The Trauma Therapist Newsletter
“Hi Guy! Thank you for generously sharing your wisdom and being courageous to offer new trauma therapists like me a helpful tool! What you’ve put together is exactly what I need to understand the trauma community and counseling profession, and the many resources available to equip me to help others heal.”
“I am really enjoying these Newsletters, Guy. I never know which section is going to resonate most with me each month. The timing of the article on dissociation was perfect for me this month. Thanks for your work; I love your podcasts too.”
Contents
On The Cover
Modalities
In The News
Books & Articles
Workshops
Conferences & Events
Schools & Programs
Incredible People
On The Cover
This month, we highlight and hear from Jeffrey Rutstein who joined me here on the podcast.
Here's Jeffrey, in his own words.
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I began treating trauma and dissociation in 1985 and I could not have imagined the journey I was about to embark on. In the late 1970s through the 1980s trauma was once again being rediscovered as a large influx of soldiers returning from Vietnam with war trauma brought our attention back to the effects of traumatic experience. At that time, talk therapy and hypnosis were the main tools for treating trauma. They were very helpful, but not necessarily curative. As the field has evolved, we have learned how essential it is to work with the body and nervous system of our traumatized clients to support their healing.
Professionally I was a psychologist who specialized in treating trauma, but personally, I had been a long-term meditation student and practitioner, and in the 1990s I began to teach meditation. Many of my mediation students were also survivors of trauma and that impacted their ability to practice meditation. So, I began working with meditation students to help them learn to settle their bodies and biology so that they could engage in meditation practices more successfully.
I began to see that trauma robs us of the ability to be present. Traumatic activation in the nervous system, which can be chronic, pulls us out of the present and into the past or future. We get triggered into a defensive state of flight, fight, freeze, or shutdown, and we are yanked out of the here and now. I began to combine traditional talk therapy with both somatic approaches and mindful awareness training. The combination of somatic psychology with mindfulness proved to be a powerful and less-distressing way to address and heal trauma while at the same time empowering survivors to be safely present in their bodies. Additionally, Polyvagal theory offers an evolutionary-biological understanding of how the nervous system moves into defensive states when sensing threat or danger, and how we can profoundly benefit from learning how to access safety, connection, empathy, and presence.
It did not take a crystal ball to see how the pandemic, climate crisis, racial reckoning, political divisiveness, and violence would all contribute to the tremendous level of trauma we are facing collectively. In response to that and knowing that need for trauma therapists would outstrip the number of trained therapists available, I was moved to create something to help individuals be empowered with information, practices, and techniques to transform their relationship to suffering, struggle, and trauma and to increase resilience. In partnership with Sounds True over the last two years I created a 9-month program called the Healing Trauma Program to address these needs. We began our inaugural cohort in January 2022 with over 2,200 students from 64 countries. So far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Visit Dr. Jeffrey Rutstein’s website here.
Learn more about the Sounds True Healing Trauma Program here.
In The News
Lisa Danylchuk is jumping in the podcast pool with How We Can Heal with the first episode launching in March! Just out Out of the Fire: Healing Black Trauma Caused by Systemic Racism Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Deb Dana's Polyvagal Card Deck: 58 Practices for Calm and Change is out. Eckhart Tolle is widely recognized as one of the most inspiring and visionary spiritual teachers in the world today. His online course, Conscious Manifestation 2022 is an 8-Session Online Course to Fulfill Your Highest Purpose & Create from the Fullness of Being. Resmaa Menakem, healer, author, master coach, and trauma specialist expraordinaire just launched his own podcast (seems everyone's doing it!) Speaking of Understanding Racialized and Intergenerational Trauma: A Conversation with Resmaa Menakem, you can listen to a conversation he did with UCSF on Understanding Racialized and Intergenerational Trauma. Facing Your Shadow by Caroline Myss, Andrew Harvey is an eight-part transformational learning experience developed to guide you through the process of illuminating the unconscious forces that drive our lives. Think of it as a guide to uncovering what you don’t know about yourself so you can come into alignment with your true power and purpose. The ISSTD's annual conference this year is in person and takes place in Seattle on March 31st. Jan Winhall (one of my favorite guests. You can check out her interview here) has a consultation course starting soon March 7! Learn more about her courses here. Amazing! Colleen West, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, and a Northern California based clinician, consultant, writer and poet is offering a Master Class: Special Treatment Challenges. Learn more about it and her here. The Body Speaks is a new workshop sponsored by Collectively Rooted with the goals being: 1) How we can bridge the gap between embodied forms of therapy and talk therapy; 2) How clinicians can add diverse interventions to their therapeutic skillset and 3) Role play as a particularly effective intervention for treating trauma. IVAT’s 19th Hawai`i International Summit on Preventing, Assessing & Treating Trauma Across the Lifespan will be held over four days (March 28 – April 01, 2022) in Honolulu, Hawai`i. There are 12 tracks with over 200 speakers and 100 sessions to choose from. Finally, join Gabor Mate, March 3–6, 2022, in his workshop Healing trauma with self-compassion with will include daily teachings, individual Compassionate Inquiry sessions, and small group practice.
