neuroscience by matching interventions to autonomic states and fear circuitry
Safely navigate attachment injuries, shame, and dissociation
Integrate multiple modalities by‑ matching symptoms and behaviors to different models

Program Information

Objectives

Identify at least three types of parts commonly seen in trauma presentations and describe their protective functions within a parts‑based framework.
Differentiate between autonomic states (ventral, sympathetic, dorsal) and select interventions that correspond to each state based on current neuroscience.
Differentiate between the Human Self, the Soul and survival strategies and understand the importance of internal relational repair.
Demonstrate how to incorporate elements of EMDR, DBT skills, sensorimotor techniques, or medication conversations within a parts‑informed treatment plan.

Outline

Orienting to a Parts-Based Trauma-Informed Mindset

An overview of different parts-oriented approaches.
Identifying types of parts, their intent and functions
The difference between the intent of parts versus the effects of parts
Defining the Human Self and the Soul in relation to trauma.
Repairing the relationship between intuitive wisdom and survival strategies
Risks and limitations of parts-based trauma work

Neuroscience for Parts Work You’ll Actually Use

Fear Circuitry, Dissociation and the various sub-types of PTSD
How to work with Parts and the Autonomic Nervous System (ventral/sympathetic/dorsal)
Interoception and Somatic interventions for the treatment of trauma.
The Science of Compassion, Empathy, and Gratitude as key elements to healing

Addressing Attachment & Preverbal Themes Without Overwhelm

Learning alternative methods of communication when words are not available
Common adaptations and interventions with early relational trauma
Working with shame and vulnerability and the development of wounds

Dissociation as a Spectrum

Recognizing dissociative systems
Utilizing empathy and the body when working with dissociation
Therapist parts and working with DID

Integrating Methods Tailored for Clients’ Needs

Incorporating cognitive, somatic, and attachment-based modalities such as EMDR, CBT, DBT, TIST, SE, SP, CI, IPNB and PVT into a parts based approach.
Medication conversations through a parts lens
The relationship between parts work and psychedelics

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/10/2026

102: Processing Trauma, Anger, & Survival

Colonization, genocide, enslavement, war, racialized terror, and ecocide aren't just histories we leave behind—they're imprinted on our nervous systems across generations, manifesting in presentations of rage, self-annihilation, numbness, and collapse. In this workshop, we'll use trauma-informed, somatic, and sociocultural lenses to explore a conceptual framework we call annihilation energy: a way of understanding survival drives rooted in personal, collective, and ancestral experiences of obliteration, terror, humiliation, erasure, and subjugation. Together, we'll explore how to use guided self-reflection and structured somatic practices with your clients that attend to patterns in the body and promote resourcing, titration, and pendulation toward healing and wholeness. You'll discover how to:

Use the annihilation energy framework to help make sense of patterns you're already observing in clients' bodies and behavior
Explore the ways in which anger can be both harmful and protective
Identify the spectrum of annihilation-energy expressions, like numbing, self-hatred, and structural violence, along with common management strategies, like spiritual bypass, addiction, and overwork
Transform your clients’ destructive habits into restorative ways of living and loving

Program Information

Objectives

Define annihilation energy as a specific, extreme expression of anger and survival drive rooted in experiences of obliteration, terror, erasure, humiliation, and subjugation.
Describe how historical and structural forces (including colonization, genocide, enslavement, war, racialized terror, and ecocide) contribute to the transmission of annihilation energy across generations, interpersonally, and into the therapy room.
Differentiate between inward, outward, and social/collective expressions of annihilation energy using clinical examples.
Identify a spectrum of annihilation-energy expressions, including numbing, self-erasure, self-hatred, domestic violence, sadism, vengeance fantasies, scapegoating, and structural violence.

Outline

Understanding Annihilation Energy in Clinical Context

Defining annihilation energy as an extreme survival response
Differentiating inward, outward, and collective expressions
Recognizing clinical presentations (collapse, rage, dissociation, self-erasure)
Case examples illustrating protective vs. harmful expressions

Sociohistorical and Intergenerational Transmission

Impact of colonization, genocide, enslavement, and systemic violence on the nervous system
Intergenerational trauma and embodied transmission patterns
Clinical implications for working with culturally and historically situated trauma
Identifying collective and structural expressions in the therapy room

Somatic and Neurophysiological Foundations

Autonomic nervous system responses: activation vs. collapse
Tracking annihilation energy in the body (sensations, impulses, states)
Applying somatic principles: orientation, resourcing, titration, pendulation
Matching interventions to client state (hyperarousal vs. hypoarousal)

Clinical Application, Ethics, and Integration

Using co-regulation, pacing, and relational attunement in high-intensity sessions
Developing trauma-informed case conceptualizations
Supporting transformation of annihilation energy into adaptive expression
Therapist capacity, countertransference, and ethical considerations

Limitations of the research and potential risks of somatic and trauma-focused approaches

Risk of overwhelm or retraumatization if improperly paced
Limited empirical research specifically on “annihilation energy” as a construct
Cultural and contextual considerations in applying somatic interventions

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/10/2026

103: Ethical Considerations in Cultural Competency

As much as we may not like to admit it, few subjects make therapists sweat more than cultural competency. While we have an ethical responsibility to minimize bias, prejudice, and discrimination when working with individuals from marginalized and minority communities, many of us are prone to missteps, misunderstandings, and microaggressions that create ethical dilemmas, damage rapport, and impede our clinical progress. In this workshop, we’ll address these common dilemmas with a step-by-step process that uses practical language to reduce the likelihood of unintentional cultural offenses and misunderstandings—and provides a roadmap for repairing a therapeutic relationship that’s damaged when they do occur. By the end of this workshop, you’ll leave with concrete strategies that will not only help you increase attunement, reduce perceived barriers, and strengthen cross-cultural relationships with clients, but navigate our epidemic of rampant cultural division and polarization outside the therapy room as well. You’ll learn:

Specific language to avoid division and increase cohesion when working with culturally diverse families and communities
Empowering strategies for clients that promote healthy coping in culturally unsafe environments
When and how to first address racial stress, trauma, and cultural differences between you and your client
Active listening and communication strategies that articulate empathy, care, and humility
How to repair cultural missteps in a way that makes the therapeutic relationship even stronger than before
Reflective practices for examining your own subconscious biases without eliciting defensiveness

Program Information

Objectives

Develop an attainable goal for ethical cultural competency in cross-cultural professional relationships.
Learn healthy diversity language to avoid division and increase cohesion among culturally diverse families and communities.
Utilize strategies for overcoming common barriers to ethical culturally competent mental health care.
Demonstrate the use of practical strategies for creating a sense of cultural safety as well as empowering strategies for coping in a culturally unsafe environments.

Outline

An Attainable Goal for Ethical Cultural Competency

Developmental theories of multicultural competence
Competence vs. expertise
Identifying & overcoming common barriers

Conveying Value of Varying Cultural Identities, Expressions, & Needs

Broad cultural understanding (beyond race & ethnicity)
Embracing cultural self-awareness
Empowering varying cultural identities

The Ethical Significance of Culturally Competent Language Usage

Language & individual identity
Language & interpersonal communication
Practical ethical language use strategies

Practical Strategies for Reducing & Addressing Cultural Offenses

Client-centered therapeutic strategies
How to respond when you offend clients
How to respond when clients offend you
Cultivating cultural safety

Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/10/2026

104: Traumatic Grief & the Brain

Traumatic grief is a full-body, full-brain survival response—not a psychological failure. When loss overwhelms the nervous system, emotional processing, interoception, and regulation collapse into protective patterns like numbness, flooding, or sudden sensory-triggered distress. So how do you help trauma survivors develop healing strategies that work with—not against—these natural protective responses? In this workshop, you’ll build your own neuroplasticity-informed toolkit that will help your clients stabilize their nervous system, restore internal orientation, and heal without overwhelming their protective circuits. You’ll also learn how to:

Recognize the neurobiological signatures of traumatic grief
Stabilize high-arousal states using sensory and interoceptive tools
Use mindful touch and working-memory strategies to reduce emotional overload
Support parasympathetic engagement and nervous-system coherence
Create conditions for safe, gradual meaning-making after loss

Program Information

Outline

Mechanisms of Traumatic Grief
Traumatic Grief’s Impact on Body + Regulation
Clinical Priorities for Treatment Planning
Evidence-Informed Tools for Regulation, Awareness, and Memories
Risks and Limitations of the Research and Clinical Applications
Neuroplastic Pathways to Healing

Objectives

Summarize how traumatic grief impacts the nervous system, including changes in emotional processing, sensory awareness, and autonomic regulation.
Identify behavioral and physiological indicators that a client’s grief response is influenced by overwhelming stress or threat.
Evaluate how neuroplasticity supports adaptive healing and the gradual restoration of stability following traumatic loss.
Apply neurobiologically-informed strategies—such as mindful touch, sensory grounding, and working-memory engagement—to support stabilization during grief processing.
Develop treatment pacing and interventions that reduce overwhelm, enhance autonomic flexibility, and facilitate safe emotional integration.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/10/2026

105: Integrating EMDR & IFS

We now know that the transformational power of EMDR therapy comes not from bilateral stimulation, but from working memory taxation and memory reconsolidation. With this new wisdom, using interventions from Internal Family Systems Therapy within an integrative EMDR approach can greatly enhance trauma treatment. In this workshop, you’ll explore how to apply this integrative approach through live demonstration and video clips from real sessions. You’ll learn how to make a parts map, which can be used to develop working alliance and identify EMDR targets. You’ll also discover:

How and why using Internal Family Systems Therapy interventions foster effective integrative EMDR therapy
how a parts map can serve as a bridge to address blocking beliefs in the client’s system
Ways to address traumatic memories rooted in intergenerational, historical, and collective trauma, especially when working with marginalized populations

This product is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Program Information

Objectives

Describe memory reconsolidation theory.
Identify three clinical indicators that warrant consideration of using a multi-modal approach in complex trauma treatment.
Describe characteristics of the three types of parts in an individual’s system.
Apply a transdiagnostic integrative parts orientation to EMDR case conceptualization.
Demonstrate two IFS techniques to use to address blocking beliefs and facilitate consent-based EMDR reprocessing.

