JANINA FISHER, PHD

In her recent seminar, Shame and Self-Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma, Janina Fisher, Ph.D., discusses how persistent shame responses reflect procedural learning, allowing the trauma survivor to respond instinctively, automatically, and non-consciously.

Watch as Janina Fisher, Ph.D., explains one tactic to combat shame through the body.



Like what you see? Watch the full version of Shame and Self-Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma.

Online Courses


Digital Seminars, DVDs, and CDs


Books and Card Decks


International trauma expert Janina Fisher offers up FREE practices from the Living Legacy of Trauma Card Deck to help clients suffering from all forms of trauma.

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A trauma perspective opens up new ways of working with clients with BPD, helping us understand their challenging behaviors as consequences of being traumatized and fragmented. Janina Fisher shares her clinical wisdom and insight on reaching these clients.

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When exposed to a trigger, a trauma victim’s prefrontal cortex often “goes offline,” leaving an unchecked fear response free to take over. Learn from Dr. Janina Fisher how to help clients reactivate their prefrontal cortex and better work through their trauma.

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The brain is a complex organ that can be difficult to explain in a way for clients to understand. Learn from renowned trauma expert Janina Fisher how to help trauma survivors better understand their brain function…and better facilitate the healing process.

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Many trauma survivors also struggle with issues such as depression, irritability, and numbness. Join Janina Fisher in understanding how these symptoms are not only related to trauma, but actually adaptive responses trauma survivors have used in order to survive.

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Individuals who have been exposed to chronic and repeated trauma often have a nervous system still mobilized for danger, evoking trauma responses of fear, fight, or flight long after the threat has passed.

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Confused and frightened by intense feelings and physical responses—and tormented by their negative thoughts—many trauma survivors feel desperate for relief. Drugs, alcohol, self-harm, and many other compulsive behaviors provide brief periods of respite, but unfortunately, the relief is short-lived. As the body develops tolerance for these addictive or self-destructive impulses, they eventually become worse than the trauma symptoms themselves.

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Dr. Janina Fisher shares 3 interventions drawn from neurobiologically-oriented therapies. (She'll also show you when it's ok to break the 11th commandment.)

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Understanding why it feels safer for clients to abuse drugs and alcohol, to act out sexually, or to binge/purge food, is key to enhancing your work with addictions recovery. That's why Janina Fisher is offering you this FREE CE video.

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Now that distance therapy is the “new normal” when treating clients, knowing how to create a sense of connection through the screen is essential. In this short video, trauma treatment expert Janina Fisher shares her pro tips for helping clients feel engaged, listened to and understood—no matter where you are.

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Twenty-five years ago, who would have thought that the experience of joy had a place in trauma treatment? We began with the belief that excavating dark and unspeakable horrors would set trauma survivors free. But in this new age of trauma treatment, we aim to help our clients find the light-or at least to find their bodies, their resources, and their resilience.

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If you're going to get any joy out of being depressed, you've got to stand like this...

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Janina Fisher, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and former instructor at The Trauma Center, a research and treatment center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known as an expert on the treatment of trauma, Dr. Fisher has also been treating individuals, couples and families since 1980.



She is past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.



She is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017) and the forthcoming book, Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma (in press).





Speaker Disclosures:


Financial: Dr. Janina Fisher has an employment relationship with the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. She is a consultant for Khiron House Clinics and the Massachusetts Department of MH Restraint and Seclusion Initiative. Dr. Fisher receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. Dr. Fisher has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.


Non-financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is on the advisory board for the Trauma Research Foundation. She is a patron of the Bowlby Center.