Modalities
In this section each month we'll highlight a different trauma treatment modality and hear from an individual practitioner to learn specifically how they utilize the modality. The goal here is to provide you with information about a variety of modalities to help you in deciding which modality you'd like to learn more about.
This month--Neurofeedback.
A succinct explanation of what neurofeedback is can be seen here from this article:
Neurofeedback is a kind of biofeedback, which teaches self-control of brain functions to subjects by measuring brain waves and providing a feedback signal. Neurofeedback usually provides the audio and or video feedback. Positive or negative feedback is produced for desirable or undesirable brain activities, respectively. In this review, we provided clinical and technical information about the following issues: (1) Various neurofeedback treatment protocols i.e. alpha, beta, alpha/theta, delta, gamma, and theta; (2) Different EEG electrode placements i.e. standard recording channels in the frontal, temporal, central, and occipital lobes; (3) Electrode montages (unipolar, bipolar); (4) Types of neurofeedback i.e. frequency, power, slow cortical potential, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and so on; (5) Clinical applications of neurofeedback i.e. treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, depression, epilepsy, insomnia, drug addiction, schizophrenia, learning disabilities, dyslexia and dyscalculia, autistic spectrum disorders and so on as well as other applications such as pain management, and the improvement of musical and athletic performance; and (6) Neurofeedback softwares. To date, many studies have been conducted on the neurofeedback therapy and its effectiveness on the treatment of many diseases. Neurofeedback, like other treatments, has its own pros and cons. Although it is a non-invasive procedure, its validity has been questioned in terms of conclusive scientific evidence. For example, it is expensive, time-consuming and its benefits are not long-lasting. Also, it might take months to show the desired improvements. Nevertheless, neurofeedback is known as a complementary and alternative treatment of many brain dysfunctions. However, current research does not support conclusive results about its efficacy.
One of the foremost authorities in the clinical application of neurofeedback is Sebern Fisher. (check out my interview with her here.) Her book, Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma, is considered one of the classics on the topic. The following was taken from her site.
Neurofeedback, a type of “brain training” that allows us to see and change the patterns of our brain, has existed for over 40 years, with applications as wide-ranging as the treatment of epilepsy, migraines, and chronic pain to performance enhancement in sports.
Today, leading brain researchers and clinicians, interested in what the brain can tell us about mental health and well being, are also taking notice. Indeed, the brain’s circuitry—its very frequencies and rhythmic oscillations—reveals much about its role in our emotional stability and resilience. Neurofeedback allows clinicians to guide their, clients as they learn to transform brain-wave patterns, providing a new window into how we view and treat mental illness.
In this cutting-edge book, experienced clinician Sebern Fisher, keenly demonstrates neurofeedback’s profound ability to help treat one of the most intractable mental health concerns of our time: severe childhood abuse, neglect, or abandonment, otherwise known as developmental trauma.
When an attachment rupture occurs between a child and her or his primary caregiver, a tangle of complicated symptoms can set in: severe emotional dysregulation, chronic dissociation, self-destructive behaviors, social isolation, rage, and fear. Until now, few reliable therapies existed to combat developmental trauma. But as the author so eloquently presents in this book, by focusing on a client’s brain-wave patterns and “training” them to operate at different frequencies, the rhythms of the brain, body, and mind are normalized, attention stabilizes, fear subsides, and, with persistent, dedicated training, regulation sets in.