Outline

Review of EMDR Therapy
The Latest Research on Working Memory Theory
Current Research, Limitations, and Risks
Review of Internal Family Systems Therapy
Client and Therapist Factors that Warrant an Integrative Approach
Memory Reconsolidation Theory
Why is IFS a good fit for Integrative Trauma Treatment
Current Research, Benefits, Limitations, and Risks to Integration
Integrative Case Conceptualization in Complex Trauma Treatment
Parts Mapping: The Portal to Identifying EMDR Targets
Experiential Demonstration and Practice of Parts Mapping
How to Guide Clients to Connect to their Parts to Address Blocking Beliefs
Considerations in Working with Marginalized Populations
Addressing Intergenerational, Historical, and Collective Trauma
Self-Tapping for Attachment Readiness & Repair (STARR)®
Integrative Resourcing to Support Client Stabilization

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/10/2026

Keynote: On Trauma & Transformation

What does it take to truly heal from trauma? Few clinicians are more suited to exploring this question than Peter A. Levine, a somatic trauma therapy pioneer and has spent five decades transforming trauma treatment worldwide and fundamentally changing how we understand the body’s role in healing. In this rare and intimate fireside conversation, he joins Arielle Schwartz—renowned traumatologist and bestselling author of eight books—to explore the paradox of the wounded healer: how one of the world’s foremost trauma experts spent decades helping others resolve what he had not yet fully integrated in himself, as revealed in his An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey.

Moving beyond theory and technique, Dr. Levine speaks candidly about his own early experiences of violence and resilience, and how moments of joy, imagination, and bodily wisdom quietly laid the groundwork for healing long before he had language for it. Weaving autobiography, neuroscience, and lived clinical insight, this conversation offers something rare—a portrait of trauma not as a pathological state to be corrected, but as a profound human experience that can become a source of meaning, dignity, and wholeness.

Program Information

Objectives

Describe trauma as a lived, embodied experience, informed by personal history, resilience, and nervous system responses—not solely as a diagnostic category.
Reflect on the concept of the wounded healer, including the ethical and personal complexities of supporting others while continuing one’s own healing journey.
Identify how story, embodiment, and meaning-making can support integration, dignity, and hope in trauma recovery.

Outline

Trauma as Lived Experience, Not Just Theory

Childhood trauma, protection, and early resilience
The role of joy, imagination, and embodiment in survival

The Wounded Healer’s Path

Developing his somatic approach before personal resolution
What it means to accompany others while still healing oneself

Dreams, Mentors, and Lineage

Dreams, intuition, and unexpected guides (including Einstein)
Influences from somatic pioneers, ethology, and neuroscience
Research and the limitations

Story, Body, and the Return of Wholeness

Why telling our stories matters—carefully and with support
Trauma as a doorway to meaning, not identity

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/10/2026

Welcome & Keynote: Homecoming: Embodiment, Somatics, and Dance/Movement for Survivors of Interpersonal Trauma

Survivors of interpersonal trauma, from sexual assault to intimate partner abuse, often experience disconnection from the self, including dissociation from the body. This disconnection can leave survivors disoriented and disempowered, a dynamic that benefits those who cause harm. Reconnecting with the body through somatic exercises, embodiment, and dance/movement practices offers a powerful path toward reclaiming agency and wholeness. This session explores the notion of homecoming from a holistic perspective, highlighting research that supports these interventions and providing specific, practical tools you can use right away. You’ll also learn key considerations for working with survivors who have marginalized identities, ensuring that healing processes are empowering and liberating. Through the presenter’s own journey as a trauma psychologist and survivor, you’ll see a case study of the potential impact of embodiment. You’ll discover how to:

Identify two ways interpersonal trauma disconnects survivors from their bodies

Apply somatic, embodiment, and dance/movement practices with survivors

Integrate culturally attuned approaches for survivors with marginalized identities

Program Information

Objectives

Describe two ways interpersonal trauma disconnect survivors from their bodies
Describe three embodiment practices they can use with their clients
List three positive outcomes empirically supported by research on somatic interventions
Describe one way to address the needs of marginalized survivors of interpersonal trauma

Outline

Impact of interpersonal trauma on the body

Pathways
Effects
Benefits to Offender
Costs to Survivor

Embodiment Practices

Somatics in therapy
Dance/Movement therapy

Empirical Support

Individual psychotherapy
Group interventions
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Marginalized Survivors

Additional impact on the body
Culturally attuned interventions

Case Studies

Presenter’s testimonial of interpersonal trauma
Healing role and protective factor of embodiment

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

201: A Somatic Approach to Healing Trauma

Trauma doesn’t live in thoughts and narratives—it lives in the body. When survival responses like fight, flight, freeze or collapse don’t complete, they become physiologically encoded, keeping clients stuck in the past regardless of how much they may talk about what happened or how many insights they may have. Dr. Levine, a somatic trauma therapy pioneer, offers a naturalistic and neurobiological framework to assess where clients are “stuck” in defensive states—and to gently release thwarted survival energy at the root of trauma symptoms. In this workshop, through lecture and case examples, you’ll gain practical somatic tools to help your clients move out of chronic dysregulation and toward greater presence, resilience, and ease. You’ll discover how to:

Identify where a client is physiologically stuck in a survival response
Apply core somatic techniques like somatic tracking, titration, and pendulation
Support clients in building self-regulation and coregulation capacities
Recognize clinical risks in somatic work

Program Information

Objectives

Define how trauma responses are a set of defensive bodily reactions meant to protect us and how they may present in a patient.
Identify how trauma-based perceptions remain fundamentally unchanged until the internal experience of the body changes.
Demonstrate various techniques to aid nervous system regulation.

Outline

Understand Trauma as a Physiological Phenomenon

Defensive survival responses (fight, flight, fawn, freeze, collapse)
How trauma becomes “stuck” in nervous system, independent of narrative memory
Distinguishing trauma as physical encoding vs. cognitive interpretation

The Nervous System in Somatic Trauma Work

Bottom-up vs. top-down processing: implications for intervention
Interoception, proprioception, and autonomic regulation
Identifying patterns of dysregulation in clinical assessment

Somatic Interventions and Regulation Strategies

Techniques: somatic tracking, titration, pendulation
Case examples illustrating process: gentle facilitation of completion of defensive responses
Support clients in expanding capacity for co-regulation and self-regulation

Clinical Considerations, Limitations and Risks

Acknowledgement of limitations of research evidence
Potential risks: overwhelm during somatic activation without sufficient support, ethical considerations in non-verbal somatic work
Contraindications: clients with unmanaged dissociation, medical instability, or limited support systems

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

202: How Early Neglect Impacts Sex

Early childhood neglect is an invisible trauma, and it’s among the most minimized, missed, and misattributed issues we encounter in therapy—even by those who’ve experienced it! Often manifesting as struggles with intimate relationships and sexual issues, the connection is missed by many clients since “nothing happened to them.” But herein lies the problem. Affect regulation, desire, boundaries, and relational safety are impacted precisely because of what did not happen: a formative, safe, and loving relationship. In this workshop, we’ll apply attachment theory, trauma theory and practice, developmental psychology, somatics, neuroscience, and sex therapy toward treating “the sexuality of neglect” and examine its common presentations, like disconnection, avoidance, shame, and numbness. You’ll learn:

How to communicate early childhood neglect as a trauma of missing experiences
What neuroscience teaches us about why “nothing happened” narratives are categorically traumatic
Why teaching the basics of sexual health—like consent, honesty, and mutual pleasure—can be deeply healing
Why these histories often present without a clear narrative, and what this means for treatment

Program Information

Objectives

Define early childhood neglect using key developmental and neuroscience elements to distinguish neglect as a traumatic experience.
Summarize salient clinical characteristics and behavioral presentations associated with childhood neglect, including how “nothing happened” narratives may mask significant developmental omission.
Identify common traumatic sequelae of neglect on adult attachment patterns, intimate relationships, and sexuality, including impacts on affect regulation, desire, boundaries, and relational safety.
Utilize foundational treatment principles for working with neglect-related trauma and sexual concerns, including basic sexual health and healing-oriented interventions appropriate for survivors of childhood neglect.

Outline

Clinical frame: when harm is defined by absence

Introducing early childhood neglect as trauma rooted in omission (a universe of missing experiences.)
Why these histories often present without a clear narrative, and why that matters for assessment and treatment

What neglect is and why it is profoundly traumatic

Defining early childhood neglect (what essential experiences are missing)
Key developmental and neuroscience elements that make omission categorically traumatic, even without a clear narrative

How neglect presents: recognizing the invisible

Salient character/behavioral patterns and clinical markers
Assessment cues and common ways neglect is invisible, minimized, missed, or misattributed

Relational and sexual sequelae

Impacts on attachment, intimacy, and relational functioning
The “sexuality of neglect”: common presentations (disconnection, avoidance, shame, numbness) and nervous-system links

Treatment overview: principles and pathways to sexual health/healing

Core treatment principles for neglect and for addressing sexuality in neglect survivors
Basics of sexual health and healing (consent, honesty, shared values, explicit and candid communication, mutual pleasure)
Risks and Limitations of the research and clinical applications
Closing integration and key takeaways for clinical practice

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

203: Trauma & the Safety-Seeking Brain

Trauma doesn’t make the brain irrational—it makes it efficient. Designed to keep us alive at all costs, the nervous system reorganizes after overwhelming experiences, creating a “past-weighted present,” where old danger cues shape current reactions. In this workshop, you’ll learn the importance of reframing trauma symptoms as intelligent survival strategies. And you'll discover practical, neuroscience-backed tools to help your clients update those survival patterns with compassion and precision. Through applied neurobiology, interoceptive practices, and targeted neuroplasticity techniques, we’ll examine how to collaborate with the brain’s natural protective systems. You’ll also learn how to:

Detect threat-based brain patterns quickly based brain patterns fast based brain patterns fast‑based brain patterns fast.
Use client-friendly language and interventions that support the expansion of safety, flexibility, and posttraumatic growth
Translate symptoms into protective logic and deploy quick neuro-based regulation tools
Shift clients into present-moment safetymoment safetymoment safety‑moment safety.

