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1. Design effective ways to help clients understand and process what is happening in their body as a result of traumatic stress. 
2. Substantiate how trauma affects the developing mind and brain, and articulate the psychological impact and long-term effects of trauma on physical and mental health. 
3. Differentiate between disrupted attachment and traumatic stress. 
4. Determine how sensorimotor processing can alleviate the re-experiencing of trauma. 
5. Support why embodiment in psychotherapy matters and how to incorporate it successfully into treatment with traumatized clients. 
6. Perform specific movement, breathing, interoception, and mindfulness techniques that can help children and adults gain mastery over their lives. 
7. Characterize how yoga and other embodied strategies can reframe trauma experiences and connect to a mind-body awareness.  
8. Integrate yoga as a clinical intervention to help treat the symptoms of complex trauma, anxiety and depression, promote healing, and improve mental health. 
9. Distinguish how yoga quiets the brain and regulates our arousal system by balancing our parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems and widening the window of tolerance. 
10. Communicate therapy goals reflecting each of the five components of well-balanced yoga practice.  
11. Create yoga forms and techniques to help clients improve regulatory & distress tolerance skills and increase social skills. 
12. Execute and adapt various yoga forms and movements, in preparation to use them for a variety of settings, abilities & age levels. 

Application of Theory and Integrating Interventions

Neuroscience, Trauma, and the Body

• Single vs. repeated vs. extended trauma
• Developmental trauma vs. complex trauma
• Adverse childhood experiences
• Current research on the neurobiology of traumatic stress
  • How trauma affects the developing mind and brain
  • The psychological impact & long-term effects of trauma on physical & mental health
• Stress response patterns as survival strategies
  • Fight, Flight, Freeze, Faint, Fawn, Fool around & Fidget
  • Strategies to help clients understand and process what is happening in their body
• Hyper- and hypo-arousal and the window of tolerance
• The impact of trauma on somatic experiencing and the sensory system
  • How sensorimotor processing can alleviate the re-experiencing of trauma

The Neurobiology of Attachment

• Differentiating between disrupted attachment and traumatic stress
• Interpersonal neurobiology
  • Mirror neurons, empathy and connecting with others
  • Relationships can reshape our brains
• Attachment and attunement in the therapeutic relationship
  • Attachment style impacts your client’s relationships
• Neurological basis of attachment and co-regulation
• Current research on yoga and mental health ~ benefits, risks & limitations

The Triune Brain, Regulation and Polyvagal Theory

• Current research on yoga and mental health ~ benefits, risks & limitations
• The importance of understanding the triune brain and how yoga…
  • Calms the amygdala and quiets the brain
  • Regulates our arousal system
  • Widens the window of tolerance
• Top-down and bottom-up regulation
• Heart rate variability (HRV) and vagal nerve tone
• Yoga as a clinical intervention to treat symptoms of complex trauma, anxiety and depression
• Embodied strategies teach the brain and body to work in harmony
  • Reframe trauma experiences
  • Increase self-regulation
  • Connect clients to a mind-body awareness
  • Increase positive experiences
  • Promote healing & Improve mental health

Applications for Trauma Treatment

• Clinical applications for yoga
  • Foundation of traditional yoga informs the 5 themes
  • The 5 themes of trauma-informed yoga
  • Strengths and limitations of yoga as part of psychotherapy
  • Create and communicate therapy goals reflecting the themes
  • Integrating trauma-sensitive yoga in clinical work
• Practice and adapt yoga for a variety of settings, abilities & age levels to…
  • Restore the capacity to play through games & creative movements
  • Increase trust & build healthy attachments through family and partner yoga
  • Decrease dysregulation & improve distress tolerance skills
  • Reduce emotional numbing, depression, and dissociation
  • Help children and adults gain mastery over their lives with mindfulness techniques that can reduce intrusive images and “stuck” memories
  • Expand capacity for self-awareness with breathing exercises and interoceptive cues

Jennifer Lefebre, Psy.D., RPT-S, TCTSY-F, is a clinical psychologist, registered play therapist supervisor, and trauma-sensitive yoga facilitator. She is the president-elect for the New England Association for Play Therapy. Her clinical and research interests focus on the assessment and treatment of children, adolescents, adults and families whose lives have been impacted by complex trauma. Dr. Lefebre has extensive experience working with young children (0-5), adult survivors of severe childhood abuse and neglect, first responders, and combat veterans.

Dr. Lefebre is the clinical director at Healing the Child Within, a holistic trauma center in northwestern Connecticut which integrates psychotherapy, yoga, play, and expressive arts therapies into the treatment of complex trauma. She also provides clinical supervision and play therapy consultation throughout New England and online, and an adjunct faculty member at several universities, teaching both at the undergraduate and graduate level. In addition to being an experienced play therapist and professor, Dr. Lefebre is a sought-after expert for speaking engagements, podcasts and webinars on the topics of play therapy and complex childhood trauma.

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial: Jennifer Lefebre is in private practice. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.

Non-financial: Jennifer Lefebre is a member of the Association of Play Therapy.

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CE Information Coming Soon
Continuing education credit information is coming soon for this non-interactive self-study package.

CEs may be available for select professions, as listed in the target audience. Hours will be dependent on the actual recording time. Please check with your state licensing board or organization for specific requirements.

There may be an additional fee for CE certificates. Please contact our Customer Service at 1-800-844-8260 for more details.

**Materials that are included in this course may include interventions and modalities that are beyond the authorized practice of mental health professionals. As a licensed professional, you are responsible for reviewing the scope of practice, including activities that are defined in law as beyond the boundaries of practice in accordance with and in compliance with your professions standards.

The planning committee and staff who controlled the content of this activity have no relevant financial relationships to disclose. For speaker disclosures, please see speaker bios.

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