Bessel van der Kolk on Understanding Trauma

Bessel van der Kolk on Understanding Trauma is organized by Psychotherapy.net.

Course Description:
In this intimate and self-revealing conversation, Dr. van der Kolk demonstrates firsthand that we as clinicians must evolve to embrace new ways of thinking about and intervening in trauma recovery. Trauma-impacted clients have been halted in their personal evolution by horrific experiences beyond their control. You will be challenged to consider how clinging to familiar and often non-scientific methods of treatment merely parallels the client’s sense of feeling stuck. Once you listen to van der Kolk, perhaps several times, you will begin to see a path out of the frustration, isolation, powerlessness and hopelessness that often accompany trauma and its treatment.

Trauma is not solely the story about the horrific experiences that children and adults have endured, and treatment is not simply about telling that story. It is the person’s ability to integrate the lived sensory fragments of trauma into a healthier and richer existence. With this appreciation, van der Kolk encourages therapists to seek additional training in and/or make appropriate client referrals for somatic therapies. He proposes that this will help you to liberate your clients from a trauma/victim-based identity to live unencumbered by fear, anger, dissociation, dysregulation and disconnection. Trauma paralyzes those parts of the brain people need to move forward in time, and to effectively utilize cognitive resources such as logic, language and self-regulation.

Van de Kolk’s passion, wisdom and hard-earned clinical insights will help you to work with your most challenging trauma-impacted clients and to appreciate the importance of allying yourself with a strength-based and resilience-oriented approach centered around hope.

By watching this interview, you will:
• Be able to describe the symptoms of single and complex trauma
• Recognize the ways that the body “keeps score” of trauma
• Explain the benefits of somatic therapies for trauma  

Learning Objectives:
• Describe the symptoms of single and complex trauma
• Recognize the ways that the body “keeps score” of trauma
• Explain the benefits of somatic therapies for trauma

Fee Details:
• Multi-User -  Starting at $150.00 per year. Institutional account required.
• Need CEUs for this video? Earn 1.00 CE Credits. -- Buy CE Test: $15.00 or 1.00 CE Points