Program Information

Outline

The Brain’s Prime Directive: Safety
How Trauma Reorganizes the Brain
Reframing Trauma Symptoms as Intelligent Protection
Identifying When the Brain Is in Past vs. Present
The Brain Partnership
Interoception & Autonomic Awareness Interventions
Mindful Touch & Affective Neuroscience Techniques
Neuroplasticity Strategies for Updating Safety
Clinical Application: Integrating Tools into Sessions
Posttraumatic Growth Through Expanded Repertoire
Risks and Limitations of the Research and Clinical Applications

Objectives

Summarize how the brain reorganizes around safety after traumatic or overwhelming experiences. 
Identify how chronic stress alters brain functioning and influences present-day behavior. 
Utilize practical somatic and neuroplasticity-based strategies to gently update your clients’ survival-based patterns.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

204: Navigating Relationship Decisions & Divorce

Few clinical moments feel as charged—or ethically complex—as when a client is deciding whether to stay in or leave a relationship. These and other high-stakes relationship struggles sit at the intersection of trauma, countertransference, and burnout. And although they’re one of the most common reasons clients enter therapy, surprisingly little training is offered in how to work with them. Add ethical dilemmas into the mix, and it’s easy to feel unprepared. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to work with these kinds of life-changing decisions while maintaining ethical standards of care. We’ll examine the latest practices and use interactive exercises to explore ethical standards, ethical drift, and the role that therapist burnout plays in ethical decision-making. You’ll learn about:

A trauma-informed approach to helping clients work through difficult relationship issues
Different cultural and spiritual considerations when working with relationship issues
How to identify the common factors associated with ethical decision-making
Common ethical risks and countertransference issues, like advice-giving and avoidance

Program Information

Objectives

Identify common factors that are associated with ethical decision making

Choose an ethical decision-making model for complex cases

Summarize cultural considerations when supporting clients making relationship decisions

Determine at least two transtheoretical interventions to support clients

Outline

Core ethical principles across disciplines and cultural competency factors
Ethical Considerations including integrating spirituality into psychotherapy, supporting self-determination, and keeping psychotherapy client-centered
Case Vignettes and Role-Play exercises
Develop a trauma-informed lens on case conceptualization
Addressing Bias and Countertransference
Practical transtheoretical tools to support clients navigating relationship decisions

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

205: ACT-Informed Interventions for Treating Trauma

Trauma work can pull us in many directions. Protocols, tools, and techniques pile up—but what actually heals is how we help clients relate differently to their pain and their lives. In this workshop, you'll discover Wise Effort as a simple, ACT-informed lens for trauma treatment. Rather than adding more techniques, you’ll learn to simplify your trauma work using ACT to direct your and your clients’ energy toward what truly heals. You’ll explore how to:

Get curious about what matters to your clients and how trauma-related patterns of avoidance and over-control keep them stuck
Open up to painful thoughts, feelings, and body sensations using core ACT processes (acceptance, defusion, present-moment awareness) in a trauma-sensitive way
Focus energy on small, values-based actions that help clients rebuild a life of connection, meaning, and safety

Program Information

Objectives

Describe the Wise Effort frame and how it connects with key Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) processes in trauma treatment.
Identify at least one way to help clients get curious about values and notice trauma-related patterns of avoidance and over-control.
Describe one practical way to support clients in opening up to painful internal experiences and taking a small, values-based step in daily life.

Outline

Rethinking Trauma Treatment

Processes, not protocols
3 Unwise Efforts that keep clients stuck:
- stuck in a story
- avoidance
- control
Psychological flexibility as the core mechanism of change
Introducing the Wise Effort framework:
- Get Curious
- Open Up
- Focus Your Energy

Get Curious

What are your values?
What about context?
- Biology
- Social and cultural factors
- Environment and systemic stressors

Open Up

Open up your mind (defusion):
- Making space for thoughts
- Questioning thoughts
- Entering the paradox of both and thinking
Open up to feeling (acceptance):
- Centering
- Making room for what is hard
- Taking care of feelings
Open up to your Wise Self (self as context):
Who are you?
Expanding your sense of self
Finding your Wise Self

Focus Your Energy

See the choice points (being present)
Compassionate action (committed action)
Limitations of the research and potential risks:
- Limited large-scale RCTs specific to ACT for complex trauma
- Importance of cultural humility and clinical judgment

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

Lunch Address: Personality & Wholeness in the Cultivation of Well-Being

You might not think neuroscience has much of an impact on your everyday life. But the truth is that almost every aspect of your daily routine, down to the smallest decisions and interactions, are informed by complex mechanisms in the brain and mind that have been forged over thousands of years—and there are simple ways we can harness these neurobiological processes to ultimately lead happier, healthier, and more purposeful lives.

In this talk, bestselling author and Harvard-trained pediatric psychiatrist Dan Siegel, shines a light on the wonders of interpersonal neurobiology using his groundbreaking Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDP) model, which provides scientific and clinical insight into how we become who we are, as well as practical steps to help to turn seemingly intractable habits, traits, and behaviors—what can sometimes feel like a prison of personality—into a playground of possibility.

A renowned speaker and award-winning educator, he’ll guide us as we explore the lifelong journey toward wholeness, inspired by thousands of narratives on personal discovery and transformation. Along the way, we’ll cover how early temperament weaves with attachment experiences to form the nine patterns of personality that mold how we experience and express emotion, build relationships, and find meaning.

Program Information

Objectives

Explore the interplay of temperament and attachment in the development of personality and human flourishing.
Discover nine Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDPs) that help illuminate distinct growth-edges for lifelong development. 
Learn how an individual’s insights into their own PDP and those of others can give powerful avenues for understanding life journeys and personal relationships and the many ways we can be at risk of burnout and stress.
Outline nine patterns of personality and how these emerge from early temperament and are intensified by non-secure attachment experience.

Outline

I. Foundations of Personality Development

The neurobiological roots of personality formation
The interaction of early temperament and attachment experiences
Introduction to the Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDP) model
Clinical implications for understanding habitual emotional and relational patterns

II. The Nine Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDPs)

Overview of the nine personality patterns and their core organizing features
Growth edges associated with each pattern
How non-secure attachment experiences intensify personality adaptations
Case-based illustrations demonstrating clinical application

III. Clinical Application and Pathways Toward Wholeness

Using PDP awareness to enhance inner-understanding and reflective capacity
Practical strategies to reduce burnout and stress through pattern awareness
Techniques to support integration and movement toward well-being
Applications in psychotherapy, leadership, and interpersonal relationships

IV. Ethical Considerations, Research Limitations, and Potential Risks

Limitations of current personality and attachment research
Risks of over-identification with typologies or rigid categorization
Cultural considerations and contextual variability
Importance of individualized clinical judgment when applying the PDP framework

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

301: The Neurobiology of Attachment & Trauma

The idea that we’re interconnected with everyone and everything on the planet may sound more like creative poetry than hard fact, but it’s actually backed by neuroscience—and can significantly shape how we go about treating trauma and attachment issues in therapy. In this workshop, discover the latest scientific research on attachment and trauma, using the lens of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB). Together, we’ll examine the new therapeutic methods that this framework has created to facilitate our clients’ healing, transformation, and well-being. You’ll not only leave with a better understanding of how attachment and trauma are shaping your clients’ lives, but with concrete tools that help them better understand their attachment patterns, heal attachment wounds, and make sense of their life story, leaving treatment not just with a feeling of relief, but a sense of purpose. You’ll also discover:

The latest child and adult attachment research, as well as the different types of attachment
How your clients’ attachment histories are impacting their present-day relationships
How to conceptualize the client’s sense of self beyond the body, and how this can help them build healthier relationships
How to develop treatment interventions for clients with disrupted attachment histories
How to foster safety and build trust with trauma survivors

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze how relationships are shaped by early attachment histories to better understand your clients.
Evaluate how each form of attachment influences the capacity for future closeness and impact on relationships in clients.
Justify how "sense of self" does not have to be limited to the body so clients can have healthy relationships.
Identify how trauma impacts attachment patterns and neural integration to inform treatment interventions for clients with disrupted attachment histories.

Outline

Attachment Research Made Simple

Brain-to-brain and mind-to-mind connections
Child and adult attachment research
How attachment relationships shape the brain
How trauma interrupts attachment development and neural pathways
Neural integration and self-regulation
The impact of trauma on the developing nervous system
Interpersonal communication and interneuronal linkages
The categories of attachment
Attachment patterns in the context of relational trauma

Understanding Attachment and Relationships

Navigate relationships and how they influence the brain and vice versa
The importance of a "soul friend" and "feeling felt"
How trauma affects the capacity to feel safe in relationships
How mirror neurons influence relationships
Neural correlates of interpersonal attunement and resonance
Recognizing trauma responses in attachment dynamics

The Essential Pathways Toward Trust, Truth and Transformation

Illuminating the pathways of change
Connections between the mind, the embodied brain and relationships
Healing trauma through secure attachment and co-regulation
Transformation to create neural integration
Repairing disrupted attachment through trauma-informed approaches
Differentiate between empathy, compassion, kindness and joy
Building safety and trust with trauma survivors
The power of MWe

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

302: Therapy in Times of Turmoil & Trauma

We’re living in a time of unprecedented turmoil, upheaval, and uncertainty. As a result, our work has never been more essential to the well-being of individuals and the health of our society. The new demands placed on us urgently require innovative and creative approaches to help both our clients and ourselves cope with the impact of living in such turbulent and volatile times. This workshop will explore the challenges of practicing therapy amid widespread societally induced trauma and disruption. You’ll examine what these circumstances mean for us as therapists—and for those we serve. You’ll explore:

How societally induced trauma shows up in the therapy room
Innovative approaches for helping clients cope with widespread turmoil and uncertainty
How the current climate affects therapists personally—and why that matters clinically
Strategies for coping, healing, and transformation

Program Information

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Objectives

Identify key ways societally induced trauma and widespread upheaval present in clinical settings and impact client functioning.
Evaluate the effects of current sociocultural stressors on both clients and therapists, including implications for the therapeutic relationship and clinical decision-making.
Apply at least two innovative, trauma-informed strategies to support client coping, resilience, and therapist self-care in the context of ongoing societal disruption.