A mix of fundamental theory and nuts-and-bolts practice, the book delivers a carefully articulated and accessible look at the mind and brain in developmental trauma, what a “trauma identity” looks like, and how neurofeedback can be used to retrain the brain, thereby fostering a healthier, more stable state of mind. Essential clinical skills are also fully covered, including how to introduce the idea of neurofeedback to clients, how to combine it with traditional psychotherapy, and how to perform assessments.
In his foreword to the book, internationally recognized trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk, MD, praises Fisher as “an immensely experienced neurofeedback practitioner [and] the right person to teach us how to integrate it into clinical practice.” Filled with illuminating client stories, powerful clinical insights, and plenty of clinical “how to,” she accomplishes just that, offering readers a compelling look at exactly how this innovative model can be used to engage the brain to find peace and to heal.
Books & Articles
Under the impact of COVID-19, the status and mechanisms of post-traumatic growth among medical workers facing challenges related to family-work conflict are of great concern. In view of the complex relationship between family-work conflict and post-traumatic growth, the present study sought to explore the specific relationships between family-work conflict and post-traumatic growth as well as the specific roles of positive psychological capital, perceived social support, and suppression. We recruited 1,347 participants. The results revealed that positive psychological capital and perceived social support played mediating roles, while suppression strategies moderated the mediating effect. Compared with the low suppression group, the negative impact of family-work conflict on positive psychological capital and perceived social support was reduced in the high suppression group. Thus, a higher level of suppression was more conducive to post-traumatic growth. The current study enriches and expands the findings of previous studies in theory and provides practical ways to promote post-traumatic growth in medical workers.
Reassembling Models of Reality: Theory and Clinical Practice. (The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). Chan, A. (2021). NY: W.W. Norton & Company. “Neuropsychologist Aldrich Chan examines how our experience of reality is assembled and shaped by biological, psychological, sociocultural, and existential processes. Each chapter explores processes within these domains that may act as “veils.” Topics in the book include: the default mode network, cognitive distortions, decision-making heuristics, the interconnected mind, memory, and cultural concepts of distress. By understanding the ways in which reality can be distorted, clinicians can more effectively help their clients reach their personal psychotherapeutic goals.” Available in hardback and Kindle.
The Making of a Therapist: A Practical Guide for the Inner Journey. Cozolino, L. (2021). (The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). NY: W.W. Norton & Company. Louis Cozolino’s classic text, The Making of a Therapist: A Practical Guide for the Inner Journey, is now available in paperback and contains all the things he wished someone had told him at the beginning of his clinical training. He discusses how to handle silences, respond to clients’ direct questions, and cope with countertransference. The book contains a new introduction and addresses the feelings of the therapist when not having all the answers and how the process of becoming an effective therapist involves deep introspection. Available in paperback, hardback, audiobook, and Kindle.
The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity. Harris, N.B. (2018, 2021 [reprint]). Boston, MA: Mariner Books. ACEs change our biological systems and Nadine Burke Harris provides scientifically-based tools that can be used for healing. She began researching the biological effects of childhood stressors like abuse, neglect, divorce, and racial injustice after treating a boy who had stopped growing following a sexual assault. She developed a written screening test and advocates exercise, mindfulness, diet, and talk therapy as tools to aid recovery. Available in Kindle, hardcover, audiobook, paperback, and audio CD.
Article
Face-to-Face Clinical Practice Under COVID-19 Pandemic: How Psychotherapists Describe Their Experiences.
Driven by the theory-building around the role of the non-verbal components to communication, we aimed to understand how therapists experience the therapeutic process using a facial mask. The empirical evidence of the power of non-verbal communication to engage therapists and clients in therapeutic work, develop a positive and collaborative relationship between them, and display empathy is quite large. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, drawing from the therapists’ participation in an online survey. A sample of 137 psychotherapists with different therapy orientations and years of clinical practice participated in the study. Therapists conducted face-to-face therapy wearing face masks with existing and/or new clients. We performed an exploratory analysis, using descriptive statistics, to explore the psychotherapists’ evaluations regarding perceived impact of face masks on different therapy quality dimensions.
Read the full article here:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.726439/full
Workshops
March 10-12, 2022. New Advances in Psychotherapy: Learning from Psychedelic-Assisted Treatment.
