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091: Relational and Attachment Trauma: Issues, Interventions, and Techniques 

Intensives

PRESENTERS

Gary Sibcy, Ph.D. 

CE CREDITS

6 credit hours 

Approved For CE

APA, ASWB, NBCC, IBCC, NAADAC, Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling, AMA PRA Category 1 Credits, AOA Category 2A Credits, Georgia Nurses Association, AAFP

Approved For CME/CEU

LEVEL

Advanced

Summary 

Summary:

Individuals exposed to early relational and attachment trauma often experience a range of maltreatment from primary caregivers, including both acts of omission and commission. Acts of omission involve psychological and emotional neglect, such as a lack of warmth, sensitivity, and availability. Acts of commission include physical and sexual abuse (high-grade trauma), but also emotional abuse and psychological insults—repeated put-downs, demeaning comments, manipulation, and rejection (low-grade trauma). Psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, and medical personnel will analyze how these traumatic experiences have lasting effects, leading to three primary consequences: significant difficulties with emotion regulation, pervasive fear and avoidance in relationships, and developmental failures in mentalization, which is the ability to understand and predict one’s own and others’ mental states. This training will assess the latest research on the impact of relational and attachment trauma. It will also introduce five core, evidence-based treatment modules adapted from the Unified Protocol and Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) to address these debilitating symptoms.

Evaluate how to administer an attachment-oriented developmental history to help clients explore the effects of early relationship disturbances on their social-emotional functioning 

Discuss how to teach clients how emotions work and how early adverse relational experiences interfere with emotion regulation skills 

APA, ASWB, NBCC, IBCC, NAADAC, Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling, AMA PRA Category 1 Credits, AOA Category 2A Credits, Georgia Nurses Association, AAFP

Learning Objectives

1. Recognize key findings of the impact of relational and attachment trauma on brain development, emotional regulation, interpersonal fear and avoidance, and mentalization 
2. Examine a transdiagnostic framework for understanding how relational and attachment trauma can lead to a broad array of psychological disorders, from chronic depression and anxiety to PTSD, dissociative disorders, and various personality disorders 
3. Develop ways to formulate complex cases using a transdiagnostic framework and how to tailor-make treatments using a combination of evidence-based treatment modules 
4. Evaluate how to administer an attachment-oriented developmental history to help clients explore the effects of early relationship disturbances on their social-emotional functioning 
5. Discuss how to teach clients how emotions work and how early adverse relational experiences interfere with emotion regulation skills 
6. Describe easy methods for teaching clients non-judgmental, present-focused, emotional awareness skills and ways to become more cognitively flexible