Outline

Part One: Understanding Societally Induced Trauma

Distinction between individual trauma and collective/societal trauma
Sources of widespread distress (e.g., social, political, economic instability)
The cumulative and chronic nature of ongoing disruption
Impact on individuals, families, and communities
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Part Two: Clinical Presentation and Impact on Clients

How societal turmoil shows up in the therapy room
Common emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses (e.g., anxiety, grief, anger, hopelessness)
Effects on identity, safety, and meaning-making
Challenges in assessment and diagnosis during prolonged stress

Part Three: Impact on the Therapist

The therapist as a participant in the same sociocultural context
Emotional and psychological effects on clinicians (e.g., fatigue, vicarious trauma, moral distress)
Blurring of personal and professional boundaries during shared crises
Why therapist self-awareness is critical to ethical and effective care

Part Four: Clinical Challenges and Therapeutic Engagement

Navigating uncertainty and instability within the therapeutic process
Maintaining presence, attunement, and therapeutic alliance
Addressing difficult conversations related to societal stressors
Ethical considerations in times of collective crisis

Part Five: Innovative and Trauma-Informed Strategies

Principles of trauma-informed care in times of ongoing disruption
Strategies to support coping, resilience, and meaning-making
Interventions that validate shared reality while maintaining clinical boundaries
Integrating flexibility and creativity into clinical practice

Part Six: Therapist Coping, Healing, and Transformation

Self-of-the-therapist awareness and reflective practice
Strategies for managing stress, burnout, and secondary trauma
Cultivating resilience, sustainability, and professional growth
Using adversity as a catalyst for transformation in clinical work

Copyright : 11/11/2026

303: Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery

Even without conscious awareness, your brain and body have released a cascade of stress chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline. This is one reason why clients can't think their way out of the symptoms of stress or trauma; rather, you must work with the body to maximize healing. Time-tested and research-based yoga practices can play an instrumental role in this process. While you might recognize the value of bringing the body into trauma treatment, you might now know how. Applying Polyvagal Theory within therapeutic yoga provides a powerful foundation for lasting changes that promote physiological balance and psychological wellness. In this experiential session, you’ll learn how the vagus nerve is a bi-directional information highway between mind and body, and you'll discover:

How to help clients fine-tune their health with yogic-based breath, movement, and awareness practices that become the building blocks for emotional and mental health
Why conscious breathing is the fastest way to regulate the nervous system
Natural vagus nerve-stimulation practices that enhance health

Program Information

Objectives

Apply polyvagal theory within therapeutic yoga with researched practices for mind-body health
Evaluate you client’s nervous system states as related to autonomic cues of stress and signs of safety
Demonstrate grounding and orientating techniques that increase clients resources

Outline

Fine-tune your health with yogic based breath, movement, and awareness practices
You cannot simply think your way out of the symptoms of stress or trauma; you must work with the body to maximize healing.
Applied Polyvagal Theory in yoga helps you to fine-tune your nervous system moment-by-moment to help clients come out of chronic stress
Learn why conscious breathing is the fastest way to reduce your stress and regulate your nervous system
Learn tools to help clients safely release stress and trauma from the body
Discover how to naturally stimulate your vagus nerve to enhance your physical and emotional health

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

304: Trauma-Informed Couples Therapy

Relationship stress is more than just the product of communication problems: it’s more often caused by how partners’ nervous systems respond to each other, and how our traumas and past experiences impede our ability to feel safe, connected, and intimate with the people we love. Retaking control of our nervous system is the gateway to healthier conversations, deeper emotional and physical intimacy, and a more secure connection built on trust and responsiveness. In this workshop, we’ll focus on the four core relational resources—time, attention, affection, and sex—and you’ll learn specific strategies to help partners retake control of their nervous systems in each of these areas, slowing down and cultivating awareness, so they can love with more presence, curiosity, and stability. You’ll learn:

Trauma-informed tools that break reactive cycles and restore regulation and presence
How to transform protective habits into supportive behaviors using the four core resources
How to incorporate trauma, somatic, art, and sex therapy approaches into your repertoire
Exercises to help partners calm each other through attuned interactions like eye contact and safe presence

Program Information

Objectives

Identify and explain patterns of nervous system dysregulation and their impact on trust, communication, and intimacy in adult couple relationships.
Apply trauma-informed and co-regulation–based interventions—including somatic and Integrative Relationship Therapy approaches—to stabilize reactivity, process trauma responses, and interrupt maladaptive relational patterns.
Facilitate the development of trusting relational functioning by supporting new communication patterns, and restored intimacy within the couple system.

Outline

Introductions
ICT - ICT the combination of Trauma-informed interventions, Somatic therapies, art therapy, Integrative Sex Therapy, and Integrative Relationship Therapy.
Curiosity - Presence
Access – Awareness - Responsiveness -
Embodied Connection - Reactions –
Nervous System Dysregulation: Trauma, especially relational trauma from early life, can leave a person's nervous system in a chronic state of hyperarousal (fight/flight) or hypo-arousal (freeze/shutdown), even in safe situations.
Impact on Relationships: This dysregulation can lead to difficulties with trust, emotional intimacy, communication, and the repetition of painful relationship patterns. Partners may struggle to be present or empathic when one or both are "triggered" into a survival response.
Co-regulation: A central aspect of this approach is the concept of co-regulation, where partners learn to help calm and balance each other's nervous systems through attuned interactions, eye contact, and a safe presence.
Trauma-Informed Therapy: The approach shifts the perspective from "What's wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?" to foster compassion and understanding. Therapies like integrative sex therapy, art therapy, Somatic therapies, and Integrative Relationship Therapy can be integrated to address these deep-seated wounds.
Creating Trust: The primary goal is to establish a shared sense of trust and secure feelings in the field of the relationship, allowing vulnerability and genuine connection. 
Identifying Pain points: Helping couples recognize how past trauma manifests as current pain points and how they trigger protective behaviors in their relationship.
Processing Trauma: Using specific techniques to process and re-wire painful memories and body-held tension so they no longer drive current interactions.
Building New Patterns: Replacing old, trauma-driven patterns with healthier communication skills and relationship behaviors. Date nights, choice and consent.
Restoring Intimacy: Fostering deeper emotional connection and trust by creating a stable, secure, and responsive relational environment.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

305: Legal & Ethical Considerations for Working with Narcissistic Abuse

Treating survivors of intimate partner violence and coercive control who are engaged in litigation requires more than basic therapeutic care. Clinical decisions, documentation, and testimony can directly shape legal outcomes and either mitigate or perpetuate trauma-related risk factors. This training equips clinicians with the knowledge and practical tools to navigate the complex intersection of therapy and law:

Master airtight documentation and write clinical records that are accurate, objective, and legally sound
Navigate confidentiality with confidence without compromising client safety
Understand diagnostic impact on shaping legal outcomes
Maintain ethical integrity while meeting legal requirements

Program Information

Objectives

Documentation: Apply best practices for accurate, objective, and legally sound clinical records.
Use of Collateral Contacts/Confidentiality: Navigate confidentiality boundaries and effectively integrate collateral information without compromising client safety.
Preparing Clients for Litigation: Develop strategies to help clients anticipate and manage the stress of legal proceedings while minimizing escalation of trauma symptoms.
Diagnostic Implications: Understand how diagnostic decisions may influence litigation outcomes and client advocacy.
Responding to Subpoenas: Identify appropriate clinician responses to subpoenas and court orders while maintaining ethical and professional integrity.

Outline

Building Clinically and Legally Defensible Documentation

Strategies for writing ethically sound notes while learning how to navigate between over and under-pathologizing.
Techniques for writing behavior-anchored progress notes that rely on a more strength based than clinical approach.
How to write notes while keeping in mind future readers such as judges, attorneys, and evaluators. (Integrate Meiers and Dickson’s work)
Limitations or the research and potential risks

Integrating Collateral Information while Protecting Client Safety

Decision making framework for when and how to seek or communicate information with collateral contacts
How to respond and communicate with Psychological/Forensic Evaluators
- Disclosure and transparency
- Just enough information to answer the question
Discuss potentially harmful collateral conversations with co-parenting, couples, and child therapists who could breach confidentiality to client’s abuser
- Intention vs. impact
Limitations or the research and potential risks

Preparing Clients for Litigation and the Psychological Impact of Court

Assisting in emotional and psychological preparation around anticipatory stress, such as facing the abuser in court
- Managing stress around legal abuse
Preparing a client for testimony, deposition, conversations with opposing counsel, evaluators, etc.
Supporting clients in maintaining emotional regulation and narrative coherence under legal pressure
- What clients should disclose and what they should hold back on disclosing (technology enabled coercive control)
Identifying when preparation crosses into coaching—and how to avoid ethical pitfalls
Limitations or the research and potential risks (coercive control and DARVO)

Clinical Decision-Making in Legal Contexts

Responding to subpoenas: Scripts, decision trees, and ethical guardrails
Ethical-decision making around reporting abuse
Cultural considerations and how they impact decision making
- Developing cultural competence
Communicating findings without working outside your scope of practice and competency

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/11/2026

Keynote Address: If Everyone is a Narcissist, Then Maybe Nobody is…

The conversation about narcissism has exploded across social media, mental health spaces, and even global politics. But when we bring the topic back into the therapy room, what are we talking about, really? Is narcissism a disorder? A personality style? An adaptive trait that fuels success—or a maladaptive pattern that harms others? And why has the term become such a cultural lightning rod? We’re living in a time when entitlement, grandiosity, status seeking, arrogance, and even gaslighting are socially and economically rewarded, whereas calling out these traits and behaviors is often dismissed as punitive or pathologizing. ‑health spaces, and even global politics.

In this provocative keynote, New York Times bestselling author and narcissism expert Dr. Ramani Durvasula cuts through the confusion around narcissism that dominates social media and pop psychology to reveal the clinical reality. And she’ll unpack the ultimate clinical irony: while the culture obsesses over diagnosing narcissists, therapists are more likely to treat those harmed by antagonistic patterns than the people causing the harm.

Program Information

Objectives

Differentiate narcissism as a disorder, a personality style, and an adaptive trait versus a maladaptive pattern that harms others.
Implement a focus on antagonism, severity, and differing subtypes when addressing narcissism.
Describe how entitlement, grandiosity, status seeking, arrogance, and gaslighting are societally and economically rewarded and how this influences clinical presentation.
Identify how therapists are more likely to treat those harmed by antagonistic patterns than the people causing the harm.

Outline

Why is Everyone Talking about Narcissism?

The conversation about narcissism across social media, mental health spaces, and global politics
How entitlement, grandiosity, status seeking, arrogance, and gaslighting are socially and economically rewarded
Why is such a provocative word simultaneously incentivized and condemned
Why therapists need to be front and center in this conversation

What Are We Talking About, Really?

Narcissism as a part of narcissistic personality disorder
Narcissism as a personality style
Narcissism as an adaptive trait that fuels success
Narcissism as a maladaptive pattern that harms others
The etiological factors in narcissism

The Concept of Antagonism

What is meant by antagonism
How this is captured in personality assessment and theory
Why this may offer a better construct than simply focusing on narcissism

Importance of Clinicians being Competent in Understanding Personality, and Specifically Narcissism and Antagonism

The issue of aggression
Being able to work with clients experiencing the fallout of narcissistic relationships
Understanding how antagonism and narcissism can magnify the presentation of other clinical issues
Realistic treatment planning
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/12/2026

401: Narcissistic Abuse & Coercive Control

It’s essential for therapists to distinguish milder narcissistic traits (emotional immaturity, entitlement, and inconsistent empathy) from severe antagonistic behavior (manipulation, isolation, exploitation, and coercive control). Though these patterns look related, they operate at very different levels of risk, relational harm, and clinical urgency. Clients experiencing coercive control face different clinical realities than those in relationships with less extreme antagonistic patterns. Yet across the spectrum, survivors share core themes: invalidation, betrayal, subjugation, self-abandonment, and chronic relational instability. In this workshop, you'll explore the spectrum of severity in narcissistic and antagonistic relationships—and why the distinction matters for assessment, case formulation, and treatment. ‑abandonment, and chronic relational instability.You’ll learn to understand the heterogeneity of narcissistic abuse and develop treatment plans that account for severity, safety issues, legal and ethical considerations, and the broader context of the client’s life. You’ll explore:

Mild, moderate, and severe narcissistic and antagonistic patterns in abuse survivors
How to make risk-informed assessments that identify the client’s level of relational danger, psychological impairment, and need for safety planning
Intervention strategies for survivors of coercive control vs those affected by lower-level‑level narcissistic traits.
Legal, custody, and family court issues related to coercive-control survivors that influence documentation and treatment planning

Program Information

Objectives

Distinguish milder narcissistic traits from severe antagonistic behavior, including coercive control.
Describe how these patterns operate at different levels of risk, relational harm, and clinical urgency.
Conduct risk-informed assessments that identify relational danger, psychological impairment, and need for safety planning.
Develop treatment plans that account for severity, safety issues, legal and ethical considerations, and the broader context of the client’s life.

