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Bessel van der Kolk, MD

Frontiers Of Trauma Treatment

July 3rd - July 7th, 2023

* Earn Up to 15 CE credits / hours
* Psychologists: Please see the CE section and agenda below for information regarding available credits.

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Monday - Friday: 9:00a.m. - 12:30p.m. EDT | 30-Minute Break Daily

15-Hour Course | Delivery Format: In-Person & Live-Online

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Course Description

Most people who seek psychiatric care have histories of trauma, chaos, or neglect. The past two decades have seen an explosion of knowledge about how experience shapes the brain and the formation of the self. This evolving science has had profound implications for our understanding of what constitutes effective intervention. Sadly, most of the knowledge about how trauma affects the brain and the development of the entire human organism remains to find its way into the curricula of professional schools.

Advances in the neurosciences, attachment research, and information processing show how brain function is shaped by experience and that life itself can continually transform perception and biology. The memory imprints of trauma(s) are held in physical sensations, bodily states, and habitual action patterns. This causes the entire human organism to continuously react to current experiences as a replay of the past.

The earliest form of trauma treatment was to tell other people the story of what had happened and to find support and validation. However, validation, insight, and understanding are rarely enough to deal with unspeakable, intolerable, and unacceptable traumatic experience. Trauma causes people to remain trapped in the past by leaving deep, ongoing imprints on the entire organism–from their immune systems to their internal physical rhythms. Neither words nor compassion suffice in accessing these deep imprints on body and brain.

To overcome the tyranny of the past, one needs to learn to befriend one’s damaged inner world and learn to deal with initially overwhelming sensations and arousal levels. Hence, recovery requires facing the imprint of trauma on the self as helpless, enraged, betrayed, ashamed, and endangered. Healing involves dealing with the defensive efforts that helped ensure survival but that now keep people stuck. The cultivation of a deep sense of physical safety and physical mastery is a prerequisite for initiating new ways of perceiving reality and promoting new behavior patterns and requires effective ways to deal with the fragmented memories of the past.

Recovery means bringing the traumatic experience to an end in every aspect of the human organism. In this course, we will explore the role of yoga, mindfulness, EMDR, neurofeedback, sensorimotor therapy, martial arts, Internal Family Systems Therapy, and theater to help mind, brain, and body to live fully in the present, rather than staying trapped in the traumatic past.

Monday

Trauma and developmental psychopathology.
The acquisition of affect regulation, attachment, and psychopathology.
The breakdown of information processing in trauma.

Tuesday

Affective neuroscience for thoughtful clinicians.
The nature of the threat response, attention, and concentration.
Lessons from neuroimaging and psychophysiology.
Recognition and treatment of survival action patterns.

Wednesday

Assessment, treatment planning, stabilization techniques, and trauma processing.
Psychopharmacology, current research on psychedelic treatments (ketamine, pscilocybin, and MDMA), and Internal family systems Model (IFS).
Neural plasticity and creating new connections in brain circuitry.

*Psychologists: This session is only eligible for continuing education credits in New York, Pennsylvania, and California. Please see the CE section for further details.

Thursday

Discuss learned helplessness and dissociation as it relates to trauma.
Discussion of the use of stabilization and trauma processing techniques in the treatment of trauma including EMDR and neurofeedback.

Friday

From fight/flight to being alive to the present–integration of traumatic memories, including sensorimotor psychotherapy, rhythms, yoga, improvisational techniques, chi qong, group, and theater approaches

*Psychologists: This session is only eligible for continuing education credits in New York, Pennsylvania, and California. Please see the CE section for further details.

Bessel van der Kolk, MD spends his career studying how children and adults adapt to traumatic experiences, and has translated emerging findings from neuroscience and attachment research to develop and study a range of treatments for traumatic stress in children and adults. In 1984, he set up one of the first clinical/research centers in the US dedicated to study and treatment of traumatic stress in civilian populations, which has trained numerous researchers and clinicians specializing in the study and treatment of traumatic stress, and which has been continually funded to research the impact of traumatic stress and effective treatment interventions. He did the first studies on the effects of SSRIs on PTSD; was a member of the first neuroimaging team to investigate how trauma changes brain processes, and did the first research linking BPD and deliberate self-injury to trauma and neglect in early childhood. Much of his research has focused on how trauma has a different impact at different stages of development, and that disruptions in care-giving systems have additional deleterious effects that need to be addressed for effective intervention. In order to promote a deeper understanding of the impact of childhood trauma and to foster the development and execution of effective treatment interventions, he initiated the process that led to the establishment of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), a Congressionally mandated initiative that now funds approximately 150 centers specializing in developing effective treatment interventions, and implementing them in a wide array of settings, from juvenile detention centers to tribal agencies, nationwide. He has focused on studying treatments that stabilize physiology, increase executive functioning and help traumatized individuals to feel fully alert to the present. This has included an NIMH funded study on EMDR and NCCAM funded study of yoga, and, in recent years, the study of neurofeedback to investigate whether attentional and perceptual systems (and the neural tracks responsible for them) can be altered by changing EEG patterns. His efforts resulted in the establishment of Trauma Center (now the Trauma Research Foundation) that consisted of a well-trained clinical team specializing in the treatment of children and adults with histories of child maltreatment, that applied treatment models that are widely taught and implemented nationwide, a research lab that studied the effects of neurofeedback and MDMA on behavior, mood, and executive functioning, and numerous trainings nationwide to a variety of mental health professional, educators, parent groups, policy makers, and law enforcement personnel.

Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:

1. Summarize basic neurological and developmental effects of trauma in childhood trauma survivors and adults with PTSD

2. Articulate the effects of trauma on psychopathology in trauma survivors (including survivors of childhood abuse, neglect, and maltreatment, veterans, and others diagnosed with PTSD)

3. Describe the acquisition of affect regulation and the impact of trauma on neurological structures for self-regulation and interpersonal engagement that occur in complex trauma survivors

4. Evaluate the impact of trauma on behavior and processing of attachment experiences

5. Evaluate current neuroimaging research and summarize the neuroscientific effects of trauma on attention and concentration

6. Discuss conditioned threat responses and survival action patterns that occur in PTSD and complex trauma

7. Discuss the breakdown of information processing in trauma

8. Discuss the current research regarding the risks and benefits of using psychotropic medications and psychedelic treatments to treat sequelae of trauma

9. Explain best practices for assessment and treatment planning stages that take into account the impact of trauma on human functioning

10. Describe how the use of the IFS model in clinical practice can accelerate healing from complex trauma

11. Discuss learned helplessness and dissociation as it applies to trauma

12. Discuss the use of stabilization techniques in trauma treatment

13. Discuss the effectiveness of EMDR as a treatment model for trauma through discussion of supported clinical and research literature

14. Evaluate the efficacy of neurofeedback in resolving trauma via review and explanation of current research

15. Describe successful integration of traumatic memories in terms of physical mastery

16. List three physical symptoms of psychological trauma

17. Distinguish areas for future research and the limitations of current evidence-based treatments

Creative Arts Therapists:

New York: MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists. # CAT-0090.

Educators:

For eligibility information contact your State certifying authority.

Massachusetts: Educators in Massachusetts are eligible for 15 Professional Development Points (PDPs) for each program attended. MAK Continuing Education, LLC is a registered Professional Development Provider (PD number: U20190001) with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Content Area: Mental Health/Mangagement.

Marriage and Family Therapists:

Massachusetts: This activity has been certified by NEAFAST on behalf of the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health & Human Services Professions, for LMFT professional continuing education. Certification # PC- 041832.

Physicians & Nursing Professionals:

A.C.C.M.E. This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc., and MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute. The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc., is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

A.M.A. The Milton H. Erickson Foundation, Inc., designates this live activity for a maximum of 15 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Professional Counselors:

MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7187. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Psychoanalysts:

Psychologists:

APA: MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. CE varies by program, please see CE details on each course page to determine APA credit availability or the list below. This program qualifies for 9 continuing education hours.

California: MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is approved by the CPA OPD to sponsor continuing professional education for psychologists. MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. CPA OPD Provider Code: MAK001. This program qualifies for 15 continuing education hours.

Canada: MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute maintains responsibility for the program. This program qualifies for 15 continuing education hours.

Connecticut: CE credit is available. This course consists of 15 continuing education credit hours for Connecticut Psychologists. CT Gen Stat Sec. 20-191c Continuing Education (b)(3) confirms acceptance of continuing education programs relevant to psychology from a nationally recognized provider of continuing education seminars. MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is a nationally recognized provider of continuing education seminars with multiple national CE approvals.

New York: MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists # PSY-0102. This program qualifies for 15 continuing education hours.

Ohio: MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is a OPA-MCE Approved Provider. Approved Provider: #854261519. This program qualifies for 15 continuing education hours.

Pennsylvania: MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is approved by the Pennsylvania State Board of Psychology to offer continuing education for psychologists. Provider # PSY000226. MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute maintains responsibility for the program. This live program qualifies for 15 continuing education hours.

Social Workers:

ASWB ACE: MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute, Provider #1197, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute, maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 8/20/2022- 8/20/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 15 continuing education credits.

ASWB ACE Individual Course Applications (NJ Social Workers): Frontiers of Trauma Treatment, Course #4925, is approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program to be offered by MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute as an individual course. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE course approval period: 5/2/2023 - 5/2/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 15 Clinical continuing education credits.

New York: MAK Continuing Education, LLC, Cape Cod Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers # SW-0649.

For all other CE approval statements, please visit our CE page and search by your discipline.

Course Content Level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. This course is open, and content is suitable for all clinicians and learning levels, beginning, intermediate and advanced.

Downloadable Course Brochure

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Bessel van der Kolk, MD

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What Alumni are Saying...

"Presenter was outstanding. Candid, clearly knowledgeable and direct in offering meaningful information." - 2022 Participant

“Superb, thought provoking. Very valuable personally and professionally." - 2022 Participant

"Bessel is brilliant and has so much to share." - 2022 Participant

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Bessel van der Kolk, MD