Michael Prokop – Trauma Treatment Course: Mind-Body Integration Techniques for Healing Trauma, PTSD and Grief

Outline

The Neuroscience of Trauma

• The Triune Brain and the neurobiology of traumatic stress
• How trauma is held in the body
• Arousal management, learned helplessness, and fear regulation
• Enhance affect regulation
• Somatic re-experiencing of trauma to “attend and befriend” traumatic body sensations and feelings

Trauma and Complicated Grief

• Stages of loss and recovery
• How trauma “freezes” the normal grieving process
• Signs of complicated/traumatic grief
• Factors contributing to complexities in grief
• Grief, bereavement in DSM-5® and viable treatment implications

Assessment of Traumatic Stress

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the APA
• ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Study and Developmental Trauma
• Diagnose PTSD with the PCL-5

Treatment Approaches to Treat Trauma

• Mindfully observing sensations, feelings, perceptions, and thoughts
• Bottom-up: somatic interventions, sensory motor integration, breathwork
• Top-down: CBT, Rational Emotive Therapy, Positive Self Talk
• Horizontal: EMDR, Bilateral stimulation

Reprocess and Transform Trauma: Treatment Strategies

• Use titration, grounding, centering and pendulation
• Integrate body-oriented and neurologically-based therapy with CBT
• Embodied mindfulness
• Coherent story/experiences and metabolization of traumatic memories
• Breathwork, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and Autogenics
• Multisensory Guided Imagery and systematic desensitization
• Self-regulation and relaxation
• Art-therapy, play and theatre movement-based interventions
• Sensory integration
• Mindfulness with self-compassion

Posttraumatic Growth: Empowerment and Resilience

• Positive Psychology Interventions
• Navy Seal Mental Toughness Model
• Instill optimism, hope, curiosity and imagination
• Forgiveness, gratitude and positive emotions
• Renewed sense of meaning and purpose
• Use signature strengths
• Enhance relationships and social support
• Self-esteem, self-efficacy and resilience
• Volunteering and giving
• Reconnection to self, family, society and hopes/dreams

Traumatized Children and Adolescents: The Developing Brain, Body and Mind

• High risk characteristics, pre-natal and early life trauma
• Mirror neuron systems, attachment, RAD and brain development
• Disassociation, self-blame, guilt, and shame
• Self-regulation, Interpersonal Neurobiology, impulse control, and frustration tolerance
• Integrate Body Work and Trauma Focused CBT for children
• Brain-based interventions

Limitations of Research and Potential Risks

• No “one size fits all” for any modality of trauma treatment
• Various definitions of trauma with different treatment implications
• Side effects may include an initial increase in symptoms
• Empirical verses anecdotal evidence