Studies of Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy promise a more effective and less costly approach to the treatment of a wide variety of conditions, including especially PTSD and treatment resistant depression. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy was already showing great potential in the 1970s before clinical research was shut down due to political pressure associated with the war on drugs. Research began again in the late 1990s, and has recently had a surprising renaissance. Several FDA-approved studies have already yielded dramatic results, resulting in some treatments being fast-tracked as “breakthrough” therapies. This represents a new paradigm in psychiatry—using medications to expand awareness and facilitate psychological healing rather than to quiet the nervous system to reduce symptoms. With proper screening, under clinical supervision in carefully controlled settings, psychedelics are proving to be safe and remarkably effective adjuncts to psychotherapy. Clients demonstrate not only alleviation of symptoms, but measurable improvements in well-being and life satisfaction.
March 17-18, 2022. Training in the "Neurosequential Model in Reflection & Supervision (NMRS)" developed by Drs. Kristie Brandt and Bruce Perry.
The 2-day training Boot Camp on 3-17-22 and 3-18-22 will include didactic and experiential learning on both functional neurobiology and concepts related to reflection.
The Neurosequential Model in Reflection & Supervision (NMRS) is an outgrowth of Dr. Bruce Perry's Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics. Training in the NMRS is designed for providers responsible for or moving into the role of providing reflective supervision or consultation for groups or individuals of all disciplines. Reflection is the wellspring for problem solving, generating new ideas, perspective change, invention, advancing ones professional work, processing experiences, etc. Supporting others in this process is guided by awareness of the stress response systems, and attention to regulatory states, co-regulation, and state dependent functioning.
March 31-April 1, 2022. The Compassionate Self: No Bad Parts, the name of Richard Schwartz latest book, is also the title of the upcoming live online training offered by Collectively Rooted and Suncrest Counseling. This workshop will introduce the basic principles and techniques of the Internal Family System (IFS) and illustrate them with live experiential exercises and video illustrations. The material will be very practical so that participants will walk away with new perspectives and methods for even their most difficult clients. Learn more here
June 2 - 5, 2022. Play Therapy Training Institute. Join Us In Person in June! Expert Faculty • Over 50 Experiential Sessions. Flexible Registration Packages. Goals of the workshop: Introduce leading-edge play therapy strategies Explore best practices in working with children and their families Demonstrate the value of integrating expressive arts and other approaches. Learn more here.
Ongoing from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN): Screening for the intersection of trauma with sexual orientation and gender identity.
Introduces a new screening tool for mental health treatment providers to explore youth identities and identify potentially traumatic experiences for LGBTQ+ youth. LGBTQ+ youth are disproportionately impacted by a wide variety of traumatic experiences, including abuse and neglect, which may not be effectively addressed or treated in the absence of intentional LGBTQ+ affirming practices.
The tool intends to promote a shared language around youth identity and a mutual understanding of the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth, as well as to support providers in meaningful engagement with youth and their caregivers. Participants will be guided through considerations and planning for how this tool could be implemented with youth and caregivers within the scope of their current organizational engagement and assessment practices.
Ongoing: Healing Trauma Program from Onsite.
(I know a few people who've attended workshops here at Onsite and they rave about their experiences and the teachers, which is why I'm including it here.)
This six-day-long program is designed to help you address the emotional pain, compulsive behavior cycles, and disconnection that sometimes follows a traumatic experience. The Healing Trauma Program is a group-oriented experience that provides you with the education and innovative tools to support recovery.
Today, we know that trauma is a much broader phenomenon than was once imagined.
Trauma is defined as any experience that creates feelings of overwhelmingness and/or an event that is perceived as life-threatening.
No two people have the same reaction to traumatic experiences. Yet, an often-shared hallmark of trauma is a sense of loss of connection to ourselves, our bodies, our families, others, and even to the world around us. It’s as if, in trauma, we inhale a strong sense of loss and personal defectiveness with no direction as to how to exhale.
PESI Trauma Treatment Certification Workshop. April 11 and 12, 2022
"You’ll learn how to properly assess clients, effectively stabilize them in preparation for treatment, help them safely reprocess traumatic memories, and develop the resources they need to achieve and maintain recovery. You’ll also get detailed guidance on overcoming scenarios involving anger, resistance, and suicidality that can leave you exhausted and uncertain of how to move your most challenging clients forward."