Outline

The Spectrum of Severity in Narcissistic Relationships

Overview of narcissism, antagonism, and psychopathy
Comparing and contrasting the patterns across the continuum of severity
Highlighting severe antagonistic behavior: Manipulation, isolation, exploitation, coercive control
The differential presentations and the differential harm
The reasons that understanding the range of severity matters
The importance of not minimizing the experience of any client experiencing narcissistic dynamics in their relationship

Understanding Coercive Control

Definition and features of coercive control
- Psychological strategies, financial abuse, tech abuse, legal abuse, surveillance and stalking, weaponized children, physical and sexual violence
The difference between coercive control and what is traditionally termed “narcissistic abuse”
The association between narcissism, antagonism and coercive control
Different clinical realities faced by clients experiencing coercive control

Risk-Informed Assessment and Case Formulation

Assessing the parental subsystem
Identifying the level of relational danger to the client and other individuals in the environment
Assessing the behaviors the client is experiencing, and their level of functioning
Why the distinction matters for assessment and treatment

Treatment Planning, Safety, and Context

Developing treatment plans that account for severity
Safety issues and safety planning
Legal, custody, and family court issues
Ethical considerations and limitations of the research

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/12/2026

402: Liberation Psychology in Practice

Joy is commonly understood as a positive emotion with physical, psychological, and social benefits. In the liberation psychology framework, joy also functions as both a protective factor and a resistance strategy against chronic stress, collective and intergenerational trauma, and systemic oppression. It serves to confront colonialism and other forms of oppression while activating and sustaining an affirmative cultural identity. This workshop introduces the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. model, which outlines seven pathways to cultivate and sustain joy among marginalized clients. Through real-life case studies, you’ll learn how cultivating joy is a liberatory, transformative practice that not only promotes psychological health but also affirms wholeness and resistance, expanding resilience, fostering well-being, and reclaiming humanity among marginalized communities. You’ll discover how to:

Harness joy as a protective factor and resistance strategy against trauma and oppression through seven critical pathways
Apply the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. model to cultivate and sustain joy for marginalized clients
Integrate joy into therapy to expand resilience, affirm identity, and reclaim agency

Program Information

Objectives

Define liberation psychology
Describe the use of spirituality and creativity in cultivating joy
Explain the importance of intimacy, or social and community support, for enhancing the mental health of marginalized clients

Outline

Liberation Psychology

How oppression, systemic forces, and intergenerational trauma shape psychological experience
Marginalized communities and affirming cultural identity and humanity
Use joy, spirituality, creativity, and community support as liberatory practices
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Joy

An emotion with physical, psychological, and social benefits
Functions as a protective factor and resistance strategy in liberation psychology
Counter to chronic stress, oppression, and collective trauma
Strengthen resilience and affirm cultural identity and wholeness

Justice Pathway

Joy as a liberatory and transformative practice for marginalized clients
Support reclaiming agency, strengthening resilience, and affirming identity

Unearth the Truth Pathway

Encourage honest reflection around trauma, identity, and lived experience
Help clients uncover truths that contribute to healing and empowerment

Spirituality Pathway

Spirituality as a meaningful contributor to joy and resilience
Use of spiritual practices to help sustain joy

Time On / Time Off Pathway

Importance of the balance between engagement and restoration as supportive of joy
Help clients cultivate rhythms that foster presence, rest, and well‑being

Intimacy Pathway

The importance of social and community support for mental health
Connection, belonging, and supportive relationships

Creativity Pathway

Creativity to cultivate joy and affirm personal and cultural identity
Building resilience and agency through creative expression

Embodiment Pathway

How joy is connected to physical experience and the body
Encourage reconnection with the body as a source of vitality and joy

Practitioner’s Inner Life

Self-awareness around identity, experience, and therapeutic influence
Self-Care and community care
Becoming an agent of change

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/12/2026

403: Family Estrangement in Clinical Practice

Family estrangement is one of the quietest heartbreaks our clients carry, and one of the most clinically delicate places we’re invited to enter. Many clients who enter therapy arrive with a pressing question: “Should I stay connected, or should I cut ties?” Some report being encouraged to choose the “no contact” option with family, while others feel judged for wanting distance. This workshop offers a grounded, nonjudgmental clinical approach to help you remain ethical, culturally responsive, and emotionally steady when clients are making high impact decisions about family relationships. Drawing on established therapeutic approaches and integrating contemporary realities, you’ll learn to assess estrangement with nuance, clarify boundaries as invitations rather than ultimatums, and support clients in choosing between repair, redesign, or peace from afar. You’ll discover:

A practical framework for supporting clients through no, low, or new contact decisions
Language you can use immediately in sessions, and a structured “bucketing, re bucketing, and pruning” exercise to help clients regain agency without defaulting to all-or-nothing cutoffs
How to ethically support clients and avoid prescriptive solutions and includes scope-of-practice and documentation safeguards
How to spot hidden risks like transference, savior dynamics, and boundary drift before they compromise treatment

Program Information

Objectives

Define family estrangement clinically, differentiate it from ordinary conflict, and recognize common pathways into cutoff, low contact, and ambiguous contact.
Conduct a structured assessment of estrangement dynamics, including safety, coercion, trauma exposure, role expectations, and cultural meaning of “family.”
Use an ethical decision framework to support clients without prescribing “cut them off” or pushing reconciliation, including scope awareness and documentation considerations.
Identify therapist influence risks, including transference, countertransference, savior dynamics, and boundary drift when the therapist unconsciously inhabits a parental role.
Apply the bucketing, re bucketing, and pruning exercise to help clients design layered relational options that protect safety while preserving agency.
Integrate detachment patterns, including how clients tend to end relationships across contexts, and how “acquired narcissism” can show up as rigid, identity driven cutoff.

Outline

I. Understanding Estrangement in Clinical Context

Defining estrangement vs. conflict vs. distancing
Pathways into no contact, low contact, ambiguous contact
Cultural meanings of “family obligation” and relational identity
Distinguishing trauma-based cutoff from identity-based cutoff
Limitations of current research and variability in definitions

II. Structured Clinical Assessment

Safety screening: coercion, abuse history, retaliation risk
Attachment and detachment patterns across relationships
Mapping role expectations and family hierarchy
Therapist self-assessment: transference, countertransference, parental positioning
Risk factors in premature endorsement of cutoff
Limitations of research and risk of over-pathologizing estrangement

III. Ethical Decision-Making Framework

Repair, redesign, or peace from afar model
Boundaries as invitations rather than ultimatums
Scope-of-practice and documentation safeguards
Avoiding prescriptive language
Managing therapist influence in high-impact decisions
Potential risks of intervention misuse

IV. Clinical Applications and Tools

“Bucketing, re-bucketing, and pruning” structured exercise
Designing layered contact options
Addressing acquired narcissism and rigid identity-based cutoff
Integrating detachment styles into treatment planning
Case vignette walkthrough
Acknowledgment of research limitations and cultural variability

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/12/2026

404: A Somatic-Energetic Approach to Parts Integration

Some parts don’t speak—they shut down. Some parts don’t cry—they protect. And some parts don’t know it’s over—because they’re still here. In trauma recovery, clinicians often encounter clients who feel fragmented, emotionally numb, or unable to access key aspects of themselves. These responses aren’t signs of resistance, but indications that certain parts of the self have gone offline in the wake of overwhelming experiences. This workshop introduces a clinical framework for somatic-energetic parts integration, drawing from trauma-informed energy psychology, Polyvagal Theory, and body-based practices. Through live video demonstrations of the Trauma Reintegration Process, participants will learn how to identify dissociated, exiled, and protector parts that remain “frozen in time” and apply somatic and energetic tools to help them thaw, supporting their safe return to present-time awareness and system-wide coherence. You’ll discover how to:

Identify dissociated parts by reading the body’s signals for trauma that’s “frozen in time.”
Apply somatic-energetic integration tools like EFT/tapping to bring dissociated parts into the present.
Build safety and coherence using trauma-informed language and pacing
Move clients beyond symptom management into system-wide wholeness

Program Information

Objectives

Identify somatic and energetic indicators that a client is operating from a part that remains “frozen in time” due to unresolved trauma.
Differentiate between parts management and parts integration and articulate how somatic-energetic practices support movement toward wholeness rather than internal negotiation alone.
Demonstrate how to use energy psychology tools (e.g., EFT/tapping) and body-based awareness to guide protector or dissociated parts into present-time orientation.
Apply trauma-informed language and pacing techniques to foster safety, collaboration, and inner coherence during parts work.
Evaluate how and when to integrate the Trauma Reintegration Process into treatment planning for clients with complex trauma, dissociation, or affect intolerance.

Outline

Understanding Fragmented Consciousness in Clinical Practice

Identify common clinical symptoms indicative of fragmented consciousness, including emotional disconnection, somatic symptoms, addiction, and difficulty moving forward post-trauma.
Explore the impact of shock and developmental stage at the time of trauma on consciousness fragmentation.
Learn how to use metaphors to normalize and de-pathologize the experience of fragmentation, enhancing client understanding and therapeutic rapport.

Session 2: Consciousness-Based Perspectives on Dissociation and Re-Enactment

Examine dissociation as a disruption in the continuity of consciousness and how it contributes to fragmentation.
Understand re-enactment behaviors as expressions of unresolved, unintegrated parts of the self.
Explore the role of triggering events in activating dissociated aspects and perpetuating trauma cycles.

