Presented by Elaine Brady, PhD, LMFT, CAS, CSAT-S - 6 CE Hours
Workshop Description:
Childhood
trauma has been shown to have long-term consequences for physical and mental
health in adulthood. Multiple studies have shown associations between childhood
trauma and later psychological distress, psychiatric disorders, depression, and
substance abuse.
Unfortunately,
one of the primary defense mechanisms utilized to cope with childhood trauma is
psychological avoidance (e.g. emotional numbing and memory repression/amnesia),
which can interfere with the establishment of a therapeutic relationship and
significantly impair symptom resolution.
The
Expressive Arts Therapies have been found to be especially successful in
working with trauma victims in that they provide a safe environment within
which client’s can reclaim lost emotions and memories and transform their life
story from one of helplessness to empowerment.
This
workshop will present the core philosophies and techniques of Poetry Therapy as
an adjunct modality in the treatment of adult childhood trauma survivors.
Various readings and experiential exercises will be utilized to demonstrate the
use of poetry to evoke emotions and memories, integrate these into conscious
memory and transform the client’s life story from that of Victim to Survivor.
Resources for identifying appropriate material and deepening your skills in the
use of Poetry Therapy will be provided.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this workshop,
participants will be able to:
1. Identify
the adult representations of childhood trauma;
2. Identify the concepts of “traumatic memory”
transformation;
3. Discuss the Developmental Model of Trauma and Addictive
Behavior;
4. Identify four
unique characteristics of Expressive Therapies;
5. Describe the short-and long-term effects of poetry therapy;
6. Identify the
four stages of poetry therapy; and,
7. Integrate poetry
therapy into the psychotherapeutic process