Conferences, Events & Summits
March 25-26, 2022. Post-Traumatic Stress & and Related Disorders Conference. McLean Hospital is dedicated to providing robust continuing education opportunities by offering this intensive, 2-day course on PTSD, bringing together some of the foremost authorities in the field. Our goal is to provide clinicians with cutting-edge research and treatments in order to enable them to serve their patients more effectively.
Numerous aspects of treatment will be covered, including psychopharmacology, various psychotherapeutic approaches, family work, and neurotherapeutics. Diagnostic confusion and controversies around issues such as dissociation, distinguishing borderline personality disorder from complex PTSD, and substance use will be addressed.
This intensive two-day conference and also an optional, two-day workshop on cognitive processing therapy for PTSD will be offered virtually. They feature expert presentations, panel discussions, question and answer sessions, and other engaging learning formats that will assist you in developing new strategies that you can apply as soon as you return to your practice setting.
April 18-21, 2022. Atlanta, GA. RX Drug Abuse Summit.
When it comes to addressing the worsening addiction crisis, we're stronger together. We look forward to welcoming our Rx Summit community back to an in-person format, where we can continue to collaborate, cultivate change, and create solutions. Led by multi-disciplinary experts from across the nation, Rx Summit provides the most extensive educational experience for professionals on the frontlines of this epidemic.
May 18-21, 2022. 33rd Annual Boston International Trauma Conference: Neuroscience, Embodiment and the Restoration of the Self.
Hosted by Bessel van der Kolk, we invite you to join us for this real, three dimensional, on the ground, as well as virtual, four-day conference that will present some of the world’s most innovative leaders from the field of trauma, attachment, neuroscience, mindfulness, body-oriented work, and psychedelic studies.
June 2-3, 2022. International Conference on Trauma and Mental Health. The International Research Conference is a federated organization dedicated to bringing together a significant number of diverse scholarly events for presentation within the conference program. Events will run over a span of time during the conference depending on the number and length of the presentations. With its high quality, it provides an exceptional value for students, academics and industry researchers.
Schools & Programs
North Central College. Trauma-Informed Educational Practices for Children and Adolescents Certification.
Childhood trauma is more common than people realize. According to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), two-thirds of children reported at least one traumatic event by age sixteen. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network confers that "Each year, more than 10 million children in the United States endure the trauma of abuse, violence, natural disasters, and other adverse events."
People who have experienced childhood trauma events may be more prone to physical and behavioral health challenges. In addition, they may experience significant stress related to family, school, and work. The trauma-informed education received in North Central College's certification program will help you impact children and adolescents by creating responsive systems focused on strengths and healing. The program's mission is to prepare theoretically and practically equipped, caring, committed, and competent trauma-informed educators, leaders, and service providers. In addition, it builds knowledge and skills for those working with youth in which complex trauma events may be a part of their stories. Centered on a foundation of public health concepts, it provides concrete understandings of the influence of toxic stress on brain development, learning, and health.
Incredible People
This month we bring you these incredible people:
Dr. Michael Gaskell
Dr. Michael Gaskell is Principal at Hammarskjold Middle School in East Brunswick, NJ., following experience as a special educator and assistant principal in Paramus, NJ. He models the pursuit of lifelong learning as he serves to mentor new principals through the New Jersey Leaders to Leaders program. An NJPSA Stars recipient, he has been published in over 30 articles in education journals and blogs, including Education Post, eSchoolNews, NASSP, Edtech and ASCD SmartBrief, and has made the most-read section of ASCD SmartBrief numerous times.
Mike presents at national conferences, including the Learning and the Brain conference, November 2021; and FETC January 2022. He has been on numerous podcasts, and started his own podcast this winter, in which he featured the likes of former wrestler Diamond Dallas Page, discussed his struggles with dyslexia and how he beat the odds while fighting off anxiety and trauma. Mike has published two books: Leading Schools Through Trauma and MicroStrategy Magic. He works relentlessly to support student success, for his school community, and most importantly, for the wellness and equity of all children.
Mike can be contacted at mgaskell0@gmail.com. You can stay connected with him through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