Clinical Application and Ethical Integration

Observe a clinical video demonstration of the Trauma Reintegration Process and its effect on restoring wholeness.
Engage in an experiential exercise to facilitate awareness and reintegration of a younger, dissociated part.
Review ethical considerations and practical strategies for safely navigating trauma integration with complex clients.
Identify the limitations of research and potential risks especially with complex trauma and dissociation.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/12/2026

405: Effective Treatment of ADHD in Women

Women with ADHD often don’t look “hyperactive”—they look exhausted. They may seem responsible, organized, socially attuned, high-achieving, but they're often internally overwhelmed. Many carry a blend of rejection sensitivity, emotional intensity, people-pleasing, perfectionism, and chronic guilt that has never been fully explained by traditional ADHD models. In this workshop, you'll explore the ADHD Female Personality Profile, an emerging synthesis of research on neurodivergence, gendered socialization, sensitivity, emotional labor, trauma history, and lifelong masking. You'll learn why ADHD women often become overachievers and people-pleasers, and why their relational lives—parenting, romantic partnership, friendships—are shaped by patterns of emotional over-responsibility and burnout.  You’ll discover:

Relationship-centered tools including, communication scripts , emotional regulation strategies , boundary-setting frameworks , and somatic + IFS-informed interventions 
Ways to help ADHD women build neurodivergence-supportive relationships 
How to translate cutting-edge research into actionable, real-world strategies 
How to help clients overcome burnout that comes from sensitivity, gender norms, and rejection sensitivity

Program Information

Objectives

Identify the ADHD Female Personality Profile and distinguish it from anxiety, depression, and trauma-based people-pleasing. 
Explain the research connecting sensitivity, gendered socialization, and rejection sensitivity to emotional overwhelm and relational burnout. 
Recognize hyperachievement patterns and how they impact parenting, partnerships, and social belonging for ADHD women. 
Apply practical relationship-building interventions including boundary scripts, co-regulation tools, and communication supports. 
Guide ADHD women in building neurodivergence-informed support systems that reduce shame, burnout, and emotional load.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Outline

The ADHD Female Personality Profile: A Gendered Neurodivergence Lens

Core features of the ADHD Female Personality Profile, including hyperachievement, people-pleasing, emotional over-responsibility, rejection sensitivity, sensitivity, mood instability, chronic guilt, and masking
Predominantly inattentive and subthreshold ADHD presentations in girls and women, with reduced externalizing behaviors and increased internalization
Pathways to missed or delayed diagnosis, including compliance, academic compensation, and social attunement
Masking and compensatory success as primary contributors to underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis in women
High-level differential considerations distinguishing ADHD-driven patterns from anxiety, depression, trauma responses, and high sensitivity traits
Research limitations and assessment cautions, including male-normed diagnostic models and symptom overlap

Sensitivity, Hormonal Modulation, and Relational Burnout

Links between sensitivity, rejection sensitivity, emotional dysregulation, and relational strain in women with ADHD
Hormonal modulation of ADHD traits across the menstrual cycle, perinatal period, and perimenopause
Mood instability as a factor influencing relational perception, safety, and identity
Relational burnout defined as the cumulative nervous system cost of sustained emotional over-responsibility
Heightened relational vulnerability during hormonally sensitive periods
Research limitations related to individual variability and evolving hormone-related evidence

Social Load, Hyperachievement, and Relational Roles

Social load defined as the ongoing cognitive, emotional, and logistical labor used to maintain relationships and belonging
Gendered socialization and expectations shaping relational and emotional labor in women
Hyperachievement as a compensatory strategy for managing rejection sensitivity and securing relational safety
Common relational roles in women with ADHD, including emotional regulator, default manager, and social coordinator
Impact of sustained social load on partnerships and friendships, including anxiety, depression, and social exhaustion
Recognition of relational strengths, including empathy, creativity, leadership, and relational depth

Clinical Interventions for Neurodivergence-Supportive Relationships

Overview of the W-CAT Model (Women-Centered ADHD Treatment Model) as a relational support framework
Communication scripts for needs expression and emotional labor redistribution
ADHD-friendly boundary-setting strategies to reduce cognitive and emotional load
Brief co-regulation and grounding practices to support emotional regulation
Somatic- and IFS-informed approaches to working with achievement- and people-pleasing protective patterns
Tools for addressing common social challenges (e.g., interrupting, forgetting, emotional reactivity)
Emphasis on unmasking, pacing, and self-compassion during hormonally sensitive periods and times of overwhelm

Q and A

Copyright : 11/12/2026

Lunch Address: Saving the Soul in a Soulless Culture

It's easy to conceptualize clients through a lens of errant chemistry or faulty wiring, particularly when industrial and information-age societies have long pressured us to use quantifiable, cost-effective models for everything from business to psychotherapy. Yet when logical, measurement-oriented aspects of therapy dominate the more organic and mysterious aspects about our work, we overlook the deeper self-access that inspires clients to live meaningful, purposeful lives—and we perpetuate the soul neglect that results from overly reductionist, hyper-rational approaches.

In this talk, therapist and New York Times bestselling author Lindsay Gibson—whose book Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents has sold millions of copies and sparked a cultural shift in how we understand and heal childhood emotional neglect—challenges us to reclaim what makes therapy transformative. By helping our clients seek their emotional truth and engage in existential self-discovery through dreams, metaphors, and imagery, we can interrupt this soul neglect. Doing so builds deeper trust, makes our work more satisfying and meaningful, and just might help heal the larger culture as well.

Program Information

Objectives

Understand the different outlooks and goals of the two brain hemispheres
Be able to identify how imbalances in thinking and perception can lead to impoverishment in either rational logic or emotional meaning
Define how emotion, trust, and meaning are mediated through right-brain attunement between therapist and client

Outline

What is the association of relational trauma with emotional immaturity?

Definition of relational trauma
Characteristics of emotional immaturity
Characteristics of emotional maturity
Causes of immaturity and effects on parenting children
How right and left hemisphere functions are affected (recruitment of left hemisphere functions to compensate for under-used right brain skills)

How relational trauma happens to children of emotionally immature (EI) parents and people in relationships with EI people

Emotional takeovers by EIPs
The use of emotional coercion (guilt, shame, fear, and self-doubt)
Parentification and taking responsibility for others’ emotions and reactions
Fixing other people’s problems, not noticing cost to self
Effects of EIP’s lack of empathy and right-brain resonance and synchrony -- not feeling “seen”, fear of needs and feelings

Effects of relational trauma from EI parenting on self-awareness and emotional processing

Lack of synchrony affects unconscious self-image, self-development, confidence, interpersonal trust, and social comfort
Distorted self-image, missing ownership of actual adult accomplishments
Insufficient/dissociated emotional and physical awareness of feelings of stress and aversion
Over-functioning, taking on too much, emotional exhaustion
Problems with authenticity, protective self-love, and delight in oneself
Self-defeating habits of passivity, dissociation, immobilization, & learned helplessness

Therapy approaches that undo compulsive over-focus on others and support self-development and emotional maturity

Psychoeducation
Emotional, experiential (AEDP, IFS, EFT) - re-establishing RH resonance, active empathy, meta-processing of intimate interactions in therapy
Re-establishing right-brain thinking: metaphor, imagery, similes; spontaneous associations; incomplete sentence technique (modeling these skills)
Exploring hidden meanings of symptoms and compulsive reactions
Direct experiencing of implicit assumptions (Coherence therapy)
Active coaching; role play, empty chair, expressive writing

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 11/12/2026

501: Reversing the Relational Trauma of Emotional Immaturity

The deprivation and invalidation clients experience with emotionally immature caregivers is a form of relational trauma that can disrupt their sense of security and self-trust. Today’s success-driven culture further contributes to clients undervaluing “soft” needs for interdependent love, creativity, and spiritual connection. Many clients compensate by over-relying on pragmatism and intellectualization to avoid vulnerability, shame, and the uncertainty of emotional processing. While this may support outward achievement, it often results in anxiety, self-criticism, and doubts about one’s worth. In this workshop, you’ll explore how to help clients value and rely on the information provided by their own emotions and thereby find purpose beyond external measures of success and validation. You’ll learn to help clients:

Recognize how relational trauma shows up in their self-concept, relationships, and tendency to overcompensate
Notice and interrupt intellectual defenses and trust their own emotional guidance rather than prioritizing others’ needs
Develop self-awareness and reconnect with deeper sources of meaning
Restore their capacity for emotional intimacy and satisfying interpersonal connection

Program Information

Objectives

Understand the impact of emotional immaturity and relational trauma on self-concept and emotional development.
Identify patterns of intellectual/rationality overcompensation and emotional avoidance in clients.
Gain a new conceptual understanding to transform exhausting and self-sacrificing coping mechanisms that compulsively prioritize other people's perceived needs
Explore therapeutic strategies to help clients reconnect with self-awareness, emotional intimacy, metaphorical thinking, and deeper sources of meaning.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

502: Polyvagal-Informed Trauma Treatment

Polyvagal Theory offers a powerful framework for understanding how the nervous system shapes trauma responses. But clinicians often struggle to translate these concepts into practical, moment-to-moment interventions. In this experiential workshop, which takes a “nervous system first” approach, you'll learn how to apply polyvagal principles in session to enhance regulation, strengthen resilience, and support therapeutic momentum. The clinical tools you’ll take away—which can be integrated across trauma modalities, including EMDR, parts work, IFS, somatic therapies, or cognitive-based therapies—prepare clients for deeper work and to support stabilization throughout the therapeutic process. You’ll discover:

How to apply Polyvagal Theory to interpret how the nervous system shapes trauma symptoms and engagement
Somatic vagal-toning strategies that reliably support downregulation and ventral engagement
The BASC technique (Be present, Attend, Simmer, Connect) for cultivating interoceptive awareness and anchoring clients in present-moment safety
A Safety Rupture Repair Protocol to help clinicians respond effectively when clients shift into sympathetic activation or dorsal collapse

Program Information

Objectives

Apply somatic and vagal-informed interventions to support regulation, safety, and ventral connection.
Recognize and track signs of ventral, sympathetic, and dorsal nervous system states in both clinicians and clients.
Develop practical strategies to increase nervous system flexibility and respond effectively to hyper aroused and dissociative states in sessions.

