Healing the Child Survivor

This workshop begins with a look at chronic traumatization in children and adolescents from a historical perspective and covers the physiological effects of trauma on the brain and related impairments in chronically traumatized children. The course then covers methods of assessment, assessment tools, and differential diagnosis across the spectrum of severity pathology. The workshop introduces the concept of dissociation in chronically traumatized children as a window for understanding their internal world. The psychotherapy section presents a model that integrates child developmental theory, attachment theory and family systems theory with an understanding of how trauma affects the developing brain. The therapy enriches purely cognitive behavioral perspectives with an emphasis on processing emotions related to traumatizing events through creative expression and sensitivity to attachment dilemmas in traumatized children. The workshop addresses techniques for looking at difficult symptoms such as self-injury, trance states, rage reactions and sexual acting out. The course ends with a review of techniques for intervening within the systems that affect the child and adolescent such as family dynamics, social services, schools, and the legal arena. Clinicians finishing this workshop will have an understanding of how to intervene with the traumatized child with dissociative symptoms to promote healthy development.