Complex Trauma & Challenging Client Presentations: Addressing 5 Clinical Dilemmas with Mindfulness, Compassion and Resilience
February 20 – 24, 2023 | 9:00 am – 12:30 pm daily | USD$949 / CAD$1,234
You're invited to a free bonus evening program!
For you, your partner and/or traveling companionsSee below for details.
About this workshop
Discover a mindfulness approach to maintaining resilience and compassion when working with complex trauma and challenging client presentations.
In this new workshop, Dr. Briere will describe five major clinical dilemmas often encountered by clinicians working with complex trauma in adolescents and adults:
- Self-injury
- Active substance abuse
- Major dissociative symptoms (other than DID)
- Sexualized behavior, including with the clinician
- Angry and challenging behavior directed toward the therapist
John will describe hands-on, evidence-based treatment approaches for each of these client presentations that are technically validated but nonauthoritarian and empowering. Equally important, he will discuss ways in which the therapist can foster mindfulness, self-compassion, and attunement to avoid triggered countertransference and maximize self-care.
Attendees will learn mindfulness-informed approaches that reduce reactivity and burn-out when working with challenging clients and issues. John will show how appreciation of the client’s suffering can be balanced with self-attunement skills to allow the clinician to maintain a form of objectivity (dispassionate compassion) wherein the client is fully engaged but the therapist does not become enmeshed in unhelpful dynamics.
Multiple opportunities for case consultation and collegial group discussion will be provided as well focused skills development exercises like the mindfulness based “ReGAIN” approach to triggered countertransference.
From his early work on childhood trauma to his ongoing visionary integration of mindfulness, relational issues, and psychotherapy, as well as his 15 books and decades of teaching, workshops, and consultations to thousands of therapists and trainees, John Briere’s innovative approaches to helping trauma survivors have influenced generations of psychotherapists. The newest of his contributions include two upcoming books: Principles of Trauma Therapy: A Guide to Symptoms, Evaluation & Treatment, 3rd edition (Sage, late 2023) and Psychological Assessment of Adult Posttraumatic States, 3rd edition (APA, in progress).
Learning Objectives
Explore trigger management techniques that can be used with clients, including trigger identification, breath-based relaxation, grounding, urge-surfing, and harm reduction approaches.
Explore modern clinical approaches to five emotionally activating clinical presentations, including indications and counterindications.
Learn how to cultivate mindful attunement in the face of extreme client suffering, using the Buddhist notion of “inviting pain to tea.”
Learn how to maintain equanimity and grow as a therapist when working with challenging clients and situations.
Learn about dispassionate compassion as it relates to work with challenging clients.
Establish metacognitive awareness of one’s own trauma history in work with trauma clients as a way to reduce emotional reactivity.
Practice a ReGAINing exercise that deescalates triggered countertransference.
CE Credits
US CE credits pending.
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Additional Workshop Details
Target Audience:
Marriage and Family Therapists, Clinical and Counseling Psychologists, Psychiatric Social Workers, Pastoral Counselors, Psychotherapists, Psychiatrists, Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Occupational Therapists, Counselors, Graduate Students in Accredited Programs in these fields
What level of knowledge should the attendee have in this topic?
Intermediate/Advanced
Daily Workshop Agenda
| Time Frame | Content (Topics) |
|---|---|
| DAY 1 | |
| 9:00 am – 10:45 am | Self-injury Etiology Interventions |
| 10:45 am – 11:00 am | Morning break |
| 11:00 am – 12:30 pm | Risk and countertransference management, metacognitive awareness, self-attunement Discussion and optional attendee case presentations |
| DAY 2 | |
| 9:00 am – 9:15 am | Q&A |
| 9:15 am – 10:45 am | Active substance abuse Etiology Interventions |
| 10:45 am – 11:00 am | Morning break |
| 11:00 am – 12:30 pm | Discussion and optional attendee case presentations |
| DAY 3 | |
| 9:00 am – 9:15 am | Q&A |
| 9:15 am – 10:45 am | Major dissociative symptoms (other than DID) Etiology Interventions |
| 10:45 am – 11:00 am | Morning break |
| 11:00 am – 12:30 pm | Discussion and optional attendee case presentations |
| DAY 4 | |
| 9:00 am – 9:15 am | Q&A |
| 9:15 am – 10:45 am | Sexualized behavior, including with the clinician Etiology Interventions |
| 10:45 am – 11:00 am | Morning break |
| 11:00 am – 12:30 pm | Discussion and optional attendee case presentations |
| DAY 5 | |
| 9:00 am – 9:15 am | Q&A |
| 9:15 am – 10:45 am | Angry and challenging behavior directed toward the therapist Etiology Interventions |
| 10:45 am – 11:00 am | Morning break |
| 11:00 am – 12:15 pm | Risk and countertransference management, metacognitive awareness, self-attunement ReGAIN for countertransference |
| 12:15 pm – 12:30 pm | Discussion and optional attendee case presentations |
*Breaks not applicable for CEs.