Outline

Foundations of Polyvagal Theory:

Overview of the autonomic nervous system
Understand the ventral, sympathetic, and dorsal states in context of clinical therapeutic work
Learn about neuroception and felt-sense in relation to safety and co-regulation
How trauma impacts nervous system flexibility

Recognize Nervous System States in Clinical Practice:

Identify signals from the body and nervous system around activation, shutdown, and regulation
Understand behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and somatic indicators, as well as communication
Learn to track nervous system shifts in self and clients
Gain a greater understanding of state-dependent responses and protective adaptations

Practical Polyvagal-Informed Interventions:

Learn how somatic and nervous system-informed interventions can support regulation
Use of tools such as orienting, grounding, breath awareness, and interoceptive awareness
How to support safety, social engagement, attunement, and connection
Apply nervous system-informed pacing and titrate in sessions to keep the client within the window of tolerance

Integrate Across Clinical Modalities:

Apply and integrate the Polyvagal-informed principles into other models
Support stabilization and safety before moving into trauma processing

Experiential Practice & Reflection:

A guided nervous system awareness exercise
Tracking activation and regulation experientially
Reflection and clinical application
Scope of practice considerations and client safety when using body-based techniques

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

503: Post-Infidelity Couple Therapy

Few topics spike our anxiety and judgment like infidelity. But one of the realities of living in the digital age is that it's easier than ever to cheat—and easier than ever to get caught. Betrayal has the power to rock the very foundation of a relationship: partners likely feel lost, overwhelmed with emotions, and unsure of their next steps. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to effectively support both the betrayed and betraying partners and navigate common barriers to healing. Using a compassionate, multi-stage approach, we’ll explore different skills to help couples restore trust, foster emotional repair, and move toward post-traumatic growth and renewed connection after betrayal. You’ll also learn:

Reflection questions to ask both partners
How to help partners cope with flashbacks and intrusive thoughts
How our culture shapes our views of infidelity
How to help partners decide whether, when, and how to talk about the infidelity with family and friends

Program Information

Objectives

Explore the nature of infidelity, the impact on a couple, and how to work with infidelity in couple therapy.
Identify barriers to restoration of trust after a breach and whether or how a couple can rebuild.
Promote post-traumatic growth in individuals and couples after infidelity, leveraging the crisis as an opportunity for personal and relational growth.

Outline

Big picture of infidelity and working with infidelity in couple therapy
Tending to the betrayed partner
A stage-based model for recovery from infidelity in couple therapy
Constraints to healing from infidelity
Restoration of trust in couples post-infidelity
Post-traumatic growth after the experience of infidelity
Risks and Limitations: discussion of the accuracy and utility of the materials presented, research limitations, and the severe and common risks associated with the content of the program

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

504: Treating Grief Through a Community Lens

Grief may feel isolating, but it is never meant to be carried alone. While loss is deeply personal, healing happens in relationship. In this workshop, you’ll explore the powerful role of therapeutic presence as the foundation for grief work, learning how skilled witnessing and attuned presence creates a stabilizing “community of two,” where clients feel seen, held, and understood. From there, we’ll examine how to thoughtfully and ethically expand this support beyond the therapy room to peers, family, and groups. Grounded in research and practical tools, this workshop will help you guide grieving clients through meaning-making and resilience-building while ensuring safety, compassion, and ethical integrity. You’ll learn:

How to differentiate between social contact and therapeutic witnessing
How the clinician serves as “the first community” in addressing grief
When and how to involve peers, family, groups, and even online communities in the grieving process
Strategies that foster safety, coherence, and meaning without overwhelming or retraumatizing clients

Program Information

Objectives

Differentiate between social contact and therapeutic witnessing
Identify how clinicians function as the first and stabilizing community for grief
Apply strategies to help clients extend witnessing beyond the clinical dyad

Outline

Why witnessing matters in grief

Social Contact vs. Therapeutic Witnessing

Quality over quantity
Clinician as attuned witness

Clinician as First Community

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright :

11/12/2026

505: Intergenerational Healing Through Parent-Child Repair

Intergenerational trauma doesn’t just show up in symptoms. It’s present in the painful misunderstandings and power struggles that unfold between caregivers and the children they nurture. Patterns of dysregulation, disconnection get passed down outside of conscious awareness, shaping how families relate across generations. Repairing these relational patterns requires more than just parenting tips and boundary-setting strategies. This workshop offers EMDR-based tools—grounded in attachment theory, Polyvagal principles, and play therapy—for interrupting destructive and supporting lasting parent-child repair through co-regulation and relational safety. Workshop participants will learn to:

Identify intergenerational patterns and defensive coping mechanisms
Use EMDR’s Adaptive Information Processing framework to support parent-child repair
Apply multi-modal interventions including relational rituals, play-based interventions, and parts-oriented approaches
Transform internal working models through EMDR-informed clinical decision-making

Program Information

Objectives

Identify how intergenerational relational patterns, systems of self-protection, and regulatory tendencies are transmitted within caregiving relationships and organized through affective and somatic processes.
Explain how EMDR’s information-processing framework can be applied across individual, dyadic, systemic, and group contexts to support parent–child repair and intergenerational healing.
Describe how multimodal interventions—including symbolic representation, somatic strategies, relational rituals, play-based interventions, sandtray work, and parts-oriented approaches—can be intentionally integrated within EMDR treatment to address inherited trauma patterns.
Apply EMDR-informed clinical decision-making to support co-regulation, relational safety, and the transformation of internal working models in caregivers and children.

Outline

Foundations of Intergenerational Healing

Intergenerational trauma and parent–child repair
EMDR as a relational, multimodal, trans-theoretical framework
Limitations of research and potential treatment risks

Transmission of Trauma and Relational Organization

How attachment, regulation, and self-protection patterns are inherited
Affective and somatic organization within caregiving relationships
Internal working models and defensive relational patterns

Relational EMDR and Information Processing

Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) in relational contexts
Identifying intergenerational themes and attachment-linked targets
Working with implicit, somatic, and preverbal material

Regulation, Co-Regulation, and Polyvagal Integration

Neuroception of safety and caregiver–child regulation
EMDR-informed strategies to support regulation and relational safety
Pacing, titration, and therapist attunement

Multimodal Integration Within EMDR

Symbolic, somatic, and play-based interventions
Sandtray and relational rituals
Parts-oriented approaches within EMDR phases
Case examples and applied strategies

Working Across Contexts

Individual, dyadic, systemic, and group EMDR applications
Clinical decision-making across developmental and relational contexts

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright :

11/12/2026

Keynote: The Invisible Father Wound

Many women carry father wounds without realizing it. In our patriarchal culture, these wounds are reinforced, making them easy to miss and hard to name. Sometimes there’s overt abuse or abandonment, but more often, there’s a gradual accumulation of absence, emotional unavailability, or disappointment that became normalized over time.

Whether the wound was overt or subtle, these women may struggle with boundaries, over-give in relationships, or find it difficult to receive care from others. They may feel anxious around male authority or repeatedly choose partners who reinforce deep fears about their own worth.

In this powerful session, the host of the top-ranked podcast The Terri Cole Show and bestselling author of Boundary Boss will draw on her groundbreaking new book, Father Wound: Break Unhealthy Patterns to Reclaim Your Worth and Power, to help us better recognize father wounds in their many forms. She’ll also explore how unaddressed father wounds manifest across a woman's relationships, career, and sense of self, so you can help clients shift from unconscious adaptation and self-abandonment to self-trust and more conscious relational choices.

Program Information

Objectives

Identify father-daughter wound patterns and how they show up in clients across relationships, work, and self-worth
Apply a structured clinical framework to help clients recognize unconscious patterns shaping their relationships and sense of self
Identify healing interventions that support father wound recovery, including self-parenting, emotional regulation, and boundary-building, with or without the father's participation

Outline

Understanding the Father Wound

Myths and misconceptions of father wounds.
Recognize the most common symptoms of an unhealed father wound 
Spot how the father wound hides beneath other presenting problems

How It Hides and What It Costs

Use the Father Wound Blueprint to identify the unconscious patterns running a client's relationships, career, and sense of self
Identify how the father wound is reinforced by systemic patriarchy, not just individual family dynamics
Explore how maternal co-wounding amplifies or buffers the father wound 
Recognize how the wound shows up beyond romance: in friendships, fear of male authority, and career patterns

A Path Forward

Explore what becomes possible for clients on the other side of healing: reclaimed self-worth, conscious relational choices, and a life no longer run by an old wound
Develop self-parenting practices, emotional regulation, and boundary-building skills that support healing independent of external repair
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright :

11/13/2026

601: Addictions, From Heroin to Workaholism

Drawing on more than a decade of frontline experience working with people affected by severe addiction, mental illness, and trauma, Gabor Maté offers a deeply human and science‑grounded exploration of addiction in all its forms—from substance use to socially sanctioned compulsions such as workaholism, shopping, and sex. Informed by cutting‑edge neuroscience and his bestselling book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, this workshop challenges conventional views of addiction as a genetic or purely medical disorder, presenting it instead as a continuum rooted in early childhood experience, stress, and emotional loss.

Through a compassionate lens, you’ll explore how early environments shape brain development, how stress and trauma increase vulnerability to addiction, and why understanding the function addiction serves in a person’s life is essential to healing.

You’ll discover how to:

Recognize addiction as an adaptive response to pain and attempt to meet unmet needs
Understand the role of early experience and stress in shaping brain development, emotional regulation, and vulnerability to addiction
Cultivate a compassionate, effective response to addiction that supports responsibility, healing, and long‑term restoration of wholeness.

Program Information

Objectives

Describe the neurobiological, developmental, and social roots of substance and behavioral addictions, using a trauma‑informed framework.
Explain how early childhood experiences, stress, and emotional pain shape the addicted mind and influence patterns of compulsive behavior across the lifespan.
Apply a compassionate, responsibility‑based approach to addiction that supports therapeutic engagement, healing, and prevention.

Outline

The Source of Addiction

Addiction as an Adaptive Response

Limitations of the research and potential risks
Addiction as a response to pain rather than pathology
An attempt at self‑regulation, relief, or emotional survival
Reframing the core clinical question: “Why the pain?”
Addiction as a biopsychosocial phenomenon shaped by stress, relationships, and environment

What Happens in the Brain

Neurobiology Without Reductionism

Key systems involved:
- Dopamine (motivation and reward)
- Endorphins (pain relief and attachment)
- Stress response and impulse regulation
How chronic stress and trauma shape brain development
Brain changes as reflections of lived experience, not genetic destiny
Shared pathways across substance and behavioral addictions

What Addiction Provides

The “False Blessings”

Addiction as:
- Emotional anesthetic
- Stress and anxiety regulator
- Short‑term enhancer of confidence or functioning
- Substitute for connection or belonging
Why addictive behaviors persist despite harm
Clinical value of understanding what works about the addiction

Development, Society, and Responsibility

From Early Experience to Recovery

Impact of early stress, attachment disruption, and shame
Social dislocation, inequality, and loss of meaning
Addiction as both individual and collective phenomenon
Rethinking choice and responsibility without blame
Recovery as reconnection to identity, agency, and relationship—beyond abstinence

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright :

11/13/2026

602: The Father Wound in Women

From female clients whose fathers were physically absent during childhood to those whose fathers were emotionally unavailable, inconsistent, critical, or unsafe to rely on, father–daughter wounds shape a woman’s sense of self-worth, attachment, and relational safety. Even if no overt abuse or abandonment occurred, these early dynamics can quietly influence how women relate to themselves and others—long after childhood is over. In this workshop, we’ll hear a firsthand account of a father–daughter wounding and use a clinical lens to explore how this wound shows up throughout her adult relationships, and how healing is possible—even without the father’s awareness, accountability, or participation. You’ll walk away with a clinically grounded framework to help your own clients who’ve experienced these wounds recognize these patterns, mourn what was missing, and process the pain in ways that support self-trust, emotional regulation, and healthier relational choices. You’ll discover:

How father wounds affect the ways women value themselves, protect themselves, and choose partners
How to name father wounds as an ongoing relational trauma, and how it affects the nervous system
How father wounds extend beyond romantic relationships to influence interactions with male colleagues and authority figures, and everyday encounters
How maternal co-wounding amplifies or buffers a father wound

Program Information

Objectives

Identify the behavioral patterns, symptoms, and early adaptive survival strategies of an unhealed father wound across a client's relationships, work, and sense of self-worth
Apply the Father Wound Blueprint to map each client's unique unconscious patterns and use them as a roadmap for treatment
Implement boundary-building and emotional regulation interventions that help clients move from self-abandonment toward self-trust and self-consideration
Develop a client toolkit for father wound recovery, including self-parenting practices and emotional regulation skills that support lasting healing with or without the father's participation

Outline

Identifying and Understanding the Father Wound

Define the father wound: why so many clients don't recognize it in themselves
Recognize the range of presentations: from overt absence or abuse to subtle emotional unavailability
Spot how the wound shows up throughout relationships, career, and self-perception
Use the Father Wound Blueprint to map each client's unique unconscious patterns

Root Causes and Relationship Patterns

Recognize family dynamics and early survival strategies that created the wound
Identify how patriarchal culture reinforces and normalizes father wounding
Assess attachment styles shaped by the father-daughter relationship
Explore how maternal co-wounding amplifies or buffers the wound

The Hidden Costs of an Unhealed Father Wound

Identify and understand how unhealed father wounds drive chronic self-abandonment
Assess the personal costs: self-doubt, people-pleasing, and disordered boundaries
Identify the False Self adaptations clients built to survive and how they now limit them
Identify crisis moments and stuck points that can become breakthrough opportunities
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Recovery Tools and New Ways of Healing

Apply the Identify, Acknowledge, Honor, Integrate framework for father wound healing
Build emotional resilience: help clients recognize triggers and regulate responses
Introduce self-parenting practices that give clients the presence they didn't receive
Teach boundary-building skills that support internal safety
Help clients grieve what was missing without getting stuck in blame or fixation on the father
Reframe forgiveness as something the client does for herself not for him

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright :

11/13/2026

603: Personality Disorders from a Trauma Perspective

Research has shown a relationship between a history of childhood abuse and a later diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Sadly, clients who’ve suffered greatly in early relationships struggle to experience others as safe. Their intense emotions and impulsive behaviors are often feared by therapists trying to help them. And yet these clients are caught up in a private, internal battle: Do I trust or not trust? Do I live or die? Do I love or hate? Do I win or lose? In this workshop, you’ll be introduced to a nonpathologizing perspective on personality disorders, one that frames them as trauma-related disorders reflecting traumatic attachment. You’ll learn to:

Identify the effects of traumatic attachment on clients considered “personality disordered”
Understand the impact of traumatic attachment on the therapeutic relationship
Reconceptualize personality-disordered clients through a trauma lens
Apply mindfulness strategies and interventions from polyvagal theory, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, IFS, and TIST to help clients increase affect tolerance and decrease impulsive behavior

Program Information

Objectives

Describe the long-term effects of trauma-related experience (Perl et al, 2023)
Discriminate between a personality disorder and a trauma-related disorder (Porter et al, 2020; Clemens et al, 2022; Krause-Utz, 2022)
Apply mindfulness-based interventions to help clients increase affect tolerance and decrease impulsive behavior (Goldberg et al, 2022; Balban et al, 2023)

Outline

Childhood trauma and traumatic attachment

The impact of traumatic environments on early development
Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system
Defensive responses to threat as an adaptation
Longterm effects of implicit traumatic memory

Understanding personality disorders as trauma-related disorders

Overlap between symptoms of disorganized attachment and symptoms of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders
Triggering of survival responses
Treating the behavior versus treating trauma-related symptoms
Acknowledging the trauma without the necessity to explore it

Mindfulness-based interventions as a treatment

Limitations and risks of a mindfulness approach
Helping clients to notice their impulses rather than act on them
Mindfulness-based somatic interventions for regulating impulses drawn from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Mindfulness-based parts interventions for increasing self-compassion drawn from IFS

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright :

11/13/2026

604: Working with Betrayal Trauma

Betrayal in relationships extends far beyond infidelity. The deeply painful experience of betrayal can be caused by a family member, colleague, friend, or even an institution. Rooted in broken trust and attachment, betrayal and trauma leaves a lasting imprint on an individual's emotional and relational landscape. It erodes safety, disrupts the client’s capacity to trust, and often produces PTSD‑like symptoms such as anxiety, dissociation, and emotional dysregulation. Understanding these dynamics is essential for helping clients rebuild safety, identity, and agency.

Drawing on Somatic psychology, attachment‑informed practices, Polyvagal and EMDR‑informed resources, you’ll learn an integrative model for helping clients regulate the nervous system when betrayal memories surface. You’ll also learn a somatic boundary script and a practical stabilization routine clients can rely on during sessions and in their daily lives.

Whether clients are navigating the effects of caregiver neglect, friendship ruptures, or betrayal by a partner or colleague, this workshop offers practical tools to process traumatic symptoms and strengthen emotional resilience.

You’ll discover how to:

Work with disorganized attachment and relational wounds that result from betrayal
Calm distress in the moment through somatic grounding techniques to interrupt dissociation and restore regulation
Apply polyvagal and somatic exercises that model repair language and micro-co-regulation
Integrate somatic and EMDR-informed strategies to help clients process stuck betrayal trauma memories.
Help clients replace reactive shutdown or hyperarousal with intentional, embodied responses

Program Information

Objectives

Differentiate the major forms of betrayal trauma (intimate, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic) and describe their distinct impacts.
Explain how relational betrayal and disrupted caregiving contribute to insecure and disorganized attachment patterns in clients.
Identify shifts in polyvagal autonomic states and assess how betrayal alters neuroception, safety cues, and nervous‑system regulation.
Demonstrate 2–3 somatic and in‑the‑moment grounding interventions to reduce distress, interrupt dissociation, and support micro‑co‑regulation in session.
Apply EMDR‑informed stabilization and long‑term resourcing strategies to help clients shift from reactive survival responses toward intentional, embodied patterns that increase agency and resilience.

Outline

Create a high-level outline using 3-4 headings with a few bullet points below each. The outline should fit with the content of the objectives but not be a duplicate of the objectives. Use brief statements including techniques/clinical applications related to your topic to easily convey what the attendee can expect to learn/gain from the day. Please include acknowledgement of the limitations of the research and any associated risks of the approach/modality you are presenting. This can be as simple as listing “Limitations of the research and potential risks” as a bullet point.

Recognizing the Landscape of Betrayal Trauma

Clarify distinctions among intimate, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic betrayal
Identify how violations of trust shape symptom presentation and relational functioning
Explore clinical markers that differentiate betrayal trauma from other trauma responses
Recognize how clients may verbalize experiences of betrayal trauma in session

Attachment Disruption and Relational Wounds

Examine how early caregiving ruptures contribute to insecure and disorganized patterns
Understand how betrayal impacts clients’ capacity for trust, attunement, and connection
Apply relational pacing strategies to strengthen therapeutic alliance and reduce retraumatization

Nervous System Responses and In‑the‑Moment Stabilization

Recognize shifts in ventral vagal, sympathetic, and dorsal vagal states during sessions
Use brief somatic grounding tools to interrupt dissociation and emotional overwhelm
Practice micro‑co‑regulation techniques that model safety, presence, and attuned responsiveness

Structured Interventions for Repair and Long‑Term Resourcing

Integrate polyvagal‑informed and somatic exercises to rebuild internal and relational safety
Apply EMDR‑informed stabilization, including safe bilateral stimulation and titration principles
Develop strategies that help clients replace reactive patterns with intentional, embodied responses
Learn limitations of the research and potential risks
Build sustainable resourcing plans like somatic boundary exercises, breathwork, and sensory grounding tools that support agency, resilience, and post‑betrayal recovery

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright :

11/13/2026

605: Sexual Recovery in Trauma Therapy

For decades, trauma therapy assumed that once emotional wounds were treated, sexual difficulties would resolve on their own. For many survivors, this has never been the case. This avoidance left clinicians without the training or confidence to address sexual wellness, and left clients without support in healing the sexual and erotic parts of their lives. We now understand that sexual health and mental health must be integrated, especially when working with sexual trauma. Trauma disrupts erotic development, diminishes pleasure, and interferes with a survivor’s ability to feel safe in their own sexuality. In this workshop, you’ll learn practical, trauma-informed methods to address sexual functioning, desire, pleasure, and erotic identity in treatment. You’ll also discover:

How to go beyond emotional healing to fully restore sexual wellness
How to integrate sexual health into trauma care to address desire, pleasure, and erotic identity with confidence
Practical, trauma-informed tools to help clients reclaim sexual agency and safety in their bodies
How to weave sexual wellness into treatment for lasting healing

Program Information

Objectives

Explain why sexual issues often persist even after trauma work.
Understand how sexual trauma disrupts pleasure and erotic development.
Integrate sexual health assessment into trauma treatment.
Use trauma-informed strategies to support sexual recovery and pleasure.

Outline

Reframing Trauma Treatment: Including Sexual Health

Distinguishing emotional recovery from full sexual recovery
How trauma disrupts erotic development, desire, and pleasure
Identifying clinical avoidance and its impact on outcomes
Introducing a sex-informed, trauma-integrated treatment lens

Clinical Assessment and Case Conceptualization

Incorporating sexual health into intake and ongoing assessment
Mapping trauma narratives alongside erotic templates
Recognizing dissociation, avoidance, and arousal patterns in sexual contexts
Identifying therapist bias and managing countertransference

Trauma-Informed Interventions for Sexual Recovery

Techniques to rebuild safety, agency, and embodiment
Gradual exposure to pleasure and erotic reconnection
Working with desire discrepancies and arousal inhibition
Integrating psychoeducation, somatic awareness, and relational repair

Clinical Integration, Ethics, and Risk Management

Maintaining boundaries while addressing explicit sexual material
Cultural competency and inclusivity in sexual health discussions
Documentation, scope of practice, and referral considerations
Limitations of the research and potential risks of this approach/modality

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychotherapists
Therapists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright :

11/13/2026