Complex Developmental Trauma: Attachment, Neurobiological and Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions to Support the Traumatized Child
- Speaker:
- Christina Reese, PhD, LCPC
- Duration:
- 6 Hours 17 Minutes
- Format:
- Audio and Video
- Copyright:
-
Oct 25, 2024
- Product Code:
- POS059865
- Media Type:
- Digital Seminar
Description
When children’s nervous systems are activated, stress hormones trigger a cascade of physiological and emotional responses.
They may experience unsafety, overwhelm, anger, or disconnection, which can interfere with the development of executive functioning skills.
As emotions and behaviors escalate, children are often mislabeled with multiple diagnoses such as ODD, ADHD, or anxiety. Clinicians may assume the behaviors are tightly linked, rather than recognizing them as individual symptoms with distinct underlying drivers.
This training will focus on addressing symptoms directly: using anxiety interventions to reestablish a sense of safety, attachment-based approaches to address isolation and disconnection, and sensory regulation strategies to support children in managing emotions linked to traumatic experiences.
Dr. Christina Reese, an expert in attachment and trauma therapy for children, will guide you through practical techniques to:
- Support recovery from developmental delays by targeting disrupted milestones
- Apply principles of neuroplasticity to help reframe oppositional behaviors
- Reduce hypervigilance and promote emotional regulation
- Strengthen caregiver–child relationships by fostering balanced emotional responses
- Improve executive functioning through consistent safety and stability
- Develop treatment plans that prioritize symptom-based interventions over categorical diagnose
This session will provide a clear, evidence-informed framework for addressing complex trauma in children through targeted, developmentally appropriate strategies.
Credit
Speaker
Christina Reese, PhD, LCPC Related seminars and products
Christina Reese, PhD, LCPC, has been working with children impacted by trauma and their families for the last 20 years. She has provided attachment training to orphanages in Albania, trained school districts across the country on trauma-informed classrooms, and worked with adoptees and their families from childhood into adulthood. She is a licensed clinical counselor in Maine, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and is a licensed clinical supervisor. Dr. Reese is an internationally recognized trainer for mental health professionals in creating trauma-informed schools, working with mental health in the classroom and attachment and trauma in children. She is a TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Intervention) practitioner and owns Felicity Counseling Services. Dr. Reese authored the books Attachment, Puzzle Pieces, The Attachment Connection, Trauma and Attachment, The Socially Confident Teen, Leveling Up, God and Attachment and Hope for this Upside Down and Backwards Life.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Christina Reese maintains a private practice and has an employment relationship with Sheppard Pratt Health System. She receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Reese receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Christina Reese has no relevant non-financial relationships.
Additional Info
Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)Access never expires for this product.
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Objectives
- Analyze how developmental trauma may affect attachment, felt safety, and expectations of adult relationships.
- Differentiate attachment patterns associated with developmental trauma based on their manifestations in clients’ thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
- Distinguish trauma-related disruptions in developmental functioning from developmental delays associated with other factors.
- Apply attachment-based strategies to build trust, rapport, and felt safety during therapy sessions.
- Select body-based and sensory interventions to reduce physiological arousal and support emotional regulation.
- Choose developmentally appropriate psychoeducation to help children, parents, caregivers, and teachers understand the effects of developmental trauma and practice emotional-regulation strategies across home and school settings.
Outline
Trauma’s Impact on Children- Abuse – shatters trust in adults as safe figures
- Neglect - undermines trust in adults’ ability to provide care
- Attachment trauma - fragments the perception of relationships as safe havens
- Exposure to violence - erases the concept of safe spaces
- Medical trauma - disrupts the sense of safety within one’s own body
- Anxiety- dysregulated nervous system
- Depression - biological imbalances
- ADHD - delayed executive functioning skills
- ODD - distrust of adults leading to defiance
- Impact of complex developmental trauma
- Emotions - dysregulation and tantrums
- Neural pathways – wired for mistrust, hypervigilance
- Behaviors - control and impulsivity
- Body - stress hormones
- Development - upstairs and downstairs brain
- What we learned from the ACES Study
- Correlation to poverty, substance abuse, criminality
- Establish safety with adults
- Grow emotion regulation
- Increase self/biological regulation
- Assess development and select effective cognitive interventions
- Limitations and potential risks
Help a Child Feel Safe to Leave their Survival Brain
- Be a Safe Adult
- Model emotion regulation
- Button pushing behaviors
- Develop felt safety
- Build healthy attachment
- Establish trust-based relationships
- The Importance of Meeting Emotional Needs
- Decrease manipulation
- Reduce attention seeking behaviors
- Recognize the need behind the behavior
- Cognitive interventions to support executive functions
- Caregiver collaboration to enhance development
- Brain-based tantrum intervention
- Biological rebalance for stress hormones
- Interventions for Fight and Flight
- Cognitive interventions
- Mindfulness techniques
- Support a helpful inner voice
- Soothe the nervous system
- Body-based Interventions
- Breathing interventions
- Movement to find balance
- Nutrition and hydration
- Sensory Interventions
- Grounding techniques
- Sensory calming stations
- Soothing sensory input
- Cognitive interventions
Target Audience
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Couples Therapists
- School Guidance Counselors
- Occupational Therapists
- Teachers
- Case Managers
Reviews
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