The Trauma Series Part I: Resilience, Dissociation, and the Body

FULL PROGRAM

Trauma and the Vestibular/Balance System: Gateway to the Internal and External World
Session 1 will explore how the balance system of our brain plays a critical role in informing how we perceive our internal and external world, which is often profoundly affected by disrupted attachments, trauma, and dissociation. Individuals are frequently left feeling like ‘I am always on edge’, ‘I feel dead inside’, ‘I feel disconnected from my body’, ‘I don’t know where I am in space’, and ‘the world will never be safe again’. How can we befriend the internal world of our sensations to help transform the traumatized self into an active, embodied agent that perceives the world as a safe place worthy of exploration, trust and connection with others?

Q&A

Transforming How We Perceive Our Internal and External Worlds in the Aftermath of Trauma
Session 2 will explore neuroscientifically-guided, bottom-up treatment approaches that target manipulation of sensory, vestibular and motor experience in an attempt to regulate how we perceive our internal and external worlds. Here, we will discuss how such interventions can be utilized to regulate higher cognitive functions, including emotion regulation, cognition, and theory of mind as part of an integrative approach for traumatic stress syndromes. The neurobiology underlying such treatments will be discussed throughout the webinar.

Q&A

Combining Bottom-Up and Top-Down Treatments in the Aftermath of Trauma
Session 3 will explore how these treatment approaches can facilitate trauma processing in peoples who are prone to dissociation and/or have a very narrow window of tolerance. Case examples illustrating how we can combine both bottom-up and top-down treatments will be described.

Q&A