Trauma, Memory, and the Restoration of One's Self

Presented by Bessel van der Kolk, MD on 01-08-2016 at 9 a.m. Pacific (noon Eastern) to 11 a.m. Pacific (2 p.m. Eastern)

The brain's primary functions are to care for the self and to provide the feeling of being in sync with one another. Traumatic experiences transform the way the brain processes information and the body engages with the world. People who have experienced trauma may develop fear surrounding what they know and feel, causing them to experience heartbreak and feel out of sync with their surroundings and themselves.

This web conference will explore how trauma alters biological systems, causing traumatized people to feel trapped by their past and reactive to the present in ways that replay the past. We will look at methods for breaking those cycles of re-enactment and suffering.

This presentation will explore ways to help clients represent and befriend their inner experiences, because successful therapies begin with a basic sense of calm and safety. A sense of calm gives a person permission to know what he or she knows, and to see what he or she sees. We will also examine the capacity of specific modalities to facilitate transformation in clients, allowing them to move beyond their traumatic past and become fully alive in the present. We will discuss yoga, EMDR, sensorimotor therapy, neurofeedback, Internal Family Systems Therapy, and theater work.

This intermediate instructional level web conference is designed to help clinicians:

  1. Describe how trauma transforms biological systems, causing people to feel trapped by their history.
  2. Apply strategies to help clients achieve a basic sense of calm and safety.
  3. Implement therapy modalities that can help people overcome a traumatic past.
  4. Utilize self-regulation and integration of unconscious experiences to promote a healthy present state of mind.

If you have any questions or concerns about this web conference, or would like more information, please contact us here.

Event Reviews from Members

Love having access to presenters like Bessel von der Kolk who I would normally have to travel to hear speak. - Cherelle Brown, MS, LCMFT

Superb presentation! - Charles N. Davidson Jr., D.Min. 

Bessel von der Kolk is such an expert in his field that it was a real treat to see this presentation from him. - Catriona Waters, MA, MFT

This is an excellent intellectual presentation. - Jill Turcott, MA, LCSW

Continuing Education (CE) Information

Two CE credits will be provided by GoodTherapy.org for attending this web conference in its entirety. GoodTherapy.org is also an Approved Education Provider by NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals (provider #135463). Of the eight counselor skill groups ascribed to by NAADAC, this course is classified within counseling services.

GoodTherapy.org is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.

GoodTherapy.org is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

GoodTherapy.org, SW CPE 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 #0395. 

To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

Premium and Pro Membership with GoodTherapy includes access to this web conference at no additional cost, as well as other member benefits such as a profile listing in GoodTherapy's Therapist Directory. Not yet a member? Sign up for a Premium or Pro Membership, here.

Just want CE credits? Sign up for a monthly or annual CE Subscription with GoodTherapy to get unlimited access to our CE Program, including this event, other live CE web conferences, and hundreds of hours of homestudy courses.

Mental health professionals who are not members can access the homestudy recording for $15.50. Sign up here to purchase this CE course and earn a CE certificate.

If the event is canceled by GoodTherapy, registrants who purchased the event will be notified and the charge for the event will be refunded

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact us.

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Meet the Presenter

Bessel van der Kolk, MD

Bessel van der Kolk, MD

Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD serves as Medical Director for The Trauma Center in Boston, Director of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and as a professor of psychiatry at Boston University Medical School. A clinician first and foremost, he has also authored more than 100 scientific articles on the many facets of trauma. His current research projects include:

  • Yoga for treating posttraumatic stress, which is being funded by the National Institutes of Health
  • Violence prevention through theater work in Boston public schools, which is being funded by the Centers for Disease Control
  • Neurofeedback and PTSD treatment
  • The mechanisms of EMDR
  • Sensory integration

He has also written on the potential for using neuroscience research to identify appropriate treatments for PTSD. Dr. van der Kolk completed the first NIMH-funded study of EMDR, and he was a participant in the first study of PTSD using neuroimaging and the first study linking Borderline Personality Disorder to childhood trauma. He serves as chair of the NCTSN DSM-5 workgroup on Developmental Trauma Disorder and was one of the principal investigators for the DSM-IV Field Trial for PTSD.

Dr. van der Kolk's most recent book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, is a New York Times Bestseller. For more about Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and his work, as well as future events and trainings, please visit his website: besselvanderkolk.com.

Continuing Education Provider Approvals

  • aceGoodTherapy.org is Approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • Logo GoodTherapy.org has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6380. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. GoodTherapy.org is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
  • GoodTherapy.org, LLC 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-0395.
  • GoodTherapy.org, LLC 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 marriage and family therapists #MFT-0022 and for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0031.

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